My Bar Mitzva Celebration Was Held at the Israel Center of Hillcrest Manor

So?

Well, let's start by asking you to read this published originally in The Jewish Week):-

Among the other candidates for the Israel Center post were several women, as well as men, including a gay male convert. But Rabbi Bodzin seemed the best fit for the congregation.

Did that catch your attention?

Want to read more?

Go here. I did and found this:-

...the demographics of northeast Queens, which lost roughly half of its Jews between 1991, when some 53,000 Jews lived there, and 2002, when that figure fell to 28,000, according to the “Jewish Community Study of 2002,” a census carried out by UJA-Federation of New York. And while the Jewish population in central Queens has remained more stable, due to a vibrant Bukharian population and many Orthodox Jews, it has lost Conservative and Reform Jews.

With the changes has come a flurry of Conservative synagogue mergers.

According to the Queens Jewish Historical Society, a year before the Israel Center merger, the Flushing Jewish Center merged with the Fresh Meadows Jewish Center, selling the Flushing building to a Korean church. And the following year, the Jewish Center of Bayside Oaks merged with the Jewish Center of Bayside Hills.

There has even been talk of two big synagogues in Forest Hills, the Conservative Forest Hills Jewish Center, and the Reform Temple of Forest Hills (itself the product of a 1994 merger), sharing space and support staff.

I come from that area. From April 1954 until my Aliyah with my wife of six weeks at the end of August 1970, I lived in Holliswood at 204th Street and Francis Lewis Boulevard. My synagogue, the Holliswood Jewish Center, was what we called "Conservadox" - mixed seating with separate seating up front on either side of the dais and Aron Kodesh and Orthodox services. That synagogue is now the Young Israel of Holliswood. Nearby is the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates. I am fairly sure that Orthodox Jewry is on the rise in northeast Queens. Just across the border in Great Neck, it's booming.

I was under the impression that the Jewish demographics were not as portrayed in the article.

I'll be making inquiries.