At his bar mitzvah at Cong. Keter Torah in February, Teaneck resident Daniel Raykher announced that he’d use a portion of his gift money to sponsor bar mitzvahs for disadvantaged boys in Israel.

True to his word — and with lots of help from his parents and Bris Avrohom executive director Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky — Daniel and his family traveled to Israel this summer to join 13 young men at the festive occasion.

When North Bergen resident Burt Gitlin launched the HudsonJewish social/intellectual salon project in June, he was looking for a way to bring area Jews together.

“I thought this might be an easy, soft sell,” said Gitlin, stressing that HudsonJewish — which seeks to revive local Jewish life by pulling together disparate elements of the community — is not a religious entity but more of a cultural organization.

“We try to be secular,” said Raylie Dunkel, the group’s program director. “The salons take a look at what affects you as a Jew, but not in terms of being a religious person.”

JERUSALEM – Deep in a valley below Jerusalem’s Old City, a narrow alleyway leads to the remains of three bulldozed Arab homes in an area slated to become an archeological park.

The homes, now just slabs of collapsed concrete, are in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Despite international protests — including from the U.S. secretary of state — the remaining 85 or so houses there, which were built without permits, are to be demolished to make room for a park the city hopes will be a major draw for tourists.

The dispute over the area, together with recent evictions in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, are the most recent markers in the battle over Jerusalem. Israel seeks to cement its control over the city in part by altering the demographic character of its eastern, Arab neighborhoods.