Stuart Katz

When Stuart Katz moved into North Woodmere 18 years ago, his neighbors in Long Island’s Five Towns area were mostly Jewish families with children, and a lot of them commuted to Manhattan every day from this peaceful waterfront enclave.

The weeks following Purim are some of most tense for me. It’s not the third-quarter homework that has suddenly piled up or the post-holiday letdown or the sugar crash or the fact that I suddenly realize I’ve run out of Smarties, but the dread of the impending doom of the event lying before me: Pesach.