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Egalitarian yeshiva Hadar Institute will become long-term tenant of Congregation Shaare Zedek
(New York Jewish Week) – The Hadar Institute is moving on up — to a recently renovated synagogue where the egalitarian yeshiva says it can continue to grow.
Since 2007, the Jewish educational institution has run many of its programs out of West End Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation at 69th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side. But starting this fall, Hadar will move 24 blocks uptown to become the long-term tenant of Congregation Shaare Zedek.
Shaare Zedek, a Conservative congregation established in 1837, sold its building in 2017 under the terms of a deal that saw it demolished and replaced by a 14-story condominium. For the past six years, Shaare Zedek has been holding its Shabbat morning services offsite, but it will be moving back into a space in the completed condo building this fall as well.
“Our in-person community has really been at the core of what we’re trying to do,” said Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, Hadar’s president and CEO. “That’s why new space and expanded space is so important for our goal of bringing people together to learn and pray together.”
Hadar, which was founded in 2006, has expanded significantly in recent years, offering a range of learning programs that engage more than 35,000 people annually and, earlier this summer, ordaining its first cohort of rabbis. It has five satellite locations outside New York City and an annual budget of $10 million.
The Hadar Institute’s move to Shaare Zedek will also place it in the same building as Kehilat Hadar, an independent egalitarian prayer community that shares a name and some founders with the Hadar Institute, though they are separate organizations.
In 2019, Shaare Zedek began a partnership with Kehilat Hadar in which the two congregations pray together on Shabbat and collaborate on other programs. Shaare Zedek’s president, Michael Firestone, told the New York Jewish Week that Shaare Zedek and Kehilat Hadar hope to formally merge into a single entity after the move.
Shaare Zedek and Kehilat Hadar will occupy three stories of the new condo building — a space that will include a social hall, sanctuary and offices — when they move in, Firestone said. The Hadar Institute will use that space as well.
“It will be Hadar Institute during the week with learning and Shaare Zedek and Kehilat Hadar on Shabbat and holidays with davening,” or prayer, Firestone said. “We’re very proud and excited that they’ll be the long term tenant. Together with our partners, we’re aiming to build a hub for traditional egalitarian davening and Torah study on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for the benefit of the whole community.”
Kaunfer said the Hadar Institute “loved” being at West End Synagogue but that it “outgrew the space.” The Shaare Zedek location, he said, will enhance what he called the organization’s “global reach” because it will have the technological capability necessary to handle the institute’s online programming.
In an email sent on Tuesday to the Hadar Institute community, Kaunfer wrote that the organization is seeking to raise $1 million to fund the move. The sum will enable the Hadar Institute to design and renovate offices and classrooms as well as set up the online learning technology.
“Hadar is here for the long term and our doors are open to anyone who is seeking Jewish learning and prayer in the manner that we offer it,” Kaunfer said. “So we’re super excited to welcome people to this new space.”
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The post Egalitarian yeshiva Hadar Institute will become long-term tenant of Congregation Shaare Zedek appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Trump Hosts Qatari Prime Minister After Israeli Attack in Doha
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.
The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.
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Trump Urges NATO Countries to Halt Russian Oil Purchases
US President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: Jonathan Ernst via Reuters Connect
i24 News – US President Donald Trump issued a letter to NATO nations on Saturday, impressing upon them to stop purchasing Russian oil and impose major sanctions on the regime of Vladimir Putin to end its war in Ukraine.
“I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA. As you know, NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” the message read.
“Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when? I believe that this, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR. China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip.”
Trump’s post comes after the recent flight of multiple Russian drones into Poland, widely perceived an escalatory move by Russia as it was entering the airspace of a NATO ally. Poland intercepted the drones, yet Trump played down the severity of the incident and Russia’s motives by saying it “could have been a mistake.”
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Netanyahu Says Getting Rid of Hamas Chiefs in Qatar Would Remove Main Obstacle to Gaza Deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the US Independence Day reception, known as the annual “Fourth of July” celebration, hosted by Newsmax, in Jerusalem, Aug. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that getting rid of Hamas chiefs living in Qatar would remove the main obstacle to releasing all hostages and ending the war in Gaza.
Israel on Tuesday targeted the Hamas leadership in Doha.