Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Forest Hills?

The Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Forest Hills is one of the busiest Bukharian institutions in Queens. How well do you know it? Every answer comes from the center’s own website, The Bukharian Times or Bukharian Jewish Post reports linked below.

1. What is the BJCC’s street address?

• A) 66-35 108th Street
• B) 106-16 70th Avenue
• C) 80-15 188th Street
• D) 63-36 99th Street

2. Which congregation is the BJCC’s main synagogue?

• A) Beth Bechor
• B) Kanisoi Kalon
• C) Shaarei Eliyahu
• D) Derech Emunah

3. On which night does Rabbi Vaknin’s weekly singles shiur meet?

• A) Monday
• B) Tuesday
• C) Wednesday
• D) Thursday

4. Who can join the free Wednesday Torah & Judo class?

• A) Boys ages 8 to 12
• B) High school boys in grades 9 through 12
• C) Adults of any age
• D) College students only

5. Rabbi Issac Ambalu’s Tuesday class, “Light Up Your Soul,” teaches from which work?

• A) Zera Shimshon
• B) Netivot Shalom
• C) Mesilat Yesharim
• D) Pirkei Avot

6. The Tuesday Chavruta Program is built on which teaching from Pirkei Avot 1:6?

• A) “Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend”
• B) “Who is wise? One who learns from every person”
• C) “Say little and do much”
• D) “Let your house be open wide”

7. After Simchat Torah on Oct. 4, about how many members and guests did the center host for its Hotoni meal at Restaurant Troika?

• A) About 100
• B) About 250
• C) More than 500
• D) More than 2,000

8. The third Mallaev Readings, held at the BJCC on Oct. 1, marked which anniversary of poet and musician Ilyas Mallaev’s birth?

• A) 50th
• B) 75th
• C) 90th
• D) 100th

Answers

• 1 – B. The BJCC lists its address as 106-16 70th Avenue, Forest Hills.
• 2 – B. The Bukharian Times reports that the center’s Simchat Torah celebration took place in its Kanisoi Kalon synagogue.
• 3 – A. The BJCC’s events page lists Monday Nights for Singles every Monday, with dinner at 7:45 p.m. and the shiur at 8 p.m.
• 4 – B. The center says Torah & Judo is for high school boys only, in grades 9 through 12.
• 5 – B. The class teaches from the Netivot Shalom. Zera Shimshon is the subject of Rabbi Vaknin’s Thursday class.
• 6 – A. The center quotes “Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend.”
• 7 – C. The Bukharian Times reported that more than 500 people attended.
• 8 – C. The Bukharian Times reported that the Oct. 1 session marked 90 years since Mallaev’s birth in 1936.

Answers 2, 7 and 8 draw on reports translated from Russian by Bukharian Jewish Post from coverage by The Bukharian Times.

Sources: BJCC Events & Programs page; BJCC website; The Bukharian Times, Kanisoi Kalon Simchat Torah report (in Russian); The Bukharian Times, Third Mallaev Readings (in Russian); Bukharian Jewish Post, Kanisoi Kalon Hotoni report; Bukharian Jewish Post, Mallaev Readings report.