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At a former driving school, Kehillat Harlem plants roots for Jewish life uptown
(New York Jewish Week) — The “Yes You Can” driving school is no more, but the sign that still hangs over its former storefront in Central Harlem is something of an apt message for the new tenant — a fledgling synagogue that aims to demonstrate the vitality of Jewish life in the neighborhood.
Kehillat Harlem, a non-denominational “shul community,” moved into the Adam Clayton Powell storefront last year after seven years in transit. Since its founding, it has held services in a basement, a local cafe and even outdoors.
Now, Kehillat Harlem is using the space for what its founding rabbi, Kyle Savitch, says is the only option for weekly Shabbat services in the neighborhood, even as a host of new initiatives aim to serve Harlem’s growing Jewish population.
“We’re the only synagogue in Central Harlem that’s meeting every Friday, every Saturday, let alone having meals and everything else, so I definitely think we’re serving a need there,” Savitch said. “For folks who are looking to move or looking to join a new community, sometimes what they want to know is that there is consistency in Jewish life, and so I think we’re able to provide that.”
But Kehillat Harlem isn’t just striving to add a synagogue to the neighborhood. Savitch also aims to leverage the shul into a community hub or even, one day, a restaurant serving Jewish food.
A dress rehearsal came last month on the first night of Hanukkah, when roughly 70 people filled Kehillat Harlem’s storefront space for the shul’s annual Hanukkah speakeasy. To enter the event, which included a jazz band, latkes and kosher tequila from Tekiah Spirits, partygoers used the secret password “Lehadlik ner,” the Hebrew phrase meaning “to light a candle.”
“We’re exploring how our role in the community can expand to infrastructure in terms of kosher food, in terms of space access, in terms of places to gather,” Savitch said.
Kehillat Harlem is hardly the only entity to tackle those questions in Harlem, which once had one of the largest Jewish populations in the world. Once home to roughly 175,000 Jewish residents at its peak in 1917, the neighborhood saw most of them leave as it transformed into a hub of Black culture during the Harlem Renaissance. Some of the neighborhood’s synagogues remain standing, but have been converted into churches.
Over the last 15 years, the neighborhood’s Jewish population has gone from an estimated 2,000 people to 16,000 adults and 8,000 children, according to a 2023 study by the UJA-Federation of New York.
To serve them, a branch of the young professional programming nonprofit Moishe House has opened up, as has a branch of the Upper West Side’s Marlene Meyerson JCC with its own rabbi-in-residence and monthly Shabbat service. Tzibur Harlem, an initiative founded in 2024 by Rabbi Dimitry Ekshtut and Erica Frankel, offers programming including occasional Shabbat services; it recently played a role in getting a Hanukkah menorah added to a local Christmas display.
But when it comes to regular prayer services, the only option until Kehillat Harlem opened was the Old Broadway Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation founded in 1911 that serves families in West Harlem and Morningside Heights.
Many observant Jews in the neighborhood were looking for something different, said Savitch, who was ordained at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a liberal Orthodox seminary, in 2021.
Kehillat Harlem, he said, “came out of the need for a Jewish community in the neighborhood, which was inclusive and welcoming to everyone who walked in the door. Our community is very diverse. There’s folks who are observant, there’s folks who aren’t observant, there’s queer folks, there’s folks in interfaith relationships, and there wasn’t really a place in the neighborhood for all those people to go and feel comfortable.”
Arielle Flax, a 32-year-old Jewish Harlem resident and co-president of Kehillat Harlem, described the shul’s ethos as “socially progressive but halachically traditional,” meaning that she seeks to follow Jewish law.
While Kehillat Harlem has a mechitza, the gender partition that separates men and women in Orthodox synagogues, it also has a third section for genderfluid or nonbinary participants. Unlike at most Orthodox synagogues, where reading from the Torah is restricted to men, people of all genders are invited to read from the Torah.
“We want to be as inclusive as possible, while still keeping that bar for those who do want to fulfill the more stricter obligations for Judaism,” said Flax. “We try to empower people of all genders, all backgrounds, to participate, to feel like they are contributing and involved and not just spectating.”
Before Flax joined Kehillat Harlem in 2017 for its inaugural Shabbat, she had hesitated to move to the neighborhood because of its sparse Jewish infrastructure, but the presence of the fledgling congregation had helped tip her decision.
“I immediately felt like I had a place to go as soon as I moved up to New York, which is great, but before we moved up we were a little concerned,” said Flax.
Since then, Flax said she had seen the neighborhood’s Jewish population grow.
“I think by having Kehillat Harlem and other organizations in the area, I think more Jewish people are kind of coming out and getting involved in Jewish life in Harlem,” she said. “I think that’s a really beautiful thing.”
Laura Lara, a 50-year-old Argentinian native who moved to Rego Park, Queens, in 2022, said that she had struggled to connect to a Jewish community in the city until attending Kehillat Harlem’s Purim party last year.
“Being an emigre from another country and another language, finding the right place was a little bit hard for me at the beginning,” said Lara. “Finally, I found a place, and I went to a celebration of Purim in Harlem, and I found the diversity, everyone has a voice, everyone has a place, and that is what I like.”
After making the “schlep” to services and community events at Kehillat Harlem over the past year, Lara said that she and her husband are considering making the move to Harlem.
“I am also thinking of moving to the area,” said Lara. “I feel like I live in a bubble in my neighborhood, my community and the values and the place is far away from my home.”
In August, Kehillat Harlem marked a milestone — and another journey from Queens to Harlem — by dedicating a Torah that had been rescued during the Holocaust from Germany in 1940 and donated by the former Bayside Jewish Center.
“By bringing this Torah into Kehillat Harlem and returning it to use, we’re literally carrying it into the next generation,” Savitch said at the dedication ceremony. “We’re weaving together its survival through the Holocaust, its history in Queens and its future here in the neighborhood of Harlem, so we’re marking not just the dedication of this Torah, but the renewal of Jewish life in Harlem.”
Savitch said his dream is for Kehillat Harlem to become a one-stop shop for services, classes and communal gatherings and kosher food in Harlem.
Doing so could help hack the high cost of real estate in New York City. In neighborhoods with dense Jewish infrastructure, small synagogues have begun sharing space with Jewish organizations, but that’s not as much of an option in Harlem.
“The dream is really to have a fully multi-purpose space, especially as costs are going up and synagogues are having a hard time paying rent, and restaurants are closing left and right, especially kosher restaurants,” said Savitch.
While other parts of the city boast dozens of Jewish and kosher restaurants, Harlem has fewer options for its Jewish neighbors, including Silvana, a restaurant that serves Israeli cuisine, and Tzion Cafe, a kosher and vegan Ethiopian-Israeli restaurant.
To fill the gap in kosher offerings, Savitch transformed Kehillat Harlem into a makeshift restaurant in 2024 for Passover, and hosted a weekly program called “Shtiebel Sundays” last year where kosher pastries and coffee were for sale.
While Savitch said that Shtiebel Sundays hadn’t garnered revenue for the shul, he said it was “successful as a community-building model.”
“That’s also part of what we’re doing,” he said. “In a community that can’t necessarily yet support a fully functioning kosher cafe, restaurant, whatever it is, we’re providing that as a nonprofit.”
The post At a former driving school, Kehillat Harlem plants roots for Jewish life uptown appeared first on The Forward.
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Texas Joins Legal Action Against American Muslims for Palestine as Move to ‘Counter Hamas Terrorism’
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point USA summit since the death of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, US, Dec. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Cheney Orr
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced the state would join Virginia and Iowa in the filing of a legal brief against the nonprofit activist group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and other organizations which he characterized as “radical” in order “to combat Hamas terrorism.”
“Radical Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas must be decimated and dismantled, and that includes their domestic supporting branches,” Paxton posted on the social media platform X.
“Terrorism relies on complex networks and intermediaries, and the law must be enforced against those who knowingly provide material support,” Texas’s top legal officer added in a statement. “My office will continue to defend Americans who have been brutally affected by terrorism and ensure accountability under the law.”
In November, Texas began more aggressive legal efforts against organizations long alleged by researchers and law enforcement to be part of a domestic Hamas support network in the United States. Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Nov. 18, the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist organizations.
A month later, Paxton filed a motion defending the designation in court, countering a suit by the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters of CAIR. “My office will continue to defend the governor’s lawful, accurate declaration that CAIR is an FTO [foreign terrorist organization], as well as Texas’s right to protect itself from organizations with documented ties to foreign extremist movements,” Paxton said at the time.
In its latest statement, Paxton’s office described how on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the groups AMP and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) “declared that they were ‘part of’ a ‘Unity Intifada’ under Hamas’s ‘unified command.’”
“Those who have been victimized by Hamas’s terrorism brought claims against the radical groups under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act,” the statement continued. “Attorney General Paxton’s brief is in support of the victims and was filed to ensure terrorist supporters are brought to justice.”
The legal brief references the “unity intifada” and “unified command” sentiments before stating, “They should be taken at their word. And just like their predecessor organizations — convicted or admitted material supporters of Hamas — they should be held accountable.”
The brief charges, “Defendants here are alleged to have provided material support for Hamas, the brutal terrorist regime that not only oppresses millions in Gaza but that also murdered more than a thousand innocents and kidnapped hundreds more. States have an interest in ensuring that valid claims brought under material support statutes are allowed to be litigated in court and that any violators are held accountable.”
Last year, Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares — whose name appears at the lead of the brief — sought to press AMP to reveal its funding sources, which a judge ruled it needed to do May 9, 2025.
The latest brief provides a history lesson about how AMP and NSJP “did not begin their material support for Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023; rather, their material support has been going on for decades — both as the current organizations and through predecessor entities. Indeed, AMP was founded after a predecessor organization and five of its board members were convicted of providing material support for Hamas.” The brief describes the network beginning when “first, the Muslim Brotherhood founded the ‘Palestine Committee’ in 1988 to fund the terrorist organization Hamas.”
This network included “several organizations providing Hamas financial, informational, and political support,” the legal document explained. “Among those organizations were the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), organizations founded and controlled by senior members of Hamas leadership.”
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Trump Slams Rep. Thomas Massie as ‘Hater of Israel,’ Praises Republican Primary Challenger Ed Gallrein
US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the US Capitol on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US President Donald Trump on Monday lambasted Rep. Thomas Massie, a fellow Republican, as a “hater of Israel” and “totally ineffective loser,” calling on voters to support Massie’s challenger, retired Navy SEAL officer Ed Gallrein, in the GOP primary in Kentucky.
In a social media post, Trump formally endorsed Gallrein, a political newcomer who has officially filed to run in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District. Trump praised Gallrein as a US military veteran, farmer, and businessman, describing him as a candidate who embraces a foreign policy of “peace through strength” and his policy agenda on a range of issues such as energy, gun rights, and immigration. The president asked his supporters to “rally behind” the insurgent in a bid to topple Massie.
At the same time, Trump launched a scathing attack on Massie, calling him the “worst’ ‘Republican’ congressman” and accusing him of consistently voting against Republican priorities. Trump singled out Massie’s views on Israel, labeling him “a true hater of Israel” and arguing that his record has undermined both the party and a key US ally.
“Unlike ‘lightweight’ Congressman Massie,” Trump wrote, Gallrein is a “WINNER” who is best positioned to defeat the incumbent in a Republican primary.
Trump’s endorsement places Israel at the center of the race, elevating what had long been a policy disagreement into a defining issue for Republican voters in the district.
Massie has emerged as one of the most vocal Republican skeptics of US military assistance to Israel, voting against multiple Israel-related measures that passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. Those votes have drawn increasing criticism from pro-Israel lawmakers and advocacy groups, particularly as Israel continues to face regional threats and remains engaged in active conflict.
By contrast, Trump portrayed Gallrein as a candidate aligned with his approach to foreign policy and as a reliable supporter of Israel at a moment Trump described as critical for US leadership abroad.
The president also highlighted Gallrein’s military background as evidence that he would prioritize national security, support the US military, and stand firmly with allies like Israel.
Kentucky’s 4th District is a solidly Republican seat, making the winner GOP primary all but guaranteed to win the general election. Trump urged his supporters to back Gallrein and discouraged other potential challengers from entering the race, signaling an effort to consolidate opposition to Massie early.
Trump has clashed with Massie over foreign policy, spending, and executive authority. The explicit focus on Israel suggests that support for the Jewish state is increasingly being treated as a litmus test within parts of the Republican Party.
Massie has previously defended his votes as rooted in constitutional restraint and fiscal conservatism, arguing that opposition to foreign aid packages does not equate to opposition to Israel itself. However, in the two years following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, Massie has sharpened his criticisms of Israel’s conduct.
During an appearance on the podcast of anti-Israel political commentator Tucker Carlson, Massie criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US — accusing the organization of deploying “AIPAC babysitters” to steer congressional votes.
In a post on X/Twitter, Massie said, “Blind support for foreign governments, including Israel, has cost this country dearly. Congress must put America first.”
Massie has also suggested that Israel deliberately targets civilian infrastructure during its military campaigns, an unfounded accusation which enraged many supporters of the Jewish state.
Massie responded to Trump’s post, accusing the president of targeting him over his refusal to vote in favor of foreign aid and warfare.
“It happened again today! Why do I get attacked weekly? Because I’m the only Republican who refuses to rubber stamp foreign aid, endless deficits, and unnecessary wars. I’m also exposing sex traffickers. My primary is in May. Please help if you can,” Massie posted.
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Virginia AG Calls for K-12 Schools to Adopt IHRA Definition of Antisemitism Ahead of New Governor Taking Office
Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger (center), former Gov. Ralph Northam (left), and Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) attend a statue unveiling ceremony for Barbara Rose Johns in Emancipation Hall on Dec. 16, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Virginia’s outgoing attorney general on Monday implored the commonwealth’s K-12 schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, citing a dramatic increase in antisemitic hate crimes occurring in 2024 alongside an overall reduction in crime.
“Every student has the right to learn in an environment free from fear,” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, whose tenure ends on Jan. 17, wrote in an open letter to superintendents and school boards. “The IHRA definition provides schools with a clear framework to recognize and respond to antisemitic conduct and distinguish protected speech from unlawful discrimination, intimidation, and harassment.”
He added, “Pushing back against antisemitism requires clarity, consistency, and courage. We cannot fight something we fail to define. By adopting this resolution, schools can meet their legal obligations while upholding constitutional principles and ensuring equal access to education for every student.”
IHRA — an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries including the US and Israel — adopted the “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum, and it is now used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations.
According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.
Virginia’s state government first adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in 2023, responding to a series of antisemitic incidents which included the graffitiing of a swastika on a Jewish family’s home in Burke and an Arlington student’s airdropping an image of a swastika to his entire class and proceeding to play an online quiz game “using a swastika and a racial slur.” Most notable, however, was the Unite the Right Rally, which took place in Charlottesville in 2017 and led to death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a white supremacist attending the rally intentionally crashed into dozens of counter-protesters.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, enthusiastically signed a bill which called for the IHRA adoption, saying during a signing ceremony, “When we acknowledge that we live in a world where there is hate and where that hate is translated into despicable actions, we can stand up together and say there is no room for that.”
Monday’s letter comes as Virginia prepares to turn the reins of government over to Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who beat Youngkin’s lieutenant and chosen successor Winsome Earle-Sears by 15 points in a general election contest held in November. A moderate Democrat with a history of condemning Hamas and advocating pro-Israel policies, Spanberger is on record supporting the IHRA definition of antisemitism, having voted in favor of it twice as a member of the state’s House of Representatives.
However, the month of January has already seen a local government’s commitment to IHRA be overturned by a newly sworn in administration. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a far-left Democrat, dropped the IHRA definition on his first day of office last week and revoked an executive order that opposed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Citing these developments, lawyer and civil rights nonprofit founder Kenneth Marcus commended Miyares for stressing the importance of using the IHRA definition as a tool for combating antisemitic hatred amid a surge of antisemitism in Virginia’s own K-12 schools.
“Antisemitism in Virginia public schools has become a major national issue in recent months, as we’ve seen with the opening of a congressional investigation into Fairfax County public schools, where there have been multiple high-profile issues surrounding antisemitic activity,” Marcus, who leads the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said in a statement on Monday. “This definition is the gold standard across the globe … to this new administration and to Gov.-elect Spanberger: Virginia must not follow New York City’s example. We call on you to follow the lead of Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden, whose administrations similarly embraced the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.”
Antisemitism is also present in Virginia’s private schools, as was recently alleged in a lawsuit settled in November.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Nysmith School for the Gifted in Fairfax County, Virginia, agreed to pay $100,000, plus attorneys’ fees and other costs after parents came forward to accuse it of expelling three Jewish students for reporting antisemitism.
In addition to paying the victim’s family what amounts to nearly $150,000, the school has said it will adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which is used by governments across the world, and submit to monitoring by a third-party watchdog for a minimum five-year period. That monitor will oversee the conclusion of Nysmith’s investigation of the bullying allegations and determine whether school officials did not intentionally violate the law.
“I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that there are things I could have done differently in this particular situation, and for that, I am truly sorry,” Nysmith’s headmaster, Ken Nysmith, wrote in a letter to parents. “For the 40 years I have been at Nysmith, I have always tried to do my personal best, guided by our commitment to our students, families, and staff. In this instance, I will use this experience to reflect, to learn, and to continue improving as a leader.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.