New Yorker Helena Weinstock Weinrauch, a Holocaust survivor known for taking up ballroom dancing in her late 80s, died at her home on the Upper West Side on Sunday. She was just one week shy of her 101st birthday.

The cause was likely congestive heart failure, her niece Judy Paskind said.

“She loved being made up and dressed up,” Paskind, a retired accountant, recalled. “And a lot of people [at the funeral] yesterday were saying how elegant she was, and she was! She always looked put together. Until she got sick in the last year, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her without makeup.”

Weinrauch’s incredible story of survival — and how she discovered, at 88, the joy of ballroom dancing — was the subject of a 2015 documentary, “Fascination: Helena’s Story.”

Weinrauch was also known for wearing the same hand-knit blue sweater during the first Passover seder every year for more than 75 years. The sweater — with fluffy angora sleeves, a metallic blue bodice and a scalloped V-neck — had been made by Weinrauch’s friend Ann Rothman, who stayed alive during the Holocaust by knitting for the wives of Nazi officials while a prisoner in the Łódź Ghetto.

“She became known in the ghetto,” Weinrauch told the New York Jewish Week in 2022. “She was so good at knitting that she knitted coats for the wife of the German people and it became known that Ann can knit skirts, a blouse — anything you want, she can knit it.”

Weinrauch was born in Dusseldorf in 1924 to a family of German-speaking Jews. Her mother, Gisela, was a concert pianist; her father, Maximilian, was a Viennese engineer who owned oil wells. She had a sister, Erna, who was six years older. The family soon moved to Drohobycz, Poland (today’s Ukraine) for her father’s work, and Weinrauch was 9 years old when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. In 1939, following a brief Nazi occupation and later, the Russians, the family’s house and oil wells were seized. Weinrauch’s parents and sister were forced into hiding under the Soviets, but due to her age, young Helena was able to attend school while also working part-time in an office.

At her job, Weinrauch was given a false identity by her boss, which allowed her to continue living somewhat in the open. A year later, the family was reunited, but only briefly: The Nazis returned and, as conditions worsened for Jews, Helena’s parents and sister were rounded up. She never saw any of them again.

Weinrauch’s identity was eventually discovered when she was reported to the Gestapo by a former classmate who recognized her. Weinrauch was deported to Plaszow and then Auschwitz, where she survived a 500-mile death march to Bergen-Belsen and was liberated by the British Army on April 15, 1945.

Helena recuperated in Sweden, where she met Rothman, also an Auschwitz survivor, in the hospital.

Helena and Joseph Weinrauch on their wedding day in 1951. (Courtesy Judy Paskind)

Two years later, Weinrauch immigrated to New York, where she learned English by listening to the radio and reading the dictionary. To make ends meet, she worked as a dental assistant, a receptionist, a baby nurse and, for 30 years, as a medical paper writer to a professor of cardiology and nephrology in Manhattan. In 1951, she married Joseph Weinrauch, who was employed in the fur business. Their daughter, Arlene, was born in 1953.

Arlene, whom Weinrauch called “a very bright, intelligent, gifted girl” in her book, died from breast cancer in the 1990s.

“I have to say, of all the horrific things that happened to me — losing my parents and sister, being interned in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, spending a year in a hospital and rehab facility — nothing can compare to losing a child,” Weinrauch told Lilith Magazine in 2016.

In 2006, after 55 years of marriage, Joe Weinrauch died.

“After my uncle died, she started a whole new life with the ballroom dancing and creating a whole new group of friends through that and people in her building,” Paskind said.

Weinrauch would dance at the Manhattan Ballroom Society on the Upper East Side, where dance leader Steve Dane called Weinrauch the group’s “dancing angel.” She became very close with her dance partner, Slavi Baylov, who is more than 50 years her junior and was at her bedside when she died.

“When I dance, I forget what happened to me and it makes me feel for a few minutes or hours that I am happy,” she told The New York Times in 2018.

In 2023, one-woman play, “A Will to Live,” based on Weinrauch’s unpublished memoir, premiered at New York’s Chain Theater. “My story is not fiction,” Weinrauch wrote in a statement at the time. “Unfortunately, this is my true story.”

It was also later in life that Weinrauch became comfortable speaking publicly about her harrowing experiences during the Holocaust, which she began doing through the Meta and John Spiegler Holocaust Education Fund, an endowment for Holocaust education aimed at middle school children in Corning, New York established by Judy Paskind’s parents. (Paskind’s mother was Joe Weinrauch’s sister.)

“The kids wrote her thank you notes,” Paskind said. “She got notes like, ‘we’ll adopt you.’ She was very touched by that. She kept that in an album and looked at it often.”

Weinrauch was also a well-known Upper West Side fixture, recognized by the staff at Barney Greengrass and Zabar’s, where she was practically treated like a celebrity — something she loved, Paskind said.

“I would FaceTime with her every week,” Paskind said. “And this morning, I was getting dressed and thinking, ‘I’ve got to call Helen.’”

She added: “She was a larger than life person.”

A Michigan man who allegedly yelled antisemitic threats at families entering a synagogue in 2022 pleaded guilty Tuesday to the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Department of Justice.

In December 2022, Hassan Chokr, 37, of Dearborn, Michigan, drove through the parking lot of Temple Beth El in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills as parents walked their preschoolers into the building, and yelled a series of antisemitic threats at them, according to federal prosecutors.

After he was asked to leave, Chokr — who had a prior felony conviction for a different offense in 2017 — went to a gun store in Dearborn where he attempted to purchase three guns: a shotgun, a rifle and a semi-automatic pistol. He lied about his criminal record, according to prosecutors.

While waiting for his background check, Chokr said that he would “even the score” and use the guns for “God’s wrath,” according to prosecutors. He was denied the purchase following the results of the background check, but was charged for possessing multiple firearms within the store during the attempted transaction.

“The federal government must do everything in its power to stem the rising tide of antisemitism,” said Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. in a statement.

“Chokr’s attempt to purchase several deadly firearms in an apparent attempt to follow through on his menacing threats against parents and preschoolers as they walked into a place of worship represents every American’s worst nightmare. And we will not allow anyone to terrorize our Jewish neighbors,” Gorgon continued. “We are committed to protecting every American and their right to live and worship free of fear.”

Chokr faces up to 15 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Sept. 24.

Pope Leo XIV renewed his calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, decrying suffering there and evoking the image of parents in Gaza who “clutch the lifeless bodies of their children.”

“From the Gaza Strip,” Leo said in an audience at the Vatican Wednesday, “rising ever more insistently to the heavens, the cries of mothers and fathers who clutch the lifeless bodies of their children, and who are continually forced to move about in search of a little food and water and safer shelter from bombardments.”

He added, “I renew my appeal to the leaders: cease fire, release all hostages, fully respect humanitarian law.”

Since his election earlier this month, Leo has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the Israeli hostages held there by Hamas. The statements follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who called for an investigation into whether there is a genocide being committed in Gaza and took several actions in support of civilians there.

Leo’s statement is significant because it is one of the first signals of his approach to Catholic-Jewish relations as well as relations between the Holy See and Israel. In addition to the ceasefire calls, Leo has promised to pursue Catholic-Jewish dialogue and reaffirmed a key church document rejecting antisemitism.

“I pledge to continue and strengthen the church’s dialogue and cooperation with the Jewish people in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate,” he wrote to Rabbi Noam Marans, the American Jewish Committee’s director of interreligious and intergroup relations, earlier this month.

While some of Francis’ statements on Israel and Gaza, including the “genocide” remark, concerned Jewish leaders, Marans said in an interview Wednesday that he was taking a wait-and-see approach with the new pope.

“I do not expect major policy changes from Pope Francis to Pope Leo including regarding the situation in Gaza,” said Marans, who recently met with Leo. “We are watching and waiting to see how he continues to approach Catholic-Jewish relations positively while feeling the need to comment on the challenges that the Gazan population is experiencing.”

During the address, Leo also made an appeal for peace in Ukraine, and repeated the statements on Gaza in a post on X Wednesday.

Leo is one of a growing number of world leaders to issue recent calls for the war to end. In his first Sunday address earlier this month, Leo said he was “deeply pained” by what was happening in the Gaza Strip, and called for a ceasefire, freeing of the hostages and delivery of humanitarian aid for civilians.

Last week, Leo wrote another post on X calling for aid to enter Gaza, two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a “basic quantity of food” to enter Gaza after blocking all entry of humanitarian assistance for two months.

“The situation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly worrying and painful,” that post read. “I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid and to bring an end to the hostilities, whose heart-rending price is borne by children, the elderly, and the sick.”

A new and controversial U.S.-Israeli mechanism for distributing aid began operations this week.

Shavuot is the festival when Jews eat cheesecake and celebrate “matan Torah,” literally, “the giving of the Torah” at Mount Sinai. It conjures up images of the tablets being handed to Moses in the midst of golden rays of sun (thanks, DreamWorks). Divine revelation came in the form of a gift: tablets, words, traditions passed on from teacher to student.

But if Torah is a gift, we have to ask: What does it mean to own Torah?

This question is pressing not only because we are just days away from Shavuot, but also because ownership of written works is a hotly contested issue these days. With Mark Zuckerberg seemingly signing off on the mass pirating of copyrighted books to train Meta’s AI tools, the question of “fair use” and what constitutes ownership of texts has rarely been so widely discussed. Meta argues that using copyrighted materials to train AI is “fair use” if it is used to develop a transformative technology — even if it is from databases of pirated material like LibGen.

Authors, news outlets and other copyright owners argue that using pirated versions robs them of income and amounts to theft in the marketplace of ideas.

Unlike Meta, “Moses received the Torah from Sinai, and passed it on to Joshua,” according to Pirkei Avot, perhaps the most quoted section of the Mishnah. It sounds like a present, free and clear, regifted from one generation to another with no strings attached. Indeed, matan Torah sounds a bit like “public domain,” meaning the giftee can use, adapt and reproduce the text without violating the creator’s rights or integrity.

There’s no Divine server to scrape, and no need to do so, because we already have the right to study Torah. “Fair use” is the very point of revelation. While most modern books have been printed with the assumption that someone owns the content, Torah was given to a people, designed for group ownership and open for universal free use.

As a result “Torah” is a broad category, one which expands as new generations add their own insights. It encompasses the Talmud, numerous Bible commentaries, law codes, early rabbinic interpretations like midrash, and much, much more.

But with ownership comes responsibilities. If we don’t interact with this gift on a regular basis, we may not be close enough to it to claim any kind of meaningful possession. Using an item is one of the ways that people demonstrate ownership over things, and that use may even have legal status.  Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote in 1897: “A thing which you have enjoyed and used as your own for a long time, whether property or an opinion, takes root in your being and cannot be torn away without your resenting the fact and trying to defend yourself, however you came by it.”

In this model of ownership, revelation is just the beginning. Every single woman, man and child present at Mt. Sinai catches a glimpse of Torah, but matan Torah — the giving — makes its wisdom available to the Jewish people. It is transmitted to the next generation not by handing over a physical book, but when it lives in the conversations and debates we have as we live our lives.

The Torah was given in the wilderness, in a swirl of smoke and fire. According to a midrash, God chose to give the Torah in the middle of nowhere precisely so that no landowner or sovereign could claim ownership. The Torah was intended to belong to all. This is not a statement of copyright — the Jews as much as anyone else should respect intellectual property rights — but rather, a call to make use of this freely available source of wisdom and inspiration.

When the words of the Torah emerged from the fiery mountain top and were written down in physical volumes, people had to purchase or borrow those books in order to access this ancient gift. Today, millions of words of Torah are freely available online — including through Sefaria, where I am the chief learning officer — just waiting for the right Google search to make themselves known.  If we can ask Google what to cook or what novel we should read next, we can also delve into the custom of eating dairy on Shavuot or dig into the underlying messages in the book of Ruth, traditionally read on this holiday.

Engaging with this information is what makes it ours. We might not end up with a dog-eared copy of a thick book, but the more we use it, the more the content of Torah will “seep into our being,” and the more we will take ownership of this ancient gift and deserve our cheesecake.

Italy’s right-wing government has joined with Germany, France, Canada and the United Kingdom in calling on Israel to end its military campaign in Gaza.

“The legitimate reaction of the Israeli government to a terrible and senseless act of terrorism is unfortunately taking absolutely dramatic and unacceptable forms, which we call on Israel to stop immediately,” Antonio Tajani, the Italian foreign minister, said in an address to parliament on Tuesday.

“The bombing must end, humanitarian assistance must resume as soon as possible, respect for international humanitarian law must be restored,” he added. Later, alluding to calls by U.S. President Donald Trump and some Israelis to see Palestinians leave Gaza en masse, he said, “The expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza is not and will never be an acceptable option.”

Tajani’s comments are notable because Italy’s government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is staunchly right-wing. Right-wing leaders have been the most durable supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but that has shifted this week, as both U.S. President Donald Trump and Germany’s new center-right chancellor, Friedrich Merz, have called for an end to the war.

Meloni’s government is under pressure to take a stronger stance against the war, with opposition parties backing a major demonstration calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state planned for Rome in June. Tajani’s comments came during a heated parliamentary debate in which the opposition leader said Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.

Tajani’s comments come amid a groundswell of criticism of the war, including from closer to home. Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister who preceded Netanyahu’s second election in 2009, wrote in Haaretz on Tuesday that he believed the war was now “a private political war” for Netanyahu that in recent weeks had become indefensible for him.

“Yes, Israel is committing war crimes,” Olmert wrote, intensifying criticism he had made just days earlier when he said he believed Israel’s war conduct was verging on criminal.

Olmert’s comments came the same day that Israel rolled out a new aid distribution system in Gaza after months of not allowing any humanitarian aid into the enclave where 2 million Palestinians live. The system, which briefly paused after being overrun by crowds of food-seekers, has drawn criticism from aid agencies and others for requiring Gazans to travel long distances to receive assistance.

A potential breakthrough arrived earlier this month in California’s years-long debate over ethnic studies, in which Jewish groups fought to ensure that a curriculum mandate would not lead to teachers presenting Jews unfairly or singling out Israel. For the first time, influential lawmakers from several racial and ethnic caucuses offered to help the effort — as long as ethnic studies did not draw exclusive scrutiny.

The result is a collaboration between the state legislature’s Jewish Caucus and the chairs of the Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander caucuses on a bill to address concerns about antisemitism throughout the state’s education system.

“There was a level of ownership around ethnic studies by folks that are in those ethnic communities, and nervousness that in our desire to prevent antisemitism in that discipline, it looked like it was an attack on ethnic studies, when it wasn’t,” Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, a member of the Jewish Caucus who is one of the bill’s two primary authors, said in an interview.

The concerned lawmakers came up with the idea of broadening the effort during legislative negotiations earlier this month, according to Zbur, who isn’t Jewish himself but whose Los Angeles district has one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the state.

“They said, Why don’t we actually focus on antisemitism in all the ways in which it’s appearing in our schools and do a bill that’s more broadly focused on antisemitism,” Zbur said. “There’s a genuine desire to stand with the Jewish Caucus to remedy what’s happening.”

It also turned out to be particularly timely. In California, the ethnic studies mandate that was approved in 2021, requiring that all high schoolers take an ethnic studies course to graduate, was about to take effect this fall. But then, two days after the unveiling of the new bill, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would not fund the mandate in next year’s budget, effectively blocking it for now.

Related: The controversy over California’s ethnic studies curriculum, explained (from 2021)

Newsom, who has expressed support for ethnic studies as a field of study and signed the 2021 law creating the mandate, has not explained his decision to withhold funding, but a spokesperson pointed out the state’s deteriorating financial situation. A $12 billion budget shortfall is expected.

“The budget doesn’t include funding that would trigger the ethnic studies graduation requirement,” H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance, told the Los Angeles Times on Newsom’s behalf. As to the reason why, “the short answer is that the state has limited available ongoing resources.”

The money is needed by local school districts for classroom materials as well as teacher staffing and training. Individual school districts have already begun teaching ethnic studies without a state mandate in effect, and they can continue to do so. Jewish groups are scrutinizing schools with ethnic studies offerings and have in some cases sued and filed complaints over alleged discrimination.

The provisions of the new bill are still being written, but a general outline was approved by the state Assembly’s education committee last week and by the appropriation committee Friday. The bill now heads to the Assembly floor for a second reading and a possible final vote by June 6. It would then go to the state Senate for consideration.

David Bocarsly, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, helped get a record 66 Jewish groups across the state to support the original bill. His job is now to corral the coalition to advocate for the new bill. He says the pivot was not driven only by what was “more politically viable” but also by feedback coming in from those groups.

“In recent years, especially in the aftermath of Oct. 7, we started to see this rise in bias and harmful content existing in other contexts as well,” Bocarsly said.

He pointed to a recent ruling by the state Education Department that two teachers in San Jose “discriminated against Jewish students” because they presented one-sided content on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Other examples he gave are a middle schooler in the Bay Area who recounted persistent antisemitic bullying and a rural school district rejecting a Holocaust education proposal.

Assemblymember Dawn Addis, the bill’s other primary sponsor, alongside Zbur, said her goal was to combat a growing phenomenon of antisemitism in education.

“Jewish families and children have been made, in many instances, to feel unwelcome or made the targets of hate and discrimination in school — where they’re supposed to feel safe and supported,” Addis said. “We want to get all the things in place to get back to what schools are supposed to be doing.”

Pro-Palestinian groups declared a victory following the shelving of the original bill and are now lobbying against the new one.

“AB 1468 was a blatant attempt to undermine ethnic studies and silence Palestinian narratives,” Hussam Ayloush, the CEO of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. “Repackaging censorship under the guise of combating antisemitism does a disservice to the very real fight against hate. We already have laws protecting students from discrimination. AB 715 would effectively silence educators and erase Palestinian voices.”

The state’s influential teachers unions, which opposed the proposed curriculum standards and state monitoring for ethnic studies, have yet to take a position on the new bill.

Rabbi Doug Alpert did not utter the name of the man accused of killing Sarah Milgrim as he presided over her funeral on Tuesday.

But before reciting El Maleh Rahamim, a prayer memorializing the dead, Alpert appeared to address the alleged gunman.

“What a horrible disservice to not see her for who she was and all she had done to further peace with courage and dignity,” said Alpert.

“Because if you really wanted to know how to give Palestinians a better life, a life of humanity and dignity, you could have asked Sarah,” he said, adding, “If you’re really interested in doing something for Gaza to end the blockade and get needed aid into Gaza, you could have asked Sarah. … And if you were really interested in creating solutions to the seemingly endless conflict that separates Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, you could have asked Sarah.”

Standing before Milgrim’s coffin, which was draped in an Israeli flag, Alpert finished his litany with audible anger: “And if you really cared, if you’re about more than canceling voices that made you uncomfortable, about more than shouting slogans and waving a gun, then damn it, why didn’t you ask Sarah?”

The funeral at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kansas, took place more than five days after Milgrim and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were shot to death. The attack occurred late Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., where the victims had just attended an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee that focused in part on humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Both Milgrim and Lischinsky were employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington. Their alleged killer — a far-left activist from Chicago — shouted “Free Palestine” as he was arrested.

Milgrim had been shunned by some former friends for taking a role working for the Israeli government, multiple speakers said at the funeral. The speakers all said Milgrim’s commitment to Israel, and to acting on her beliefs, ran deep. They praised her family — mother Nancy, father Robert and brother Jacob — as beloved members of the local Jewish community.

“Jacob wishes that he could pick up the phone this very day and call her, just to remind her how very proud he is of everything that she has done,” said Rabbi Stephanie Kramer of Congregation B’nai Jehuda, which she said Milgrim’s parents joined in recent years. “Bob, too, has spoken of Sarah’s commitment with deep reverence. This is the only reason why, in the hours following her murder, he found the grit to do 10 interviews — because he knew how important it was for the world to see Sarah through her parents’ eyes, how proud he was for her unshakeable Zionism.”

Milgrim, 26 when she was killed, grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, where she participated in a range of activities. Alpert — who leads another nearby congregation, Kol Ami, where Milgrim’s parents have been active — recalled her joining sports teams and the children’s choir of the Lyric Opera, and advocating for animals and the environment. She marked her bat mitzvah in Jerusalem in 2012, a milestone also celebrated at Beth Torah.

When she was in ninth grade, a white supremacist targeted Jews in Kansas City, killing three people at two Jewish institutions just miles from her home. When she was a senior at Shawnee East Mission High School, someone painted swastikas at her school. Both events made a mark on her, as Jewish institutions she frequented adopted new security protocols and the specter of antisemitism crept into her life.

“You know, I worry about going to my synagogue and now I have to worry about safety at my school and that shouldn’t be a thing,” Milgrim told a local news station at the time, in a clip that has been widely shared in the days since she was killed.

No one mentioned those incidents during the funeral, but they have figured prominently in both the community’s response to Milgrim’s death and in news coverage about her life. In an online gathering on Thursday organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, the CEO of the Kansas City federation, Jay Lewis, said the killing felt like “trauma on top of trauma on top of trauma.”

Lewis said Milgrim had interned at the federation while a student at the University of Kansas, where she studied environmental studies and anthropology and was active in the university Hillel, the campus Jewish center.

After graduating, Milgrim spent time in Israel, working at a nonprofit that uses technology to build relations between Israelis and Palestinians, and moved to Washington, D.C., to earn two master’s degrees and pursue a career in peace and diplomacy.

She joined the embassy shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that initiated the war in Gaza. Sawsan Hasson, Israel’s minister for public diplomacy stationed at the D.C. embassy, said Milgrim’s dedication to public service was exemplified for her even before Milgrim officially stepped into her role. She was waiting for her security clearance when she wrote to Hasson, her supervisor at the embassy, in the immediate aftermath of the attack to say that she stood by ready to assist in the response.

Once she joined the embassy officially, Hasson said, she jumped into action, not only embracing her role in public diplomacy but also arranging missions to Israel, initiating collaborations with NASA and environmental groups and engaging in women’s advocacy.

“Sarah transformed her deep concern about the rise of antisemitism and anti-Zionism into courageous action. And it is that very hatred that took her from us on her own homeland soil,” Hasson said. “But know this: Sarah, your life mattered. Sarah, it did matter deeply and eternally. … We will carry your torch, Sarah, we will continue your mission. We will speak for those who cannot, and we will defend the truths that you upheld.”

It was at the embassy where Milgrim met Lischinsky, whom Alpert said she had brought to Kansas City multiple times for extended visits, including once over Yom Kippur. “The deep sadness of what has happened is embedded in not just how far the relationship had come, but seeing the potential that the relationship would only continue to grow in the years to come,” he said.

Following his angry comments seemingly directed at Milgrim’s killer, Alpert, too, said he believed Milgrim’s legacy would be long-lasting.

“I’d like nothing more — we would like nothing more — right now than to ask Sarah, to talk to Sarah, to learn from such a beacon of light amidst a world of darkness,” he said. “We’ve been cheated out of that opportunity, and for the Milgrim family, cheated out of so much more.

“And yet, I believe Sarah’s voice is not lost. It is our opportunity, our blessing and our obligation to keep her voice alive, to place her voice in our hearts, to follow her courageous path toward building a better world.”

It’s Shavuot again in New York City, so you know what that means — cheesecake, all-night study and revelry, and the suspension of alternate side parking rules. 

Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the Jewish people receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, begins this year at sunset on Sunday, June 1, and concludes at nightfall on Tuesday, June 3.

Here is how the Jewish community across New York City will be celebrating the holiday, from low-key flower arranging classes and study sessions to all-night ragers.

Is your synagogue or Jewish organization hosting a Shavuot event open to the public? Send us an email with the details and we can add it to our list!

Pre-Shavuot women’s “Cheesecake Factory” with Chabad of Midtown

Learn about the origins of why Jews eat dairy on Shavuot — and how to make no-bake cheesecake from scratch — with other young Jewish women at the Chabad of Midtown (509 Fifth Ave.) on Wednesday, May 28, at 7:30 p.m.

The best part? You get to bring your cheesecake home. Grab your ticket here for $36.

Pre-Shavuot women’s flower arranging workshop with Chabad of the Upper West Side

Create a bouquet of seasonal flowers and learn about the Jewish significance of flowers and their connection to the holiday of Shavuot at this young women’s workshop at Chabad of the Upper West Side (location upon RSVP). Wine and light bites will be served. Event begins at 8 p.m. on May 28.

(Chabad of the Upper West Side is also hosting an ice cream bar and Ten Commandments reading event in Central Park on June 2.) Tickets are $55.

JVibe’s Shavuot Layla Lavan Party at 230 Fifth Penthouse

Dance with hundreds of young professionals a a “layla lavan” — Hebrew for a “white night” or dusk-to-dawn party. DJs will spin top 40 hits, Hebrew and house music, Afro and international beats from one of Manhattan’s best rooftop views at 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar (entrance at 1150 Broadway, Manhattan). Get tickets at the early bird rate of $23 (up to $40 at the door) for this party on Saturday, May 31, where doors open at 10 p.m. Per Jewish events promoter and host JVibe, this event is recommended for young professionals ages 21-39.

Shavuot with Manhattan Jewish Experience and Olami Manhattan

Celebrate Shavuot on June 1 from 8:15 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. at Manhattan Jewish Experience (131 W 86th St.) with rabbis from MJE and Olami Manhattan, two Orthodox outfits aimed at young adults. with beginner-friendly classes on Judaism and dairy dinner and dessert. Learning theme for the evening is “Us and Them: Texts and conversations on how Jewish identity is shaped in relation to non-Jews and other Jews.”

Stay until the end for rooftop sunrise services, followed by a breakfast buffet and mimosas. Learning and dessert ticket is free; for the 20s and 30s dinner, tickets are $60.

“Rise Up” at The New Shul’s Fifth Annual Kumah Festival

This year’s Kumah Festival, held by the progressive, independent New Shul, is themed “Rise Up,” and celebrates artists, musicians, dancers, thinkers and poets from different backgrounds and religious experiences. Featuring performances from more than 50 musicians, including Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars, Latin Grammy Award-winner Mireya Ramos, and Basya Schechter and Shaul Magid’s Kabbalachia, this one-night festival celebrates diversity and “collective oneness.”

The fifth annual version of this festival will be held at the Theater for the New City (155 1st Ave., Manhattan) and begins at 7 p.m on June 1. General admission tickets start at $36; late night guests can enter for $12.

Paul Feig Tikkun Leil Shavuot at the Marlene Meyerson JCC

This annual all-night event hosted by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Ave.) will feature more than 70 sessions and a full night of study, cheesecake, film, music, dance and conversation, in celebration of Shavuot. The program begins Sunday, Jun. 1, and runs from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Highlights from the program include a keynote address from TikTok Talmudist Miriam Anzovin; “mini-musical and Broadway backstage banter” by Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller; sessions featuring Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and our own New York Jewish Week editor-at-large, Andrew Silow-Carroll; a sip and paint; silent disco, and even a labneh-making session. Get your free tickets here.

Shavuot Dinner and “Torah Party to the Break of Dawn” with Greenpoint Shul

Join Greenpoint Shul (108 Noble Street, Brooklyn) on June 1 from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. for an all-night Shavuot celebration with food fire, and Torah. Expect s’mores, paired study, a waffle bar, soulful prayer and an open mic “sermon slam” throughout the night and into the morning. Grab your tickets here for $25.

Shavuot Across Brooklyn in Park Slope

Sixteen synagogues, independent minyans and Jewish institutions are coming together for an all-night festival held annually at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope (274 Garfield Place). The evening starts with prayer services at 9 p.m. on June 1 and continues with learning sessions led by a range of local community members until 4:30 a.m. before a sunrise service to end the night. Attendance is free; find all the details here.

Upscale Layla Lavan at Laissez Faire with Mazal Memories

Missed your chance to dance ahead of Shavuot? Don your upscale whites and head to cocktail lounge Laissez Faire (10 Theatre Alley, Manhattan) for a post-holiday Layla Lavan on June 7 from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Listen and dance to beats by DJs Akhy, Elso, Ry Gy, and Allaël. Get tickets, starting at $25, here.

A dual U.S. and German citizen has been charged for allegedly attempting to attack the U.S. embassy’s Tel Aviv branch office with molotov cocktails, according to the Department of Justice.

The suspect, Joseph Neumeyer, 28, of Colorado, allegedly traveled to Israel and then approached the embassy office on May 19. He spat and cursed at a guard, who then tried to detain him. But Neumeyer got away, leaving behind a backpack that contained three molotov cocktails, according to an arrest affidavit filed by an FBI agent.

An investigation into what appears to be Neumeyer’s Facebook page revealed that he had allegedly written multiple posts threatening to kill President Donald Trump. The morning of the attack on the embassy office in Israel, he also made two posts threatening to burn down the building.

“Join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv. Death to America, death to Americans, and f–ck the west,” read one post included in the affidavit.

The building Neumeyer attempted to attack served as the U.S. embassy in Israel until 2018, when Trump moved the embassy to Jerusalem. The Tel Aviv building now serves as a branch office of the embassy.

Neumeyer was later found and arrested by Israeli police. He was extradited to the United States on May 25, where he made an initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo and was ordered detained. He is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York City.

“This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans, and President Trump’s life,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement. “The Department will not tolerate such violence and will prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”

Ynet News also reported that Neumeyer’s profile had shared an image of a swastika and had written the phrase “Long live the Fourth Reich. Death to America” in a post about Israel’s participation in Eurovision.

The incident at the embassy office in Tel Aviv came two days before two staffers for the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. were shot and killed outside of a Jewish museum by an assailant who allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” following the shooting.

Neumeyer was charged with attempting to destroy, by means of fire or explosive, the embassy office and faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years in prison as well as a maximum fine of $250,000.

Kingsley Wilson, a Department of Defense official who has repeatedly echoed antisemitic rhetoric online, will serve as the Pentagon’s new press secretary, according to an announcement Friday.

“Kingsley’s leadership has been integral to the DoD’s success & we look forward to her continued service to President Trump!,” said Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman and a senior advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a post on X Friday.

Wilson reposted the announcement to her X account, writing that she was, “Honored to serve President Trump and our warfighters 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸.”

Wilson was appointed in January as deputy press secretary at the Pentagon and faced backlash from the Anti-Defamation League as well as several senators for a history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. Last year, Wilson tweeted a neo-Nazi talking point about Jewish lynching victim Leo Frank, whose murder spurred the ADL’s creation.

The American Jewish Committee called for her removal in a post on X in March.

“Anyone who posts antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted right out of the neo-Nazi playbook should not be in public office,” the post read. “Kingsley Wilson, newly appointed @DepPressSecDOD, is clearly unfit for her role.”

She has also tweeted several times in support of the “Great Replacement” theory, whose original version contends that Jews are orchestrating the replacement of majority-white nations with immigrants of color.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America also condemned the appointment in a post on Bluesky, writing, “Antisemitism has no place in government. This administration is infested with antisemitism.”

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.