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Kenneth Kronen, cantor who survived fiery Rikers Island plane crash in 1957, dies at 95
(New York Jewish Week) — Kenneth Kronen, a cantor, businessman and Jewish leader who survived a fiery 1957 airplane crash that left at least 20 people dead at New York City’s Rikers Island, died Friday at the MorseLife senior care campus in Palm Beach, Florida. He was 95.
Kronen, his then wife and two young sons were among the 81 survivors when the Northeastern Airlines plane crash-landed on Rikers on Feb. 1, after takeoff from nearby LaGuardia Airport. The crash made heroes of the prisoners of the island’s jail who were allowed out to assist in rescue efforts.
The Miami-bound flight took off in a blinding snowstorm. After the crash, one of its wings was shorn off and the cabin burst into flames. Kronen, who was 29 at the time, recalled throwing his then 6-week-old son Mark from the burning aircraft while his wife Selma cared for their other son Richard, 2.
Prison “trusties,” meanwhile, were let out of the jail and assisted the survivors. “They were the people who rescued us,” Kronen said of the prisoners in a 2017 interview with the New York Post. “I don’t know if all of us would’ve even gotten out without them. We were all burning. It was so hot, and the plane was on fire.”
Prisoners also spotted the baby, Mark, covered in snow. The family, who had assumed the baby hadn’t survived, were reunited two days later.
In the years after the crash, Kronen and his partners built Black Stone Webbing into what became the largest elastic company in the world. He and Selma later divorced and in 1976 he married Jerilyn (née Levy), a psychologist in Manhattan.
Kenneth Kronen, a textile manufacturer, “grabbed the joy of life” after the 1957 crash, his wife Jerilyn Kronen said. (Courtesy)
On Wednesday, Jerilyn Kronen said her late husband “grabbed the joy of life” after the crash, but suffered from what she called symptoms of PTSD. He would shy away from loud noises and sounds of police activity. Although he returned to air travel in the years after the crash, the attacks of Sept. 11, 20o1 heightened his anxiety, she said.
He also became “very religious” following the crash. “He believed he was somehow saved, and had a purpose here,” she said. He spent years leading services at the Plainview Jewish Center on Long Island, and supported The Hampton Synagogue, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan and the Palm Beach Synagogue in Florida. He was also a founding member, with Rabbi Leibel Baumgarten, of Chabad of East Hampton.
Rabbi Marc Schneier of The Hampton Synagogue, who led funeral services for Kronen at Manhattan’s Riverside Chapel on Tuesday, said Kronen, who grew up with his grandparents in the boarding house they ran in Rockaway Beach, embraced the second chances he was given in life and love.
“If I were to paraphrase what I would consider signature [Jerilyn] language, I wouldn’t describe him as a victim of circumstance,” said Schneier in his eulogy. “Ken Kronen was a victor of circumstance. He was a victor of circumstance because he literally rose from that negative event, and from that unspeakable horror and anguish he distilled from life a new insight, a keener understanding and a greater meaning.”
Kronen traveled to Israel at least 10 times, said Jerilyn Kronen, and served as the chairman of American Friends of Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Be’er Ya’akov, Israel.
Despite his fears of flying, Kronen “figured out a way to have a martini and get on a plane,” she said, “because he felt Hashem was with him.”
He is survived by his sons Mark and Richard; two sons he raised with Jerilyn, Ari and Josh; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
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The post Kenneth Kronen, cantor who survived fiery Rikers Island plane crash in 1957, dies at 95 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hanukkah shooting leaves at least 10 dead at Australia’s most popular beach
A Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach turned deadly on Sunday with reports of at least 10 dead, including a Chabad rabbi, amid rising antisemitism in Australia.
One suspect was killed at the scene and the other was arrested, in what local police are calling a “terror incident.”
“This is an attack on the Jewish community that deeply that pains us,” said Robert Gregory, the chief executive of the Australian Jewish Association.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who worked with Chabad of Bondi, was killed in the shooting, Chabad’s media director told The New York Times.
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”
Earlier this month, a group of Jewish leaders from Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States met in Sydney to coordinate responses to rising antisemitism there and internationally.
In recent months, two synagogues have been attacked in Melbourne.
The post Hanukkah shooting leaves at least 10 dead at Australia’s most popular beach appeared first on The Forward.
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‘The Art of the Yiddish Monologue’ and other mini-courses in Yiddish
במשך פֿונעם חודש יאַנואַר 2026 וועט ייִוואָ פֿירן די ווײַטערדיקע מיני־קורסן אויף ייִדיש:
• „די קונסט פֿונעם ייִדישן מאָנאָלאָג“, וווּ מע וועט לייענען און אַרומרעדן מאָנאָלאָגן פֿון שלום עליכם, י. לץ פּרץ, דער טונקעלער, ב. קאָוונער, משה נאַדיר, רחל ברכות און יצחק באַשעוויס. מע וועט אויל אַרומרעדן די געשיכטע פֿונעם מאָנאָלאָג אין ייִדישן טעאַטער (שיין בייקער)
• שעפֿעריש שרײַבן, וווּ מע וועט אויפֿן סמך פֿון ליטעראַטור־מוסטערן באַטראַכטן די וויכטיקע באַשטאַנדטיילן פֿון פּראָזע — שפּראַך, סטיל, דיאַלאָג, געשטאַלט און פּייסאַזש (באָריס סאַנדלער)
• יצחק־לייבוש פּרץ און זײַנע באַציִונגען מיט די נײַ־געבוירענע ייִדישע סאָציאַליסטישע קרײַזן אין משך פֿון די 1890ער יאָרן (עדי מהלאל)
• די גרויסע אַקטריסע אסתּר רחל קאַמינסקאַ, וווּ די סטודענטן וועלן לייענען אירע זכרונות אויף ייִדיש (מיכל יאַשינסקי)
• די לידער פֿון דוד האָפֿשטײן, וואָס איז מערקווירדיק צוליב זײַן צונױפֿפֿלעכט פֿון דײַטשישע, רוסישע און אוקראַיִנישע ליטעראַרישע טראַדיציעס מיט תּנכישע און מאָדערנע ייִדישע השפּעות (יודזשין אָרנשטיין)
• די ייִוואָ־גדולים אין זייערע אייגענע ווערטער, וווּ מע וועט לייענען די שריפֿטן פֿון א. טשעריקאָװער, מ. װײַנרײַך, י. לעשטשינסקי, י. מאַרק, ש. ניגער, נ. פּרילוצקי, ז. קלמנאָװיטש, ז. רייזען, י. שאַצקי און נ. שטיף (דוד בראַון)
The post ‘The Art of the Yiddish Monologue’ and other mini-courses in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.
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Suspect at Large in Brown University Shooting that Killed at Least Two, Injured Eight
Police vehicles stand near the site of a mass shooting reported by authorities at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., December 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Taylor Coester
Police in Rhode Island were searching for a suspect in a shooting at Brown University in Providence in which two people died and eight were critically wounded at the Ivy League school, officials said.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told a news conference that police were still searching for the shooter, who struck at Brown’s Barus & Holley engineering building, where exams were taking place at the time. Officials said police were looking for a male dressed in black and were scouring local video cameras in the area for footage to get a better description of the suspect.
Smiley said officials could not yet disclose details about the victims, including whether they were students. He lamented the shooting.
“We are a week and a half away from Christmas. And two people died today and another eight are in the hospital,” he said. “So please pray for those families.”
Brown is on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island‘s state capital. The university has hundreds of buildings, including lecture halls, laboratories and dormitories.
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he had been briefed on the situation, which he called “terrible.”
“All we can do right now is pray for the victims and for those that were very badly hurt.”
Compared to many countries, mass shootings in schools, workplaces, and places of worship are more common in the US, which has some of the most permissive gun laws in the developed world. The Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as any incident in which four or more victims have been shot, has counted 389 of them this year in the US.
Last year the US had more than 500 mass shootings, according to the archive.