Judge Freier under fire for opposing abortion rights.
‍Judge Rachel “Ruchie” Freier, who recently became a Democratic candidate for New York State Supreme Court justice, faced controversy last week for writing in 2013 that she opposed the US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, according to The City. “She went on the record to express her disagreement with the Roe v. Wade decision, and that absolutely should have disqualified her,” Carey Tan, a judicial delegate in Prospect Heights, told the outlet. Freier is considered very likely to win her November election, in heavily-Democratic Brooklyn.

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets with Tzedek Association.
‍House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, president of the Tzedek Association, a Haredi-run organization that advocates for criminal justice reform, in Monticello on Wednesday, reports Hamodia. Tzedek advocated for a bill that would require private insurers to cover fertility treatments.

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Agudath Israel applauds New Jersey court decision.
‍Agudath Israel celebrated last week after the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that a Catholic school could fire a teacher for having premarital sex. The court ruled that a religious institution was not bound by the state’s discrimination laws when following the tenets of its faith. The Agudah filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the Catholic school.

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New York City Department of Transportation to bring CitiBike to South Williamsburg.
‍Workers from the New York City Department of Transportation launched an outreach effort in Hasidic South Williamsburg regarding the installation of seven new CitiBike docking stations, thus partially filling a gap in Brooklyn’s CitiBike network, according to the public transportation advocacy news site Streetsblog. Hasidim in Williamsburg have historically opposed cycling infrastructure in the neighborhood.

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Chabad of the Beaches reaches tentative settlement with Nassau County village.
‍Chabad of the Beaches has reached a tentative settlement with the Nassau County village of Atlantic Beach, reports the New York Post. Alleging religious discrimination, the Chabad had sued the village in federal court after the village tried to use eminent domain to block the Chabad from acquiring property.

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South Williamsburg fire displaces eight families, destroys nine businesses.
‍Local government and nonprofit organizations are working to assist members of the community after a fire broke out in South Williamsburg on Sunday, destroying nine businesses and displacing eight families. “The business itself, it affects the immediate families of the store owners, but it affects also the community residents,” said Rabbi David Niederman, director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, a social services organization serving South Williamsburg’s Hasidic community. “Major shopping opportunities needed for operation, for school, and the holidays is affected by that.”

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Brooklyn Borough President visits Hasidic summer camps upstate.
‍Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso visited four Hasidic sleepaway camps last week in upstate New York: Camp HASC, a camp in Sullivan county serves disabled children; a Vizhnitz camp in Liberty; and two Satmar camps in Napanoch and Monticello. “I was deeply inspired by @CampHASC and the experience and care that HASC’s dedicated staff provides for those with special needs,” Reynoso wrote on Twitter.

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Three recent antisemitic incidents against Haredim in New York.
‍There were reports of at least three antisemitism incidents against Haredim recently in New York State. A sign in Blooming Grove, where there is a growing Hasidic population, read “No Jew Get Out.” In South Williamsburg, two people riding CitiBikes smacked a man and women wearing “traditional Jewish garb” in the head, according to the New York Post. In Boro Park, a man riding a scooter knocked a yarmulke off a Jewish man’s head. The NYPD is investigating the latter two incidents as potential hate crimes.

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NYC mayor visits Meah Shearim rabbi.
‍During his visit to Israel this week, New York City mayor Eric Adams visited Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kohn, who leads the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Hasidic sect in Meah Shearim, in the hospital. According to Arutz Sheva Israel National News, the visit was initiated by Adams’s associate Ephraim Fink, who belongs to that Hasidic sect.

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Attorney General ends investigation into ParCare.
‍The office of state Attorney General Letitia James has quietly closed a probe into how the Haredi-run ParCare Community Health Network was able to make COVID-19 vaccine shots available to the general public when the state said frontline workers must be prioritized, reports The City. James had recused herself from the investigation after media reports revealed she had direct ties to ParCare’s chief executive, Gary Schlesinger.