🗓️🗓️🗓️ ברכת החודש אב

The J3M Report

18 Jul 2025 — 7 min read

Ferry Tale Ending? Staten Island & Brooklyn May Finally Reunite by Water!
👉 Big Help for the Little Guys: Brooklyn Org’s New Microgrants Are Here!
👉 NYC’s Sewers Are Drowning! A $30B Splash Into the Future
🔎 Events for the Three Weeks and תשעה באב

The Nibble

🚢💙 Ferry Tale Ending? Staten Island & Brooklyn May Finally Reunite by Water! 🌉🗽

Get ready to swap subway delays for salty sea breezes! After decades of separation, the long-lost ferry route between Staten Island and Brooklyn might finally make its comeback. Yup, the NYC Ferry is proposing a bold new plan to reconnect St. George and Bay Ridge—last linked by boat way back in 1964! If approved, the sleek new route would glide from Staten Island’s North Shore to Bay Ridge, then swing by Brooklyn Bridge Park before docking at Wall Street. It's like the MTA... but with waves 🌊 and way better views. 😎

But that’s not all—this is part of a citywide ferry glow-up! The NYC Economic Development Corporation wants to totally revamp the system to cut travel times, boost frequency, and actually make the ferry feel like a real transit option—not just an East River selfie cruise 🚤📸. Councilmembers Kamillah Hanks and Justin Brannan have been paddling hard behind the scenes, pushing this route as a crucial “blue subway” to connect Brooklyn, Staten Island, and even Queens (hello, Interborough Express!). With public feedback rolling in this summer and final decisions expected by fall, we might be sailing into a smoother, smarter commute by winter! 🧭⛴️

So grab your MetroCard and maybe a life vest—NYC’s waterfront commute might finally be making waves again! 💨🛳️ For more info and feedback survey click here

🗽 Civic Spotlight: Keeping You Informed🗽

💸 Big Help for the Little Guys: Brooklyn Org’s New Microgrants Are Here! 🏙️

What do you get when you mix Brooklyn pride, local heroes, and a dash of grant magic? 🎩✨ The brand-new Brooklyn Org Microgrants, of course! Brooklyn Org (aka BKO), the borough’s nonprofit fairy godparent, just rolled out a funding program designed to lift up the small but mighty organizations that know their neighborhoods like the back of their hand. Think food pantries, youth programs, art collectives — the real MVPs of community care 🛠️❤️.

These microgrants — up to $10,000 each — are tailored for nonprofits with budgets under $100K 💼💰. BKO knows that big change doesn’t always need big money, and that sometimes the most powerful solutions come from the folks who live right down the block. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From social justice warriors to neighborhood fixers, if you're doing good in Brooklyn, this could be your chance to grow your impact — without selling your soul to bureaucracy. 📝🕊️

So if you're running a tiny org with a big heart and a killer idea 💡, head over to grantinterface.com/sl/PnKUdt and shoot your shot. Because in Brooklyn, even the smallest roots can grow the strongest trees 🌳🔥.

🚨💦 NYC’s Sewers Are Drowning! A $30B Splash Into the Future 🌧️🚧

Rain, rain, GO AWAY... or at least slow down a little! 🌊 Monday night’s storm dumped so much water on New York City, it basically turned our streets into rivers and our subways into water rides. 🏞️🚇 Officials say the downpour — 4 inches per hour at its worst! — overwhelmed our poor old sewer system, which was only built to handle less than half that. 💧☁️

Now, the bad news: fixing it will cost $30 BILLION and take decades. That’s right, some of our pipes are older than your grandma, and replacing them won’t happen overnight. 🕰️ In Bushwick alone, a $350M mega-upgrade is coming to Knickerbocker Ave, but even that will take 10 years to complete! 🛠️ Meanwhile, Mayor Adams is urging New Yorkers in low-lying areas to keep their go-bags ready and stay alert — because this isn’t just a freak storm... it’s our new normal. 😬🌪️

So next time you step into a puddle that’s really a lake, remember: NYC didn’t move 500 miles south, the climate just did! 🗽➡️🌴 Stay dry, stay safe, and maybe invest in rain boots with flotation devices. 🥾🛟

📅Calendar
Friday July 25 | Rosh Chodesh Av 2025 / רֹאשׁ חוֹדֶשׁ אב 5785

🤔What's up👀

🎬 Events 👋

Monday’s 7/14, 7/21 and 7/28

👩For women only 👩 | Virtual Summer Beit Medrash | registration at ouwomen.org/alit25

9:30 am | Penimiyut | Bulding the Inner Mikdash | Rebbetzin Yehudis Golshevsky

10:45 am | Tanach | Aleph Bet of Understanding Megillat Eicha | Dr. Esther Shkop

Agra D’Pirka Flatbush | Knesses Bais Avigdor | 1720 Ave J (bet. E17th & E 18th) | 10:40 am

7/14 | 10:40 am | The Three Weeks in Halacha & Aggadah | R’ Yosef Chaim Perlman

7/21 | 10:40 am | When Dikduk clashes with Halacha | R’ Avrohom Kirsch

7/28 | 10:40 am | Shmiras Ha”guf V’Hanefesh | R’ Yehoshua Haber

8/4 | 10:40 am | Sefer Iyov | R’ Yakov Shulman

8/11 | 10:40 am | Halacha & Aggadah | R’ Yosef Chaim Perlman

Tuesday 7/15, 7/22 and 7/29

👩For women only 👩 | Virtual Summer Beit Medrash | registration at ouwomen.org/alit25

9:30 am | Jewish History | From Ashes to Hope: Lessons in Morality from the Fall of the Second Temple | Mrs. Channah Cohen

10:45 am | Halacha | Echoes of the Mikdash: Halachot for Our Lives in Galut | Mrs. Emma Katz

8:00 pm | Middot | Brick by Brick: A Framework for Building Middot | Mrs. Shifra Rabenstein

Agra D’Pirka Flatbush | Knesses Bais Avigdor | 1720 Ave J (bet. E17th & E 18th) | 11:00 am

7/15 | 11:00 am | Hilchos Pas Akum | R’ Reuven Scheinberg

7/22 | 11:00 am | What brocha does one make on wraps | R’ Reuven Scheinberg

7/29 | 11:00 am | Hilchos Bein Ha’Mitzorim | R’ Reuven Scheinberg

8/5 | 11:00 am | Does cheerios or lukshen kugel have “toar lechem”? | R’ Reuven Scheinberg

8/12 | 11:00 am | Shiur Klali B’hilchos Bishuel Akum | | R’ Reuven Scheinberg

Wednesday 7/16, 7/23 and 7/30

👩For women only 👩 | Virtual Summer Beit Medrash | registratin at ouwomen.org/alit25

8:00 pm | Tanach | Hiddent Heroines in Tanach and Their Geulag Messages | Mrs. Esti Kimche

Agra D’Pirka Flatbush | Knesses Bais Avigdor | 1720 Ave J (bet. E17th & E 18th) | 10:40 am

7/16 | 10:40 am | Sefer Iyov | R’ Yakov Shulman

7/23 | 10:40 am | Sefer Iyov | R’ Yakov Shulman

7/30 | 10:40 am | Sefer Iyov | R’ Yakov Shulman

8/6 | 10:40 am | Guidelilnes of Heter Maiah Rabbonim | R’ Avrohm Kirsch

8/13 | 10:40 am | Bal Tashchus | R’ Yakov Aron Prosky

Thursday 7/17, 7/24, 7/31, 8/7 and 8/14

Agra D’Pirka Flatbush | Knesses Bais Avigdor | 1720 Ave J (bet. E17th & E 18th) | 10:30 am & 11:30 am

7/17 | 10:30 am | Inyanim of negel Vasser | R’ Bentzion Gips