by | Oct 30, 2023 9:38 am | Comments (1)
Filmmaker Rushdi Sarraj.
Roughly 130 people from around the world tuned in to a virtual movie screening to get an on-the-ground view of the human suffering caused by bombs dropped on Gaza, past and present — and to vent their frustrations and fears of still more bloodshed to come amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
by and | Oct 18, 2023 4:53 pm | Comments (65)
Thomas Breen photos
At Wednesday's rally on Elm Street ...
... outside of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro's office.
Roughly 250 Jewish New Haveners and their allies rallied on the steps of City Hall and then outside of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s office downtown calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
They also demanded that their elected officials speak out to end America’s military support of what speaker after speaker termed a “genocidal” war against Palestinians in Gaza — in the latest example of how New Haveners are trying to interpret and reckon with the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East.
by | Oct 13, 2023 4:39 pm | Comments (27)
Maya Mcfadden photo
Eytan Israel with photo of 8-year-old Emily Hand.
The death of Emily Hand, an 8‑year-old girl who was killed in Israel last week, reverberated here in New Haven on the steps of City Hall.
by | Oct 9, 2023 6:48 pm | Comments (157)
Thomas Breen photos
Pro-Israel protester Shmully Hecht praying in the face of pro-Palestine protesters Chris Garaffa and Kevin Menescardi.
Police bring out the barricades to separate the two sides.
Lynn Rabinovici Park and Karen Rabinovici: "All we want to do is live, and live in peace;" Faisal Saleh: "I've seen a lot of bodies" in images and videos coming out of Gaza.
Half an hour into a tense and loud and flag-filled standoff between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters on the front steps of City Hall, city police brought in barricades to physically separate the two sides.
Those barriers successfully kept the peace — even as they kept apart Lynn Rabinovici Park and Karen Rabinovici, two sisters worried sick about the safety of their father’s relatives in Jerusalem, and Faisal Saleh, a Palestinian museum director worried sick about the safety of artists he works with across Gaza.
Continue reading ‘Israel-Gaza War's Grief Spills Onto Church St.’
by | Sep 14, 2023 1:56 pm | Comments (16)
Thomas Breen photo
Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, with New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker: Two-year terms for mayor are "crazy!"
The mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, traveled across an ocean to her home’s “sister city” in New Haven to promote cross-continent comity, a shared history of liberation, green energy consciousness, and — unexpectedly — longer mayoral terms.
Continue reading ‘Freetown Mayor Calls 2-Year Terms "Crazy"’
by | Jun 30, 2023 4:25 pm | Comments (0)
Contributed by Jane Kinity
World Refugee Day picnic.
College Woods Park came alive with dance, food, and community last weekend as New Haveners gathered to celebrate World Refugee Day.
by | Apr 4, 2023 4:26 pm | Comments (1)
New Havener makes good: Award-winning NYT mag writer Jazmine Hughes.
WSJ
WSJ's Evan Gershkovich.
In the space of half a day, Jazmine Hughes went from celebrating reaching a milestone in her dream career — to learning that a friend who had realized his dreams, too, was now locked in a Russian prison.
Continue reading ‘Rising Star Focuses On Journo Pal's Arrest’
by | Feb 27, 2023 10:45 am | Comments (0)
Paul Zalonski and Jayne Ryzewski on Sunday.
Even if the war in Ukraine ends tomorrow, which it will not, there will remain an urgent need to rebuild the Eastern European country’s Russian-destroyed economy and infrastructure and to repatriate its citizens.
Continue reading ‘Local Ukrainian Americans Eye New Humanitarian Aid Nonprofit’
by | Feb 23, 2023 4:29 pm | Comments (11)
Keeping hope alive: Christina Logvynyuk, Olekseii Atnoniuk, Myron Melnyk, and Carl Harvey at WNHH FM.
New Haven hasn’t forgotten Ukraine.
Continue reading ‘New Haven Support For Ukraine Remains Steady At War 1-Year Mark’
by | Feb 17, 2023 11:15 am | Comments (4)
James Bhandary-Alexander and Alyson Heimer at WNHH FM.
In New Haven, people are proposing ideas to strengthen democracy.
In Israel, people are taking to the streets to try to save democracy.
In the process, the debate in both places cuts to fundamental questions about what democracy is all about in the first place.
by | Feb 10, 2023 4:33 pm | Comments (1)
Hulya Elevli: “I’m not changing my clothes because I’m thinking, 'They can’t change theirs over there.'”
Some of the donations ready to be boxed and shipped to Turkey.
Hulya Elevli has spent every day this week sorting through donations at the Diyanet Mosque in Quinnipiac Meadows while coordinating with earthquake refugees to help them find shelter in a house she owns in northern Turkey.
On Friday morning, the end of a restless week and the mere beginning of a coordinated response to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ravaged parts of Turkey and Syria and that has caused at least 23,000 fatalities, Elevli joined members of the mosque at 531 Middletown Ave. and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to speak up about the need that exists abroad and offer guidance to locals about how to help.
Continue reading ‘Donations, Prayers Pour Into Turkish Mosque’
by | Feb 10, 2023 12:33 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Christine Janis and John Deming at Brick Oven Pizza during Thursday's fundraiser.
Christine Janis and John Deming ordered up a dinner pie with extra toppings — and a message for the earthquake-shattered people of Turkey.
Continue reading ‘Pizza-Fueled $10K On Its Way To Earthquake Victims’
by | Feb 7, 2023 2:50 pm | Comments (4)
The rubble in Diyarbakır, Turkey.
Paul Bass Photo
Stepping up: Kadir Catalbasoglu Tuesday at Brick Oven Pizza.
The tragedy unfolding in his native Turkey prompted Kadir Catalbasoglu to do what he usually does when people need help: He got busy.
Continue reading ‘Pizzeria Raises Dough For Turkish Earthquake Victims’
by | Nov 11, 2022 9:55 am | Comments (1)
Allan Appel photo
Carl Harvey with one of the three vehicles the group hopes to ship next month.
As a young nurse training at Walter Reed Medical Center during the Vietnam War, Jane Ryzewski knows firsthand how much care and how many supplies are needed to help injured soldiers.
Which is why she joined three dozen fellow volunteers at the Ukrainian Catholic Church on George Street to organize and prepare to ship out an ever-growing assemblage of medical supplies and winter clothing to the front lines of another international conflict that is now in its ninth month.
Continue reading ‘As Winter Nears, Local Aid To Ukraine Grows’
by | Oct 31, 2022 9:55 am | Comments (0)
Yash Roy photos
President Zelenskyy on Friday: "We need you all to come back."
One of many standing ovations for Ukraine's leader.
Amidst active Russian bombings of Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Zoomed into New Haven — to virtually address the next generation of Yale-educated leaders, and to encourage Ukrainian-born students like Tania Tsunik to return home after graduating to help rebuild their war-torn country.
Continue reading ‘Zelenskyy Urges Ukrainian Yalies To Help Rebuild’
by | Aug 24, 2022 4:50 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
Ann Salemme with Mayor Elicker on Wednesday for Ukrainian independence day celebration and flag raising...
The Ukrainian Weekly image
... Local Ukrainian Americans meet with then-New Haven Mayor Richard Lee for Ukrainian independence day celebration and flag raising in 1955.
As Ann Salemme watched the Ukrainian national flag lifted high above the Green, she couldn’t help but think back to another time — nearly seven decades ago — when New Haven elected officials and local Ukrainian Americans celebrated another independence day for the embattled Eastern European nation by raising its flag and declaring support for Ukrainian self-rule.
Continue reading ‘Ukrainian Flag Raising Echoes City's Past’
by | Aug 22, 2022 9:00 am | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photos
Downtown/Yale Alder Alex Guzhnay (third from left) with his family at Sunday's parade.
Sanjuanito dancers twirl their way up Church St.
Billowing yellow, blue and red flags and the panpipe-filled sounds of Sanjuanito dance music filled Church Street on Sunday, as the annual Ecuadorian Cultural Civic Parade returned downtown for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading ‘After Covid Hiatus, Ecuadorian Parade Returns’
by | Jul 13, 2022 9:38 am | Comments (3)
Jordan Ashby Photo
Judée Badibanga Kabongo, special advisor to the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, pitches diaspora in Dixwell.
New Haven and the Democratic Republic of the Congo strengthened their relationship this week through an exchange of ideas on a common challenge: poverty.
A delegation of government officials from the DRC arrived Saturday in New Haven, their first stop in a tour across the United States that will include D.C., Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, and Oklahoma.
Continue reading ‘Congolese Delegation Pitches Anti-Poverty Efforts’
by | Jul 10, 2022 5:22 pm | Comments (3)
Yash Roy photos
Blumenthal Sunday after Mass at St. Michael.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal brought a message back from Ukraine to New Haven Sunday, and received one in return.
Continue reading ‘Back From Kyiv, Blumenthal Promises To Keep Up The Pressure’
by | Jul 6, 2022 9:12 am | Comments (9)
Health and Human Services Committee Chair Darryl Brackeen, Jr. on Tuesday.
New Haven and … Cuba?
The city made its bid for a potential spot in U.S. diplomatic history Tuesday, as alders voted unanimously in support of a nonbinding resolution urging President Joe Biden to resume an Obama-era rapprochement with the Caribbean island nation.
by | Jun 24, 2022 3:30 pm | Comments (8)
Yash Roy Photo
Seth Godfrey recalls FBI visit during testimony Thursday night.
U.S.-Cuba diplomacy was the topic of discussion at City Hall, as alders advanced a measure calling on the president “to build a new cooperative relationship” with the Caribbean nation.
The occasion was a hearing Thursday night held by the New Haven Board of Alders Health and Human Services Committee.
The three alders present — committee Chair Darryl Brackeen, Fair Haven’s Sarah Miller and Downtown’s Alex Guzhnay — heard testimony on a nonbinding resolution to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba and reverse President Trump’s reversal of President Obama’s policy of increasing ties between the two nations.
by | Jun 23, 2022 1:17 pm | Comments (1)
Laura Glesby Photo
Sister Thi Kim Uyen Do, OP, melds traditional and modern Vietnamese dance techniques at Wecnesday celebration.
Internationally-minded New Haveners gathered in the Ives Main Library Branch’s Orchid Cafe to celebrate 45 years of sister-city relationships with eight communities around the world — and a local culture that welcomes immigrants and travelers amid rising xenophobia.
Continue reading ‘"Citizen Diplomats" Celebrate 45 Years Of Sister Cities’
by | May 12, 2022 8:51 am | Comments (2)
Volunteers load truck at St. Michael's.
Mykola Blyzniuk steered a 53-foot tractor-trailer from George Street filled with 24 pallets and 600 cartons of donated bandages, wheelchairs, scalpels, breathing tubes, and first aid kits destined for Lviv, Ukraine.
Continue reading ‘4th Tractor-Trailer, & Counting, Ferries Life-Saving Support Bound For Lviv’
by | Apr 21, 2022 2:42 pm | Comments (2)
Three weeks.
That’s when the war in Ukraine will end, for now, predicted a leading expert on the region.
by | Apr 19, 2022 1:35 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen Photo
Sisterhood is powerful: New Haveners from Tlaxcala celebrate their Mexican roots at Tuesday's event.
Alejandro Chavez, waiting to renew his passport at the newly opened mobile consulate at the library.
Alejandro Chavez drove up from his home in the Bronx to New Haven to get his Mexican passport renewed — at a new library-hosted mobile consulate set up in honor of a visit from a leader from New Haven’s sister city from below the border.
