Message From The Publisher

Amazingly, another year has come and gone. Rosh Hashana will B’h get underway this Sunday, September 9th. Whereas the secular New Year is normally celebrated by partying and going out, the Jewish New Year is all about introspection. The sound of the shofar wakes us up from our slumber and demands that we face our wrongdoings of the previous year. Let’s not let another year go without improvement. In a day and age like today and a community like ours, learning Torah has become so easy. You literally can find it on your devices and you have classes in your shuls. You could be on a short walk around the block or driving to work and have the ability to learn. There are absolutely NO excuses!

In this issue of the BJL, we have a little bit of everything. We touch upon the themes of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with a special article from HaRav Zamir Cohen (page 10) and Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi (page 40).

We have a featured interview with HaRav Ilan Meirov from Chazaq as he reviews the incredible year they’ve had. We also recap the amazing year the ABA [Alliance of Bukharian Americans] had. Both features are must reads and we hope to see continued success from both of them.

We also have our regular features by R’Staum, R’Ribacoff, R’Shafier, Roman Aminov, David Yakubov and number of others. A big Yasher Koach to all our writers who constantly come through with articles which our readers truly enjoy. And of course, we once again have a number of mazal tovs from around the community which can be found on pages 24-25.

We’re also excited to announce that the grand opening and ribbon cutting of the State-of-the-art Beth Gavriel Queens mikvah will B’h take place on October 7th. Stay tuned for further details and see page 26-27 for a special rundown of some notable people who helped make this all happen!

The next issue of the BJL will be on September 18th. As always, send us your  suggestions, questions, Mazal Tovs and articles via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you’d be interested in advertising please call (917) 549-6145.

We thank you in advance for your support and we wish everyone a Gmar Chatima Tova. May you have a year of health, happiness, wealth, and prosperity, Amen!