RSS
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.”
—
The post Egalitarian yeshiva Hadar Institute will become long-term tenant of Congregation Shaare Zedek appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.