By Steven A. Rosenberg JOURNAL STAFF CHELSEA – Barry Berman has led Chelsea Jewish Lifecare for the last 43 years and during that time he’s seen a lot. But nothing could have prepared him for the COVID-19 health crisis, which has spread rapidly – especially in senior living resi- dences across the country. “This is possibly the most difficult time in the 100-year history of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare,” said Chief Executive Officer Barry Berman. “Never before have we faced a situation like this one.” In early March, there were just 30 reported cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. That’s when Berman, along with his son, Adam – president of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare – began testing the residents at the Katzman Family Center for Living; the Leonard Florence Center for Living in Chelsea; and the Jeffrey and Susan Brudnick Center for Living in Peabody. Even with the extra care and testing, 11 residents of the Chelsea nursing homes died from the coronavirus. “The loss of our loved ones reflects the severity of this terrible disease,” said Barry Berman. “We offer our sincere condolences to their families and share in their grief. We plan to honor and celebrate the lives of those we lost once this crisis passes.” The organization decided to lock down on March 2, days before the state banned visitors to nursing homes. They restricted visitors and only allowed essential health care personnel in their facilities. “This situation has been so insidious that despite everything we have tried to do, people tested posi- tively,” said Adam. Currently, 106 out of the 297 who live in Chelsea Jewish Lifecare’s facilities have tested positive. Although the state does not require nursing homes to test all residents for COVID-19, Chelsea Jewish Lifecare took the initiative and used an out- side testing laboratory. “We hired Vikor Scientific JEWISH JOURNAL APRIL 23, 2020 – 29 NISAN 5780 VOL 44, NO 20 JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG The Jewish Journal is a nonprofit newspaper supported by generous readers, committed advertisers and charitable organizations. Email [email protected]. continued on page 14 continued on page 14 Coping with isolation at the Jack Satter House in Revere By Steven A. Rosenberg JOURNAL STAFF MARBLEHEAD – Two of the largest Jewish nonprofits north of Boston that have had to close their buildings to the public during the COVID-19 health crisis are hoping that government loan programs will help them sustain their operations. The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore and Epstein Hillel School, located on Community Road in Marblehead, have been closed since early March. Each has applied for government loans as they await guidance from the state on when they can reopen their doors. The JCC, which has an annual budget of $6.3 mil- lion and has more than 2,000 member units, has had to furlough at least 60 employees, said Marty Schneer, the organization’s executive director. “We have people furloughed at every level of the business,” said Schneer, who added that the building is officially closed until at least May 4. Meanwhile, the JCC is offering fitness, health, adult education and early childhood classes online. According to Schneer, many members have continued to support the JCC by continuing to pay their dues. “I would say the response from our membership has been beyond our initial expectations,” said Schneer. The JCC is also keeping its members connected by offering its film festival online next month, and is hop- ing to open its camp this summer. “If we see around June 1 that we can be open then we will shift into higher gear, bring people in for more hours, do more promo- tion and gear up and run camp,” said Schneer. At Epstein Hillel, located across from the JCC, the building closed on March 12. The K-8 school, employs 32 and has an annual budget of about $2 million, said Mark Faber, the president of the school’s Board of Directors. According to Farber, the school’s application for the government’s Payroll Protection Plan – which allows businesses and nonprofits to continue to pay their employees during the COVID-19 health crisis – has been approved. The school has also applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the government. The PPP approval, “enables the school to secure our current staff- ing levels with very limited change,” said Farber. Epstein Hillel educators have conducted online video classes since mid-March. “It is a hybrid of synchronous and asynchronous learning which keeps the students engaged, encourages their creativity, and challenges their critical thinking skills,” said Farber. The online learning plan was developed in a short period of time last month. “The administration guided faculty in implementing best practices for remote learn- ing, working diligently to support students and families during this transition,” said Farber. “The school solicited feedback from families to help assure the program’s success under challenging circumstances. Teachers are focused on maintaining relationships with students and ensuring that they feel supported, nurtured, and con- nected. EHS’ curriculum is continuing online through synchronous and asynchronous lessons and projects. Teachers have succeeded in maintaining engagement, curiosity, and connectedness through live classes and projects.” JCC, Hillel apply for government loan programs Andy Pica, of Swampscott, takes an online class at Epstein Hillel. By Bette Keva JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT REVERE – Linda Dubinsky loved the ocean view from her home in Lynn, where she and her husband Arnold lived for 40 years. It was an easy walk to their synagogue, Congregation Ahabat Sholom, where Linda was sisterhood president, Arnold was synagogue treasurer, and the couple was ever-present at celebrations and events. They served on various boards in the Jewish community, and Arnold, a CPA, had clients who trusted him and appreciated his affable nature. Today, they are sheltering in place at the Jack Satter House on Revere Beach, where they get some pleasure from a sliver of an ocean view, but they know it’ll be some time before they can go outside. Operated by Hebrew SeniorLife, all residents of the Satter House, which housed 285 seniors before the outbreak, have been directed by the city of Revere to remain quarantined in “Before, we would see our kids and grandkids. We’d sit out front on the deck and have family gatherings. I miss them very much,” said Linda Dubinsky, pictured here at the Satter House with her husband, Arnold. IN CHELSEA, PAIN AND HOPE At the Katzman Family Center for Living in Chelsea, residents and staff are screened daily for any signs of COVID-19.
Transcript
By Steven A. RosenbergJOURNAL STAFF
CHELSEA – Barry Berman has led Chelsea Jewish Lifecare for the last 43 years and during that time he’s seen a lot. But nothing could have prepared him for the COVID-19 health crisis, which has spread rapidly – especially in senior living resi-dences across the country.
“This is possibly the most difficult time in the 100-year history of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare,” said Chief Executive Officer Barry Berman. “Never before have we faced a situation like this one.”
In early March, there were just 30 reported cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. That’s when Berman, along with his son, Adam – president of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare – began testing the residents at the Katzman Family Center for Living; the Leonard Florence Center for Living in Chelsea; and the Jeffrey and Susan Brudnick Center for Living in Peabody. Even with the extra care and testing, 11
residents of the Chelsea nursing homes died from the coronavirus.
“The loss of our loved ones reflects the severity of this terrible disease,” said Barry Berman. “We offer our sincere condolences to their families and share in their grief. We plan to honor and celebrate the lives of those we lost once this crisis passes.”
The organization decided to lock down on March 2, days before the state banned visitors to nursing homes. They restricted visitors and only allowed essential health care personnel in their facilities.
“This situation has been so insidious that despite everything we have tried to do, people tested posi-tively,” said Adam. Currently, 106 out of the 297 who live in Chelsea Jewish Lifecare’s facilities have tested positive.
Although the state does not require nursing homes to test all residents for COVID-19, Chelsea Jewish Lifecare took the initiative and used an out-side testing laboratory. “We hired Vikor Scientific
JEWISH JOURNALAPRIL 23, 2020 – 29 NISAN 5780
VOL 44, NO 20 JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG
The Jewish Journal is a nonprofit newspaper supported by generous readers, committed advertisers and charitable organizations. Email [email protected].
continued on page 14continued on page 14
Coping with isolation at the Jack Satter House in Revere
By Steven A. RosenbergJOURNAL STAFF
MARBLEHEAD – Two of the largest Jewish nonprofits north of Boston that have had to close their buildings to the public during the COVID-19 health crisis are hoping that government loan programs will help them sustain their operations.
The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore and Epstein Hillel School, located on Community Road in Marblehead, have been closed since early March. Each has applied for government loans as they await guidance from the state on when they can reopen their doors. The JCC, which has an annual budget of $6.3 mil-lion and has more than 2,000 member units, has had to furlough at least 60 employees, said Marty Schneer, the organization’s executive director.
“We have people furloughed at every level of the business,” said Schneer, who added that the building is officially closed until at least May 4.
Meanwhile, the JCC is offering fitness, health, adult education and early childhood classes online. According to Schneer, many members have continued to support the JCC by continuing to pay their dues. “I would say the response from our membership has been beyond our initial expectations,” said Schneer.
The JCC is also keeping its members connected by offering its film festival online next month, and is hop-ing to open its camp this summer. “If we see around June 1 that we can be open then we will shift into higher
gear, bring people in for more hours, do more promo-tion and gear up and run camp,” said Schneer.
At Epstein Hillel, located across from the JCC, the building closed on March 12. The K-8 school, employs
32 and has an annual budget of about $2 million, said Mark Faber, the president of the school’s Board of Directors.
According to Farber, the school’s application for the government’s Payroll Protection Plan – which allows businesses and nonprofits to continue to pay their employees during the COVID-19 health crisis – has been approved. The school has also applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the government. The PPP approval, “enables the school to secure our current staff-ing levels with very limited change,” said Farber.
Epstein Hillel educators have conducted online video classes since mid-March. “It is a hybrid of synchronous and asynchronous learning which keeps the students engaged, encourages their creativity, and challenges their critical thinking skills,” said Farber.
The online learning plan was developed in a short period of time last month. “The administration guided faculty in implementing best practices for remote learn-ing, working diligently to support students and families during this transition,” said Farber. “The school solicited feedback from families to help assure the program’s success under challenging circumstances. Teachers are focused on maintaining relationships with students and ensuring that they feel supported, nurtured, and con-nected. EHS’ curriculum is continuing online through synchronous and asynchronous lessons and projects. Teachers have succeeded in maintaining engagement, curiosity, and connectedness through live classes and projects.”
JCC, Hillel apply for government loan programs
Andy Pica, of Swampscott, takes an online class at Epstein Hillel.
By Bette KevaJOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
REVERE – Linda Dubinsky loved the ocean view from her home in Lynn, where she and her husband Arnold lived for 40 years. It was an easy walk to their synagogue, Congregation Ahabat Sholom, where Linda was sisterhood president, Arnold was synagogue treasurer, and the couple was ever-present at celebrations and events. They served on various boards in the Jewish community, and Arnold,
a CPA, had clients who trusted him and appreciated his affable nature.
Today, they are sheltering in place at the Jack Satter House on Revere Beach, where they get some pleasure from a sliver of an ocean view, but they know it’ll be some time before they can go outside.
Operated by Hebrew SeniorLife, all residents of the Satter House, which housed 285 seniors before the outbreak, have been directed by the city of Revere to remain quarantined in
“Before, we would see our kids and grandkids. We’d sit out front on the deck and have family gatherings. I miss them very much,” said Linda Dubinsky, pictured here at the Satter House with her husband, Arnold.
IN CHELSEA, PAIN AND HOPE
At the Katzman Family Center for Living in Chelsea, residents and staff are screened daily for any signs of COVID-19.
2 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020
By Marvin R. Wilson
The passing of Bob Lappin leaves a large hole in the hearts of so many of us whose lives he touched personally and through the impact of numerous educa-tional programs provided by the Lappin Foundation.
Bob had a passion to strengthen Jewish identity, Jewish family life, and to connect Jewish high schoolers to their roots in Israel and to experience the pride in being Jewish. In these troubling times of increased anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and the BDS movement, we celebrate the many Lappin educational initiatives that underscore the mega-mission of the Jewish people to bring the message of the Torah to the world, a message rooted in justice, tikkun olam, and shalom.
On more than one occasion, Bob shared with me a motto by which he sought to live: “To have a friend,” he said, “you must be a friend.” As a busi-nessman, Bob was outgoing, thought-ful, and even courageous in the way he reached out to others and addressed problems. As a recently retired profes-sor and longtime resident of the North Shore, I celebrate the variety of ways Bob actively sought to improve Christian-Jewish relations and partnerships locally and nationally. Bob was always pleased
to find Christians who had a heart for Israel. He believed Israel needed all the genuine friends she could get.
My friendship with Bob began 38 years ago, when he extended the hand of friendship to me during Israel’s war in Lebanon against the PLO (summer of 1982). At the time, he was interested in quickly assembling a delegation of 50 Christian leaders from around the US to go to Israel and southern Lebanon right after the war. On this trip, Bob and I were roommates.
During the war, the world media often falsely accused the Israel Defense Forces as being the aggressor, killing or wound-ing tens of thousands of Lebanese civil-ians, destroying many of their churches and homes, and thus creating a huge ref-ugee problem as the Lebanese fled their villages to the relative safety of northern Lebanon. Our Christian delegation had come to northern Israel to view many of the 26 towns in the Galilee rocketed by the PLO and to see the bomb shelters that housed hundreds of Israeli children for days. We also spent a large part of our time in southern Lebanon to view the actual damage (much different from the exaggerated claims we had been reading in the press), and to conduct interviews with Lebanese officials, military lead-ers, and civilians. Many of the south Lebanese we talked to were so grateful
that the Israelis had driven the PLO out of their territory and had brought a new freedom from a seven-year reign of ter-ror. The Lebanese loathed the fact the PLO used innocent Lebanese civilians as human shields.
Upon return to the States, Bob Lappin requested each member of the delega-tion to call press conferences, write news stories, and speak on radio and TV to share personal, firsthand perspective. Bob placed no restrictions on anyone. Our responsibility was simply truthful-ness, freedom to “tell it the way each of us saw it and recount accurately what we actually heard from the locals.” I referred to my daily written notes, took part in a Boston radio talk show, wrote a news story for a local paper, and a larger account “News Special” with pictures for a national Christian magazine. I have often thought of the “ripple effect” Bob’s leadership gave to this delegation of 50 Christian leaders – each was able to tell the truth about Israel in their own words.
In the year to follow, Bob was invited to be a convocation speaker at Gordon College, the Christian school in Wenham, on “The Importance of Israel in Today’s World.” Shortly after that, a mutual friend, the late Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a strong support-er of Israel, spoke and sang at a Gordon
convocation on “The Role of Psalms in the Life of a Jew.” For many years, Bob served on Rabbi Eckstein’s fellowship board; an organization that continues to bring significant support to Israel.
In the mid-1980s, Bob set aside an evening to invite many of the Jewish leaders of the North Shore to meet at his home with me and Dr. Richard Gross, president of Gordon College. The eve-ning was mainly given to a discussion of various perspectives on Israel within the Evangelical Christian community. Six months later, the same group met at the president’s home at Gordon College with various administrators and faculty in order to have a very open and civil dis-cussion of Christian-Jewish relations in America. Interfaith understanding best comes panim el panim, “face to face.” The evening, co-planned by Bob Lappin, was a success.
Throughout all the years I knew Bob, he and the Lappin Foundation have been true partners in dialogue and in support of Christian-Jewish relations. Bob has helped support the publication of several collections of essays of Jewish and Christian scholars and leaders that I have been privileged to edit. Bob was also very instrumental in supporting the two-hour public television documenta-ry, “Jews & Christians: A Journey of Faith” that premiered in 2000, in two showings, with an audience of 3,000 Christians and Jews. The program has since played nationally many times on PBS.
The documentary featured several Jewish congregations and leaders here on the North Shore. Because of the friendship of Bob Lappin and the active support of the Lappin Foundation in helping to support a variety of key inter-faith initiatives, hundreds of Christians and Jews of the North Shore have been able to come together in settings that continue to foster mutual understanding and respect.
As a tribute to Bob and his legacy, may we continue to build on Bob’s example of establishing genuine, cherished, and lasting interfaith friendships as we move into the future. Jews and Christians can-not afford to remain strangers or igno-rant of the other anymore. According to the Tanakh, Israel’s calling is to be a blessing and light to the nations; an instrument of justice, peace, and proc-lamation of the Divine will. We in the Christian community have been greatly enlightened, encouraged, and blessed by the gracious friendship of this extraordi-nary man.
Thank you, Bob Lappin, for your humility and the gift of your kind, gener-ous, and influential life.
Marvin R. Wilson, Ph.D., is professor of Biblical Studies Emeritus at Gordon College in Wenham.
Bob Lappin (right) and Marv Wilson (center) with Gordon College trustee Herman Smith (left) at Gordon’s 2017 Commencement, when Lappin was awarded an honorary doctorate.
In appreciation of Bob Lappin’s extraordinary friendship with Christians
Family Table reports increased demand for emergency kosher food assistance By Steven A. Rosenberg
JOURNAL STAFF
The sudden economic collapse caused by the COVID-19 health crisis has brought unprecedented requests for emergency food deliveries from the Jewish Family & Children Service’s Family Table.
The Family Table, which provides kosher food for families that earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline, typically provides food for 500 families a month at pick-up loca-tions in Marblehead, Waltham and Canton. The groceries are enough to feed a household of two for 10 days.
Over the last month, Family Table has seen a five percent rise in requests for food, and has seen emergency food requests – which are available to anyone – jumpfrom an
average of 7 a month to 120. “There’s definitely an increase
across the board,” said Bernice Behar, director of Family Table. “What we’re seeing is a lot of people who had been living stable but mar-ginal lives and this has put them over the edge and we’re getting a lot of calls from the community. We haven’t seen anything this sudden, it just kind of exploded.”
According to Behar, the requests are coming from people who have lost their jobs and also from seniors. “They simply can’t leave their homes to get food so that’s a big problem,” said Behar.
Each month, volunteers distrib-ute Family Table groceries to resi-dents of 108 towns. Volunteers staff drop-off centers in Marblehead, Waltham and Canton. Family Table
also provides delivery service for those who cannot drive. Recipients come from 108 communities across the state, including 21 on the North Shore. According to Behar, most of the requests for food on the North Shore come from Lynn, Peabody and Salem.
The next distribution date in Marblehead will take place on April 26 at Temple Sinai. In Waltham, peo-ple can pick up their kosher grocer-ies on May 10 and on May 17 in Canton.
“I think that we’re going to see an enormous increase in the number of people we’re giving emergency groceries to from month to month,” said Behar.
For more information about Family Table call 781-693-5593.
Photo: Jewish Family & Children ServiceFamily Table has seen a sharp increase in requests for home delivered kosher food.
By Bette KevaJOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
DR. ANNA ORNSTEIN, 93, BROOKLINE
Anna Ornstein, 93, a Hungarian Jew who survived the Auschwitz death camp and the Parschnitz labor camp, sees the COVID-19 pandemic as potentially altering people’s perspective.
“Maybe this pandemic will give people an opportunity to change their priorities. It’s an opportunity to think through what is the most important thing in life. Is it to make yourself rich or to care for your fellow human beings?” said Ornstein, a psychiatrist, author, and speaker living in Brookline.
“The pandemic permits us to reach out to people. The young must not forget the old,” she said.
“If you live alone, the lone-liness creates depression and then it’s difficult to see any-thing in front of you ‒ your future. People may be waiting to die.”
The vicious coronavirus coursing the globe “does not differentiate between rich and poor ‒ it attacks everybody,” Ornstein said.
Recalling lessons from the Holocaust, Ornstein said those who were selfish “didn’t do well in the camps.” She remem-bered hearing a mother scream when her daughter tried to
steal her bread in the middle of the night. The daughter said, “You will die anyway.” When the Shoah was over, many looked back at their behavior and said, ‘How could I do such a thing?’”
JAKE KULEVICH, 27, MARBLEHEAD
Even by the high standards of his athletic family, Jake Kulevich has been a standout. Schoolboy sports in Marblehead ‒ includ-ing playing in the Maccabi USA Games ‒ were indicators of where he was headed.
With a scholarship in hand, Kulevich went on to become captain of the Colgate University men’s hockey team. After graduating in 2017, the 6-foot-4-inch, 216-pound defenseman turned pro, begin-ning with the Manitoba Moose, a minor league affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets. He was playing with the Bakersfield Condors, the California minor league affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers, when the pandemic hit.
On March 11 while flying to Grand Rapids, Mich., for a pair of weekend games, the Condors returned to Bakersfield and spent a week in quarantine before Kulevich, 27, returned home to Marblehead.
Now, rather than the 24/7 regiment of conditioning his body to compete on the pro level, he takes walks or does yoga with his sisters Emily, 25; Carly, 18; and Georgia, 12. But he’s drawing strength from his
parents, Tom and Patti, and his grandparents, Judy and David Cohen and former Marblehead High athletic director and foot-ball coach Alex Kulevich.
“Thinking about how [the COVID-19 restrictions] will affect my career is almost a waste of energy,” Jake said. “Everyone’s lives and careers are turned upside down. There are bigger problems than my next hockey game.”
GLORIA BARBACOFF, 66, NAHANT
People doing well during the pandemic are those with strong support systems, said clinical social worker Gloria Barbacoff of Nahant.
“If people’s lives haven’t been upended, they can con-tinue with their routines. Kids are doing well. They seem to be more adaptable. I’m hearing parents say, ‘My kids are adapt-ing better than I am.’”
Some tech-savvy home-bound people are doing better
in these days of Zoom meetings and virtual contact. Also, peo-ple who engage in their hob-bies, exercise, and practice yoga and meditation are doing well, she said.
People whose home lives already were filled with tension are not doing as well.
The novelty of the situation, the unpredictability, the lack of control can be overwhelm-ing. Just walking to the mail-box or going grocery shopping can produce stress. The order to “don’t touch” is so contrary to how we behave as social ani-mals, mused Barbacoff.
“But once we get through this, people will look back and feel strength in how they han-dled it. ‘I made it! I’m tough.’ These are people who are not so wedded to the anxiety of the moment,” said Barbacoff. “Be one of those people who are able to hold onto hope for a bet-ter future.”
RICHARD FRENKEL, 68, SWAMPSCOTT
No one who knows him would ever call Swampscott’s Richard Frenkel a stay-at-home guy. He’s a hiker, biker, moun-tain climber, and outdoorsman. On weekends, he gathers fellow travelers for two- to seven-hour walks or bike rides.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only made his compan-ions more willing to quit the confines of their homes, don masks, and trek out for an after-noon excursion.
Frenkel, 68, who runs an IT company, and his wife, Lenora,
were regulars at the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore until it closed because of the coronavirus. Now they’ve been doing the JCC’s three-times-a-week online exercise classes with Tabatha Keating, finding it fun and comforting to see friends online via Zoom.
Frenkel and a friend recently biked from Roundhouse Road in Marblehead along the rail-road path through Salem woods to Highland Avenue, across to the Spring Pond watershed in Peabody, to Lynn Woods and to Route 1, where he had left a car in order to return.
Has the pandemic curtailed Frenkel’s meanderings?
Not in the slightest, he said. “I’ve always avoided crowded places.”
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COMMUNITY NEWS THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 3
Four local Jews share their views on life during the coronavirus pandemic
Gloria Barbacoff
Richard Frenkel with Ginger
Dr. Anna Ornstein at rally in Reading
Jake Kulevich does yoga.
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The CJP Coronavirus Emergency Fund is one way to help our community in these uncertain times.
Your gift today will immediately help:
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• People who have lost their incomes overnight
• Families who urgently need food
• People who need kosher meals
Make your gift at cjp.org/coronavirusemergencyfund or by calling 617-457-8552.
100% of your donation will fund our coronavirus emergency relief efforts.
4 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 COMMUNITY NEWS
By Amy SokolowJOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
Jeremy Silver doesn’t like to sit still. But a month ago, he didn’t have the energy to even get up from the couch.
At 24, the musician from Concord was battling the coro-navirus. He and his girlfriend were two of just 22 cases report-ed in the Vermont county where they were tested.
“I was really on the couch almost the entire day for about seven days straight,” said Silver, who has worked as a gig pianist and singer at lounges around the Boston area and also has performed at synagogues and senior living facilities, including Kaplan Estates in Peabody. “I’m like, very much not that kind of a person, so it was disconcert-ing.”
Silver, who was president of his fraternity and his a cappella group at Tufts University, was in the middle of the journey of a lifetime last month with his girlfriend, Claire Schnadig, 22. In January, the couple had taken jobs as au pairs for a set of twins in Zurich. And, as late as March 9, things were relatively normal as they returned to Switzerland from France, where they had met up with Schnadig’s extend-ed family.
A week later, they hiked with friends back in Switzerland. They think that’s when they con-tracted the coronavirus because one of the hiker’s boyfriends was ill though at the time, they thought nothing of it.
In their short stint in
Switzerland, the couple covered a lot of ground: they cooked for the family each night, roamed around Zurich with new friends, skied all over France and Switzerland, and met up with Silver’s family in Italy. As late as mid-March, life seemed good, until the twins’ school shut down. Three days later, on March 19, they received an email
from the US State Department warning them they might have to shelter in place indefinitely, so they were on a plane back to the US that weekend. They had decided to go to the Silver fam-ily vacation home in Vermont.
In the airport, Schnadig had a slight cough and a sore throat, but didn’t think much of it until five days later, when
Silver came down with a fever. “The first three days when I had a fever, it felt like the flu. And the big headache days that fol-lowed it, it felt totally unique,” he said. “It just simply felt differ-ent than any kind of cold or flu that I’ve had before.” That, com-bined with severe exhaustion he described as “a cloud that was thick enough and heavy enough that like, I did not have the ener-gy to FaceTime for longer than a minute,” prompted them to get tested for coronavirus at a small Vermont hospital. During the drive-through test, in which a long Q-tip is stuck far up the patient’s nostrils, Silver was “anything but calm.” He said it felt like the swab was “scratch-ing my brain.”
Two days later, they learned they had both tested positive. Luckily, Schnadig felt less sick than Silver, so she was able to take care of him while he was ill.
Coronavirus is frustrating because the symptoms come and go in waves. Silver described a rollercoaster of severity where his headaches and fever let up for a few hours, then came back with a vengeance. “I felt
good briefly, but then it’d hit me again. Back to the couch,” he said.
Schnadig and Silver agree that one of the strangest side effects of the disease was their loss of taste and smell. “We had brought back a ton of Swiss chocolate. And like three days in a row, I tried one piece, and I just could not taste it,” he said. “Claire told me it was a waste of our good chocolate.”
Both have been symptom-free since April 4, based on a Google sheet where they tracked their symptoms day-by-day. Since neither one is infectious now, they plan to head home to Concord, where they both grew up.
While he’s relieved to be out of the woods, coronavirus is still a constant worry for Silver. “Yes, we don’t have to worry about physically getting sick but we still have the same anxieties as everyone about like, when’s this going to end? How is my life going to be changed by this?” he said.
Silver has been filling his time with teaching a few virtual piano lessons and posting his musical arrangements on social media, including a recent remix of “Dayenu.” He also recently applied for a temporary job as a contact tracer ‒ tracking down anyone that somebody with an infection may have had contact with in the days before they became ill – to help Massachusetts find a way out of this pandemic. When asked for advice on handling the disease, he kept it simple: “Stay home!”
“I was really on the couch almost the entire day for about seven days straight,” said Jeremy Silver, pictured here with his girlfriend, Claire Schnadig. The couple came down with the virus shortly after return-ing from Switzerland.
Young Concord musician fights off COVID-19: ‘I felt good briefly, but then it’d hit me again. Back to the couch’
The first three days when I had a fever, it
felt like the flu. And the big headache days that followed it, it felt totally
unique.
By Amy SokolowJOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
PEABODY – On a typical day, residents of some of the North Shore’s senior living facilities have an array of activities to choose from that rival any col-lege campus: lectures, trivia, workout classes, movie nights, and game rooms, to name a few.
“It’s a place that people, for the most part, walk around with a smile on their face [with a] good attitude,” said Joan Zaidman, 86, of Peabody, who now lives at Brooksby Village. “Whatever years we have left here, they’re gonna eat them all up and enjoy every single bit of activity that’s available to them.”
Almost all the amenities that drew residents to places like Brooksby Village and Kaplan Estates, both in Peabody, are on pause as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage senior living communities across America, including several in Massachusetts.
Luckily, both Brooksby Village and the Kaplan Estates have been spared from COVID-19, in no small part due to decisions made by management and staff. For Brooksby, that means the gates are closed to nonessential workers, meals are delivered to residents’ doors, and residents are not allowed to leave their units, almost without excep-tion. At Kaplan, residents are allowed to leave their rooms as long as they are practicing social distancing. However, the facil-ity also is closed to nonessential visitors and meals are delivered to residents’ doors.
Despite these hardships, residents are doing their best to stay positive. Barbara “Bobbie” Lerner, 82, of Peabody, lives at Kaplan Estates, and she’s been able to continue one of her favor-ite pastimes: trivia. Lerner goes twice a day, once in the morn-ing and once in the afternoon, for an hour-long game of “Trivial Pursuit” run by the staff. However, the games are now limited to just 10 participants to adhere to state regulations regarding gatherings, so she tries to get there early.
Other than that, she mostly stays put. “There were a few peo-ple downstairs that didn’t under-stand that you have to be at least 6 feet away from a person,” she said. “I decided I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I’m here in my apartment, but I keep on saying to myself, ‘I’m safe, I’m safe, I’m safe.’”
At Brooksby, restrictions are even tighter, meaning residents are in their apartments all day. “I think what’s upon us now [has] taken everybody by surprise,” said Zaidman. “None of us have ever lived through anything like this before, and I think that the people here have adjusted very well.”
Audrey Helzner, who asked her age not be used, agreed. “It’s such a weird environment,” she said of living in a locked-down Brooksby.
Helzner, formerly of Marblehead, has been stay-ing productive as best she can by reading and playing games on her iPad, doing some spring cleaning and exercising. “I try to do some chair exercises for about
20 minutes, at least once or twice a day, because I think it’s impor-tant at our age that we move around a little bit,” she said.
Helzner starts every morning by saying to herself, “What can I do today to make it a good day? To cheer myself up, I do fun things. I had a brand-new blouse in the closet, I said ‘You know what? I’m going to put that on today,’ so I dressed myself up and I felt real good,” she said. To stay productive, she’s been organizing her files, talking on the phone to old friends, and working her way through lots of books. She’s cur-rently reading “The Storyteller’s Secret,” by Carmine Gallo.
Zaidman is grateful for the tight-knit social network she’s built in her eight months at Brooksby, which has created a phone check-in system to make sure everyone – especially those who live alone – is doing OK. “If we don’t hear from someone for a bit, we give them a call,” she said. She said that although they always offer assistance to one another, “We sit and laugh and we say, ‘Yeah, but how are we going to get it to you?’”
All three women also are grateful to have family members checking in regularly. Zaidman has three grandchildren, six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren spread across the country who call and video chat multiple times a week. She was planning to join a family Passover Seder Zoom call when we talked ahead of the holiday. She said that many Brooksby residents have devices that allow them to video call their families. Helzner also uses FaceTime to talk with her friends and fam-ily daily, and was able to meet her three-week-old great-grand-daughter in California that way.
Lerner has six grandchildren, all of whom live nearby. Since they can’t visit in person, they’re sticking with FaceTime. And because of access to that tech-nology, “believe it or not, there wasn’t that adjustment that I thought it would be,” she said.
Although they all feel safe and
content in their respective facili-ties, they look forward to being able to go out again. Lerner said she’s most looking forward to meeting up with family for din-ner again and is “dying to go out for Chinese food.”
Helzner is most excited to swim in the pool at Brooksby and “be with other people than
myself.” She said she will no lon-ger complain about the long lines at Brooksby’s on-campus restau-rants. “[Waiting in line] doesn’t seem like such a bad thing now,” she said.
Zaidman is excited to see her friends again and play mah-jongg, which she usually plays as much as twice a day. Although
she was sad to miss a Seder spent with family, “I just hope and pray that we will all be through with this situation that we’re in right now as quickly as possible, and that people will please cooperate and do what we’re told,” she said. “I hope that next Passover, we’ll all be sitting down together and having a wonderful celebration.”
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Salem State University
invites you to an internet live stream of the Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony.
The live stream will be broadcast from Temple Emanu-El, Marblehead.
The program includes: traditional prayers;
remarks by Representative Lori Ehrlich;
musical performance;
a special testimony by the Holocaust
survivor Rena Finder.
To join the Zoom live stream, go tohttps://salemstate.zoom.us/j/95356936907
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6 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 COMMUNITY NEWS
By Rich TenorioJOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
As the chief of the infectious diseases division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes oversees a variety of critical tasks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These range from regularly updating his team to responding to coro-navirus-related research studies.
“There are full days for every-body,” said Kuritzkes, who is Jewish.
Kuritzkes begins work at 6 or 7 a.m. and goes until midnight. During that span, he might par-ticipate in a conference about the clinical care being provided, “especially around how many beds are available, how many people in the ICU, plans for expansion with more patients coming in,” he said. Meanwhile, he helps turn around reviews of research studies within 12 hours of their being proposed. “There are so many studies, all connect-ed,” he said.
Noting that his role is pri-marily administrative, he said, “Certainly, people truly on the front lines bear the biggest bur-den, no question. It’s exhaust-ing, emotionally draining work. I think we’re all trying to do our part, contribute any way we can.”
COVID-19 is the latest out-break that Kuritzkes has been dealing with in his career of over 30 years as an infectious disease physician and prolific study author. Previous crises include toxic shock syndrome, Legionnaires’ disease, Lyme dis-ease, HIV, Ebola, and pandemic influenza.
Of the novel coronavirus, “It’s unique in just how transmissi-
ble it is, how globally it spread in such a really explosive, rapid manner,” he said.
“Very clearly, it’s far more contagious than influenza, a lot more lethal than influenza, dif-ferent from what we’ve seen in the past.” However, he added, “there’s an upside … It’s not as lethal as SARS, certainly not Ebola, nor is it HIV.”
“It could be a whole lot worse,” Kuritzkes said. “It’s not bubonic plague, and not the viruses of the movies.” But, he noted, “It’s certainly still an incredibly seri-ous epidemic.”
When he spoke with the Jewish Journal last week, he predicted that the situation in Massachusetts might crest around April 20. However, he said at the time, “Right now it’s more of a prediction than any-thing else.”
He recommended that the gen-eral public follow definite public health guidelines from state and municipal authorities, including the Mass. Department of Public
Health, Governor Charlie Baker and other civic leaders.
These measures include quar-antines, which Kuritzkes said “really help limit the spread.” He also mentioned wearing masks when going out, including on the subway, as well as “keep-ing hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth.” People should “wash their hands when they come in from outside, around other people.”
Laid-off workers who stay indoors are playing a valuable role, the doctor said.
“As much as the focus is on health care workers at the fore-front of the response to the epi-demic – and I don’t mean to any way minimize the efforts of all my colleagues – all the people forced out of their jobs, bear-ing the economic brunt of the response to the epidemic, are at the forefront,” Kuritzkes said, adding that the epidemic would have been worse “if all of them had not stayed home.”
Kuritzkes follows his own
advice when he gets home after another 18-hour workday. He’ll find a half-hour to play the piano. “I try to play through some of the pieces I’m working on learn-ing,” he said. He appreciates the support of his wife, and, he said, “Having a family helps. Our kids are grown … We know our kids are doing well.” Medicine runs in the family: Their son Benjamin is an attending physician in the ICU of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. “Our son is much more in the thick,” Kuritzkes said.
Like many Jews across the country, Kuritzkes participated in a Zoom Seder for Passover. “More people participated this time than we were accus-tomed to having the last couple of years,” he said, with 19 fam-ily members from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs.
“Usually we’re not all able to get together,” Kuritzkes said. “It was a treat. It was really nice.” Yet he regretted not being able to go to his late father’s Yahrzeit, instead having to observe the ritual virtually.
“I had to tune into a Zoom service from their congrega-tion in Philadelphia,” he said. “I would rather have been able to go there.” He nevertheless called it “a poignant moment.”
Now that he has returned to work, he said, “the important things are to, first of all, focus on providing the best care to patients they can be in, and second, stay focused on the data.” And, he said, “sort of keep focused on the long term, the idea that the epi-demic will run itself out, we will get through it, there’s light on the other end.”
“The important things are to, first of all, focus on providing the best care to patients they can be in, and second, stay focused on the data,” says Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes.
A Jewish doctor’s perspective on the coronavirus: ‘It could be a whole lot worse’
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Yad Chessed
By Rich TenorioJOURNAL CORRESPONDENT
It has been a frightening time for Rabbi Margie Klein Ronkin and her family.
Klein Ronkin, the director of clergy and leadership devel-opment for the Essex County Community Organization (ECCO), said she believes she had a case of the coronavirus. “I think I had a fairly mild case, with a significant underlying condition of asthma,” she said.
“It was kind of like I had the flu, with a very bad chest cold,” she said. “On top of that, it was painful to breathe, with pressure in my lungs. I had a sense of breathing through sludge, and extreme fatigue.”
She and her family – hus-band Jeremy Klein Ronkin, their daughter Uriel, 4½, and their son Raziel, 1½ ‒ all became ill last
month. At the time, testing was limited. “Most people that prob-ably had the virus were not con-firmed. There was such a short-age of testing,” the rabbi said.
On March 8, Rabbi Klein Ronkin had gone to New York for a close friend’s wedding. “We knew the virus was starting, but it was before everything about social distancing,” she said.
A week after the wedding, “we all just started feeling sick – fevers, coughing, difficulty breathing, extreme fatigue,” she recalled. “My kids had fevers.”
For herself and her husband, after their first week of illness, things initially seemed to return to normal, but it actually took “a full two weeks to get to a point where we had energy and were able to function,” she said. Although she said she is feel-ing “pretty much better,” her husband and daughter are still
experiencing “significant breath-ing issues.”
Although most of the fam-ily’s treatment has been done by telemedicine, her daughter’s condition necessitated going to a doctor two weeks ago.
“You know, it’s just really pain-ful to see a person I love looking to me to make things better and watch her suffering. It’s really hard,” Klein Ronkin said.
The family has stayed home in Jamaica Plain, unable to get the asthma medication from a CVS two minutes away. Rabbi Klein Ronkin credited the Jamaica Plain Mutual Aid Society with providing much-needed assis-tance.
“Someone showed up to bring me medication,” she said. “The community support was so moving, it can be so vital … People brought groceries, medi-cations … really, once people or the community realized we were sick, all sorts of people showed up with help.”
The family was able to cel-ebrate Passover in multiple ways. On the first night, Klein
Ronkin held a Zoom Seder with the Jamaica Plain-based chapter of the Jewish group Kavod, a Jewish community led by young Jews in the Greater Boston area dedicated to tikkun olam, the repair of the world, with over 50 people joining. The second night was another virtual Seder with friends who had moved across the country. Each night there was also a kids’ Seder, with her daughter leading the cer-emony.
“None of these things we would have been able to do before all of this,” Klein Ronkin said. “At the same time, it was really hard not to be able to be with our elderly parents and our families. We wanted to be shar-ing our table with all who are hungry.”
With her organization ECCO, she is working to address the effects of the coronavirus cri-sis ‒ including hunger ‒ among underserved members of the community on the North Shore.
The organization has created an emergency fund, with the goal of raising $25,000. ECCO also is supporting the development of an immigrant worker-owned cooperative, Shine Together, which Klein Ronkin says can deliver food and groceries. Additionally, ECCO is providing emotional support to members of diverse communities affected by the virus, said Klein Ronkin, who described all of these steps as long-term measures to “sow seeds of more justice on the North Shore, where inequality is what we’re fighting.”
A rabbi and her family in the clutches of the virus
Uriel Klein Ronkin, 4½, was treated in a hospital after becoming ill last month.
“I had a sense of breathing through sludge, and extreme fatigue,” said Rabbi Margie Klein Ronkin, who suspects she had the coronavirus.
COMMUNITY NEWS THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 7
North Shore native Michael Wittner, who served as associate editor of the Jewish Journal for the last two years, has begun work as an editor for Patch in Southern California. Wittner, who covered every-thing from politics, education and Jewish nonprofits at the Journal is now working on stories in Agoura Hills, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Chatsworth, Malibu, and Northridge.
Wittner joins Patch in Southern California
8 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 EDITORIAL
JEWISH JOURNALSteven A. Rosenberg
PUBLISHER/EDITOR
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Because of a significant drop in advertising during the COVID-19 health crisis, and the need to postpone our annual Honorable
Menschion Fundraising Gala, the Jewish Journal informed readers two weeks ago that we faced a $150,000 shortfall and needed to raise those funds in order to continue publishing our paper.
Since April 9, you have responded, donating $27,219 – an expression of confidence in the Journal. Your contribution signals that this paper is needed to continue to link the Jewish and interfaith com-munity. To meet our goal and keep publishing, we now need to raise a total of $122,781. Donations can made online at jewishjournal.org, by mail at P.O. Box 2089, Salem, MA 01970; or by calling the Journal at 978-745-4111. Every donation, small and large, is tax-deductible and will make a difference.
Thank you again for your expression of support.
A strong start for the Journal’s emergency fund
Thanks to its total omission of the JWB: Jewish Chaplains Council, the main longstanding organization providing rabbis of all denominations working together to serve Jewish person-nel in the U.S. Armed Forces and the Veterans Administration, your recent laudatory article about the work of the Aleph Institute might be taken for a propaganda piece.
In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, the Jewish community created an organization known as the Jewish Welfare Board with repre-sentatives from the three major denominations of American Jews, to endorse rabbis as chap-lains for the support of Jewish soldiers during the war.
The Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy of the JWB would play its most significant role during World War II, when a uni-
versal draft brought more than half a million Jews into military service, ministered to by more than 300 Jewish chaplains.
When the war ended, the draft continued and the JWB CJC still served as the sole orga-nization to endorse chaplains from all streams of Judaism in the military and Veterans Administration. Continuing its service to our present volun-tary armed forces and renamed The Jewish Chaplains Council, it includes 16 rabbis, four each from the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox national Rabbinical organizations, plus four active-duty Jewish chap-lains.
Sadly, those many decades of national Jewish unity were brought to an end, when one uninvolved denomination refused to participate in the joint endorsement of rabbis,
demanding a separate endors-ing authority from the federal government.
The Jewish Chaplains Coun-cil’s has won the right for Jews in the military to wear kippot or beards, have time for reli-gious observances such as shiva, arranged for the availability of kosher rations, provides Pesach and packages of kosher food and has published a new siddur, with cooperation from all three major Jewish denominations.
In reporting about services available to our Jewish service members, you have overlooked the primary agency for provid-ing the rabbis and the services you describe.
Myron S. GellerChaplain (COL) USA (RET)
Temple Ahavat Achim, Gloucester,
Rabbi Emeritus
Jewish Chaplains Council omitted
When Robert Lappin was in his early nineties, he wore a ponytail, jeans and a T-shirt and rollerbladed to his office in Salem everyday. Despite his years, he was strong physically and mentally, giving credence to the Benjamin Franklin adage about the importance of a sound mind and a sound body when it comes to achieving suc-cess in life.
Mr. Lappin’s success was about more than money. Money was just a tool for other things to do with it for him. He was single minded. He was assertive. He was Dartmouth smart. He was coy. He was tough. He had opin-ions which he freely expressed. He had an iron-fisted will.
In a long life, he did what he wanted and acted as he wished. In the end, he left a legacy of making generous contributions to Jewish organizations in the effort to guide Jewish life in the right direction.
He had the Midas touch.
He was a proud Jew. He didn’t want to seek peace with those who wished to slaughter us. He understood the grandeur of Israel. He made it his business to send young Jewish people to Israel to experience first hand the miracle that came out of the ashes of the Holocaust.
I came to know him well when I was the publisher of the Jewish Journal. He always said his piece. He was not politically correct. He rarely talked about himself. He was humble. He was not a loud mouth. He was not a braggart. Mr. Lappin could be difficult, couldn’t be pushed over and was painfully honest.
Boiled down to his essence, he was extremely generous.
In the words of Shakespeare: “He was a man through and through. We shall not see his likes again.”
Josh ResnekLynn
‘We shall not see his likes again’
I went to Israel for two weeks on the Y2I trip and it changed my life. So recently when I found out about Mr. Lappin passing away I was devastated. It is sad because such a kind man who did so much for the Jewish com-munity left us. But it is also a great opportunity to be grateful for his actions and their impact on my life. I fell in love with the limestone bricks in Jerusalem and the Western Wall. The trip was magical. Every new place we went made me fall deep-er and deeper in love with the country. I met a girl on the trip who I am still dating to this day. There are countless memories that I carry with me everyday from this trip.
When I came home I real-ized how special it is to be Jewish. Mr. Lappin didn’t just send me away, he gave me an identity and a home. Mr. Lappin believed Jewish people needed
to be proud of who they were, and to do this he introduced us to Israel. Although the memo-ries begin to fade, the people I formed relationships with and the impact that Israel had on me are deeply rooted into my iden-tity. Everywhere our group went was a magical journey through historic streets filled with love and pride. When I got home I created the Israel Advocacy Club at my high school. So many Jewish students from my school wanted to join and it was really amazing to share a connection with these people.
Thank you Mr. Lappin for everything you have done for me, and generations of Jewish youth. You are a hero and I promise to always love my Jewish identity and the country of Israel.
Adam ZamanskyMarblehead
Thank you, Mr. Lappin
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR are welcome. Letters must be signed and include your name, address, and telephone number for verification purposes. Letters are limited to 300 words. Submissions are subject to editing for accuracy.
OPINION THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 9
By Rabbi Alison Adler
Have you noticed how people all over the world are staging recre-ations of famous paintings and
sharing them online? They are delightful, sometimes hilarious and, in these times of pandemic, they provide a smidgen of relief from the claustrophobia and anxiety most of us feel. My nine-year-old son’s art teacher assigned her students to make one of these recreations. After looking through a selection of great art, he chose “The Scream,” Edvard Munch’s nightmare image of a skeletal figure, crossing a bridge – perhaps the bridge from life to death – letting out a wail of horror. I fretted that this might be a trifle morbid for a nine-year-old, but we went outside and, as the sun set in an explosion of orange and purple, he put his hands on the sides of his face and screamed.
It turned out that “The Scream” was just what we needed. For our family, the picture captured what it is like to live through COVID-19. And it occurred to me that these recreations are a metaphor for the way we are living now. Confined to our homes, we try to create a life that is familiar to us, but in many ways, is almost a parody of our normal routines. We are in our familiar homes, but our homes have become our offices and classrooms and shelters against the virus. We wave to neighbors across the street and shout encouragement to one another. We tune in to Zoom versions of fitness classes, famous entertainers performing in their living rooms, and Passover seders with far-flung friends and neighbors.
But underlying it all is an increasing sense of anxiety.
That anxiety is growing every day. I know, because every day I talk to more people who are scared about their health or finances or both. I talk to people who are worried about a parent or a friend, or are worried about contracting the
virus. And, sadly, I talk to people who are mourning the loss of a loved one who has succumbed to COVID-19.
Almost everyone is wondering the same thing: When is the world going to go back to normal? And will it be like the old normal, before coronavirus, or some new kind of normal? How will we be changed by this experience?
There is simply no way to know. But for many, there is great solace in Jewish spiritual practice. After all, though these times seem exceptional to us, Judaism has sustained our ancestors through plagues and pestilences time and again throughout the centuries. And our ances-tors didn’t even have Zoom.
Thank goodness for Zoom! Like other local congregations, Temple B’nai Abraham has gone virtual. We hold vir-tual Shabbat gatherings, classes, healing services, shiva minyans, Jewish medita-tion, and religious school – all online. Everything is like before in some ways, but not the same at all as we navigate the needs of the moment.
Whether it’s a service or a class or a meeting, I ask people to bring themselves into the moment through their neshama. In Hebrew, neshama means both breath and soul, and the word appears over and over again in our daily liturgy. The first thing we are encouraged to say in the morning is modah/modeh ani – I give thanks to You living, eternal Sovereign for my neshama, my soul that you have breathed into me. Thank you for this new day, for my life. As long as I am alive, I give thanks for nishmat kol chai, the breath/soul of all life.
By focusing on our neshama, we are reminded that God is not separate from us, but within us, around us. Divine love and compassion are available in every place, at any moment. Even in times of uncertainty, fear, illness, and loss. There are many ways to focus on the neshama. Increasingly, Jews are doing so through mindfulness and meditation – practices which have been proven scientifically to help people with anxiety, depression, anger, and fear. We don’t have to sit in for-mal meditation (though that can also be helpful). We can simply take a moment to breathe, to connect with ourselves, with our souls, with God.
Of course, I’m not suggesting these practices can solve our problems, but they can certainly help us cope. When we open our hearts to Divine compassion and love that is always available to us, we can become more grounded – and we can be more compassionate and loving.
Judaism offers another resource that can be invaluable in troubled times: Shabbat, a day dedicated to the gifts of life and the Source of All Life. In Genesis, at the end of the creation story God shavat vayinafash (the same root as nefesh) – God rested and was “re-souled.” Shabbat, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught, is a sanctuary in time. It’s a day to stay away from the news, and to connect to people we care about, to connect to the beauty of cre-
ation, and to be re-souled. And so, on Friday evenings, many of us
get together on Zoom and light Shabbat candles together (well, virtually togeth-er), and breathe in the light. We think of the people to whom we want to send a blessing of shalom, the people who are with us, and the people who are far away. It’s by no means a normal Shabbat – but it still produces a warm sense of love and contentment that so many of us associate with the day.
It may seem obvious that in times of social isolation we need our communi-ties more than ever, but I’ve found many people need reminding. I encourage everyone to join virtual Shabbat services, classes, discussion groups. Even though we are physically isolated, we need not be alone.
Rabbi Alison Adler is the spiri-tual leader of Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly.
We need not be alone
By Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman
Disclaimer: When I was asked to write about my experience with COVID-19, I balked as there are
people who’ve been through significantly worse symptoms, and sadly, others are critically ill, and still more have passed away, so I wondered what right do I have and of what value is my writing?
Having said the above, if this will calm even one person and inspire even one more, then it will have been worth the effort.
I must first thank our first responders, nurses and doctors on the front lines, putting themselves in harm’s way, to help others. They are the unsung heroes of this virus story.
* * *
I am writing this a little more than a week before Passover, and my symptoms have mostly moved on, but there is no doubt that I have now joined the millions of Americans, diagnosed or otherwise, as having been infected with the virus.
With an impending bris on the agenda, I felt obligated to get a test if possible. My test confirming what I already suspect-ed came back more than a week before Pesach: I was, indeed, positive. My story is not unique only insofar I actually got a test before they were widely available.
I am grateful to Hashem that my symp-toms were fairly mild. Many, including myself have relatives and others who are fighting for their lives, and they are the real story and should have speedy recov-eries and the others should be comforted for their losses. They include my cousin, a Chabad rabbi in Hanover, Germany, Benyomin ben Faigel and my Sister’s father-in-law Chaim Levi ben Chana Priva. They are in need of real blessings for speedy and complete recoveries.
In all likelihood I contracted this from two of my children. Both had come back from their schools and had direct expo-sure in their school/communities and were sent home. One child noted how he did not have a sense of smell, a pretty clear early indicator.
We began practicing social distancing, well before local schools closed and it became a state mandate. We treated our-selves as if we were exposed.
My first symptoms were a very low grade fever and super achy muscles that woke me up at night, for a couple days. I attributed it to working out too hard on one of those T-20 home workout videos and didn’t think much of it. By Friday night, my body felt like 1,000 pounds and I couldn’t get out of bed. By Monday, I felt fine. I did have a slight dry cough that persisted for some time. I lost my sense of smell a few days later (but is now mostly back).
I wouldn’t be a rabbi if I didn’t grab the bully pulpit and share a lesson.
There is nothing like being told that you have a virus that is killing thousands and infecting millions to sober you up about life and what is important and what matters. Once I had my diagnosis, my jobs didn’t magically stop, and my parent-ing obligations didn’t suddenly disappear.
The hypochondriac in you starts to think that every ache and pain is a sign of your imminent demise, but the realist in you understands that you just need to be self-aware and present and mind-
ful about how you are doing, and that one should take nothing for granted. This self-awareness can be a blessing, as I will explain shortly.
Many comparisons have been made about COVID-19, the quarantine and other events in history. The one I’ve seen most is that the Jews on the eve of the redemption from Egypt were required to quarantine in place at home so that the plague passes over their home.
Another one that keeps popping in my mind is the quarantine of the Mitzorah (this week’s Torah portion), the spiritual leper, one who slandered another and was afflicted with a skin condition and sent from the main encampment of the Jews. He was required to sit in solitude, away from family and friends so that he could contemplate. His actions caused
division and now he was the one divided away from the people.
The purpose, however, was not to pun-ish the gossiper in a punitive way, rather to force him to be without any distraction and free to focus entirely on who he is, what made him step out of line, and what new practices he could introduce into his life going forward.
This forced quarantine is doing the same for us. It is forcing us to see the parts of our relationships, our parenting, our children that we are proud of, as well as the parts that could use some polish-ing. Most importantly, it is forcing us to confront the parts of ourselves that we have been able to avoid, but no longer. That element of being in quarantine is actually quite valuable and useful in our self-development.
If state regulations require us to be physically apart, then we can use it as an opportunity to at least be totally and com-pletely aware of our own selves.
A positive test might tell us to really spend time introspecting. Add to that a 72 hour off-line first days of Pesach, and a 48 hour off-line for the second days of Pesach and it feels like Hashem really wanted me to spend time looking inward.
I hope now that it appears that I am past this, that I’ve heard the message, learned the lessons and am free and immunized against this virus – includ-ing the physical and spiritual elements within it.
May we all be blessed with health and happiness and may all those that need a speedy recovery be blessed by heaven with a full recovery and may we merit the coming of the Moshiach when we will no longer experience illness or war of any type.
Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman leads Chabad of Peabody.
I tested COVID-19 positive
Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman (back row, second left), and his family, were in quar-antine during Passover.
Rabbi Alison Adler and family.
“The Scream” (1893) by Edvard Munch.
COVID-19 is forcing us to confront the parts of ourselves
that we have been able to avoid, but no longer.
APRIL 24SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by Temple-Emanu-El. Led by Rabbi Meyer and Jon Nelson at www.facebook.com/EmanuEl.Marblehead; 6 p.m.
KABBALAT SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by Temple Sinai, facebook.com/templesinaimarblehead; 6 p.m.
KABBALAT SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore; Zoom access: https://zoom.us/j/743285503, or dial in at: 646-558-8656, Meeting ID: 743 285 503; 6 p.m.
SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by Temple Tiferet Shalom: https://venue.streamspot.com/f413f069; 7:30 p.m.
SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid: https://tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 8 p.m.
SATURDAY, APRIL 25RENEWAL MINYAN Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore. Zoom access: https://zoom.us/j/118471216; Dial in: 646-558-8656, Meeting ID: 118 471 216; 9 a.m.
SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid: https://tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 9:30 a.m.
SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by 9:30 a.m. Temple Tiferet Shalom: https://venue.streamspot.com/f413f069; 9:30 a.m.
SHABBAT SERVICE Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore. Zoom access: https://zoom.
HAVDALLAH PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid on https://tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 8:23 p.m.
SUNDAY, APRIL 26MORNING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Sinai on www.facebook.com/templesinaimblhd; 9 a.m.
ZOOM BARRE CLASS WITH BRIGITTE KARNS Presented by JCCNSVisit https://jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 9 a.m.
SUNDAY MORNING STRETCH, FLOW AND MEDITATE WITH ALLISON SWARTZ Presented by JCCNS. Visit: https://jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 9:30 a.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented byTemple Sinai on facebook.com/templesinaimblhd; 7 p.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid on https://tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 7 p.m.
MONDAY, APRIL 27MORNING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Sinai on facebook.com/templesinaimblhd; 7:30 a.m.
STRONG WOMEN WITH LARA GOODMAN Presented byJCCNS. Visitjccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 7:30 a.m.
CARDIO, CONDITIONING AND CORE WITH LISA GILLIS Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 9 a.m.
FOREVER FIT WITH TABATHA KEATINGPresented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 10 a.m.
CHAIR YOGA WITH JULIA! (FOR SENIORS) Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 11:30 a.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Sinai onfacebook.com/templesinaimblhd; 7 p.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid on tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 7 p.m.
ETHICS OF OUR FATHERS CLASS WITH RABBI SRULI BARON Presented by Chabad of the North Shore. Zoom access:zoom.us/j/5321741889, Meeting ID: 532 174 1889; One tap mobile: 929- 205-6099 ID: 532 174 1889#; 7:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, APRIL 28MORNING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore. ZOOM access:zoom.us/j/824963167, or dial in at: 646- 558-8656, Meeting ID: 824 963 167; 7:30 a.m.
CALISTHENICS STRENGTH TRAINING WITH COACH JEFF Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 9 a.m.
FUNDAMENTALS OF YOGA WITH STEPHANIE GREENFIELD Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event 9:30 a.m.
SENIOR FITNESS WITH LARA GOODMAN Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event 10 a.m.
STRONG LEGS, STRONG CORE WITH LARA GOODMAN Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 10:30 a.m.
10 MINUTES OF TORAH WITH RABBI YOSSI LIPSKER, Presented by Chabad of the North Shore, Zoom access: zoom.us/j/138791839, Meeting ID: 138 791 839; One tap mobile: (929) 205-6099 ID: 138 791 839#; 11 a.m.
LUNCHTIME, CRUNCHTIME, ARMS AND ABS! WITH LISA GILLIS Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 12 p.m.
PILATES WITH BRIGITTE KARNS Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 5 p.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore; ZOOM access: zoom.us/j/460715647,
or dial in at: 646-558-8656, Meeting ID: 460 715 647; 7 p.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid on https://tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29MORNING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore; ZOOM access: zoom.us/j/824963167, or dial in at: 646558-8656, Meeting ID: 824 963 167; 7:30 a.m.
STRONG WOMEN WITH LARA GOODMAN Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 8:30 a.m.
CARDIO, CONDITIONING AND CORE WITH LISA GILLIS Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 9 a.m.
STRETCH AND CORE WITH TABATHA KEATING Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 10 a.m.
YOGA BASIC WITH SARAH Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event 11 a.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid on tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 7 p.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore; ZOOM access: zoom.us/j/460715647, or dial in at: 646-558-8656, Meeting ID: 460 715 647; 7 p.m.
THURSDAY, APRIL 30MORNING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE, 7:30 a.m., Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore; ZOOM access: https://zoom.us/j/824963167, or dial in at: (646) 558-8656, Meeting ID: 824 963 167; 7:30 a.m.
CALISTHENICS STRENGTH TRAINING WITH COACH JEFF Presented by JCCNS. Visit jccns.org/live-online-fitness-classes/ to join Zoom event; 9 a.m.
TALES OF THE TALMUD WITH RABBI YOSSI LIPSKER Presented by Chabad of the North Shore. Zoom access: zoom.us/j/138791839, Meeting ID: 138 791 839; One tap mobile: 929-205-6099 ID: 138 791 839#; 11 a.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Temple Ner Tamid on https://tamidschool.com/tnt-live-services; 7 p.m.
EVENING MINYAN PRAYER SERVICE Presented by Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore; ZOOM access: zoom.us/j/460715647, or dial in at: 646-558-8656, Meeting ID: 460 715 647; 7 p.m.
TORAH WISDOM FOR A MEANINGFUL LIFE WITH RABBI SRULIE BARON Presented by Chabad of the North Shore. Zoom access: zoom.us/j/5321741889, Meeting ID: 532 174 1889; One tap mobile: 929-205-6099 ID: 532 174 1889#; 7:30 p.m.
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By Rabbi David Kudan
Viktor Frankl, the late psy-chologist and Holocaust survi-vor, wrote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
As we conclude our festival of Passover, observed under extraordinary circumstance this year of the corona plague, it is clear that so many of us chose to find ways to make this holi-day meaningful and as joy-filled as possible. Most of us eagerly connected with far-flung fam-ily and friends by phone and by Zoom, and all the electronic means available.
Our communal organiza-tions and synagogues found ways to make it possible, even for those in the strictest isola-tion, to observe our customs and eat a Seder meal. We found ways to share our food, our con-cern, our friendship, with those in need. We chose to make this a memorable Passover, a cel-ebration of our survival in the face of challenge and adversity.
For many of us, this pandem-ic is a test of faith. But faith, like hope, is not a blind belief that anything bad will happen to us, or our loved ones. Surely, faith is not ‒ for most ‒ the absolute conviction that God will pro-tect each individual from harm. Faith is a stance, a choice to believe that life in the moment has meaning, that as long as we live and breathe we can care for ourselves and others. Faith is the acceptance of faith axioms: that we are here for a purpose, that we each have the abil-ity to make a difference in this moment, and that the choices we make will inspire others as well.
As Passover concludes, we are in the seven-week period of counting down to Shavuot, the “counting of the Omer.” In ancient times, there was great anxiety about this period, con-cern about the potential failure of the barley harvest. Today, we are counting the days until the end of the period of isolation, sickness, economic distress, and disruption of our daily lives. We too worry about the threat to our food supply, to the provision of vital medicines and supplies. Yet each day that we count – we know that we come closer to the end of the counting – to a return to normalcy, to health, to life close to what it was before. We count the days – and we make ourselves available for those who count on us!
Many parents tell me that as their children are working on their lessons at home, that they are trying to help their children do math homework, and that can truly be a chal-lenge. I recall a time I was able to help my son in grade school with an advanced math prob-lem: geometry, with diagrams and theorems, etc. Usually, he knew exactly how to solve a problem, but this diagram had him stumped. I suggested to him that he turn the diagram upside down and look at it from another angle. Immediately the
solution became obvious to him (but not to me … and this was the only time I can recall, when my now grown son, a comput-er scientist, benefited from my “math” skills.).
But the point is that look-ing at a problem from a new perspective can often make the difference between being stuck and moving ahead.
During these trying times, when we are faced with so much loss, anxiety, restriction, and disruption to our lives, we can choose to be stuck or to adopt a different perspective. We have choices to make – to choose blessing – to choose life! L’chaim and Zei Gezunt – stay well.
Rabbi David Kudan leads Temple Tiferet Shalom of the North Shore in Peabody.
A memorable Passover celebrates our survival in the face of adversity
Rabbi David Kudan
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Lois Elaine (Fermon) Seligman, 69, of Swampscott, passed away at her home on April 14, 2020.
Lois (“Loey”) was born in Salem, one of three children of the late Barbara (Rubin) Fermon and the late Robert (Ruby) Fermon. She was raised in Marblehead, graduated from Marblehead High School in 1968 and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Phi Beta Kappa in 1972. A devoted teacher for 35 years at Doherty Middle School in Andover, she also received her Masters in Education from Boston University in 1977. She was a member of Temple Emanu-El.
Lois was the beloved wife of devoted husband Howard, with whom she shared 26 years of marriage; the loving sister of Jeff Fermon and his wife Wendy and Sheri Jessell and her husband Mark. She was the cherished aunt of Robert Jessell, Matthew Fermon, Elizabeth Fermon and her husband John Gumkowski, and the late and much-loved Daniel Jessell; stepmother to Adam and his wife Tammy and Todd Seligman and his girlfriend Kerry Sousa. Lois also had many long-term and meaningful friend-ships. She was devoted to caring for her parents, and put family above all else.
Lois will be remembered for her selflessness, asking others how they are before focusing on herself, never forgetting a birth-day, an anniversary, a gradua-tion, or any other occasion for those with whom she had a spe-cial bond. Simple pleasures in life brought her much joy – exer-cising and spending time at the
JCC, taking long walks, gather-ing annually with cousins, and attending local performances and oldies concerts.
A special thanks to Dr. David Spriggs and his team at Mass. General Hospital.
Due to recent health concerns, relatives and friends will be invit-ed to a Celebration of Life for Lois at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to either support gyneco-logic oncology research at Mass General Hospital by making a gift online at https://giving.massgen-eral.org/donate (under Section 2, add Lois Seligman), or to Make-A-Wish to grant wishes for critically-ill children by making a gift online at www.wish.org (click on Donate, then check “Donate in Honor or Memory” and Dedicate my Gift to Lois Seligman). The staff at Stanetsky-Hymanson Memorial Chapel, Salem had the honor of caring for Lois and her family. For more information or to regis-ter in the online guestbook, visit stanetskyhymansonsalem.com.
12 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020
Lois Elaine (Fermon) Seligman, 69, of Swampscott
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Arthur Steven Greenberg, of Georgetown, passed away on February 18, 2020. He was 77 years old.
Born on March 18, 1942, he was the beloved husband of Shirley Greenberg.
Arthur grew up in Revere and graduated from Revere High School.
He was C.E.O. of Systems Peripherals of Peabody. Arthur was a dedicated life member
of American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), MQHA, and NEQHA. He was a ham radio operator at “K1GBX” for 63 years. He was a member of The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), past E.M. Section Manager, and was on many boards in Georgetown.
He was an avid hunter and fisherman.
For an online guestbook, visit stanetskyhymansonsalem.com.
Arthur Steven Greenberg, 77, of Georgetown
BOLGATZ, Elaine (Stern) – late of Beverly. Died on April 8, 2020. Wife of the late Norman Bolgatz. Daughter of the late Harry and Anna (Miller) Stern. Mother of Ivy Mahan (Joe) of Beverly, Jay Bolgatz (Kathy) of Melrose, and Michael Bolgatz (Susie) of Berkeley, Calif. Grandmother of Adam Szajgin, Lee (Sara), Maisy, Celia and Eugene Bolgatz, Hayley Mahan, and Aden and Nattie Copeland. Cousin of Elaine Feldbaum. Friend of Phyllis Kransberg. Sister of the late Charles Stern and the late Seymour Stern. She also leaves her cat Yoshi. (Stanetsky-Hymanson)
BRAND, Rhoda (Beinstein), 94 – late of North Andover, formerly of Malden. Died on April 8, 2020. Wife of the late Abraham J. Brand. Mother of Steven and Rhona Brand, Leonard and Beverly Brand, Carl and Valerie Brand, and Sheara
and Jeff Seigal. Grandmother of Corey and David, Matthew and Danyael, Elyssa, Rebecca, Adam, and Sara, Kara and Jared, and Therese. Great-grandmother of Olivia, Nathan, Sasha, and Noa. (Goldman)
CHERKAS, Ruth, 93 – late of Medford. Died on April 7, 2020. Daughter of the late Morris and Bessie Cherkas. Sister of the late Esther Cherkas, Joseph Cherkas, and Nathan Cherkas. Aunt of many nieces and neph-ews. (Goldman)
FREEDMAN, Ida G., 85 – late of Swampscott, formerly of Lynn. Died on April 14, 2020. Wife of the late Samuel Freedman. Mother of Robyn Freedman-Mintzer. Mother-in-law of Richard Minzter. Grandmother of Samantha, Tess, and Maxine. Daughter of the late Samuel and Ida Bellman. (Stanetsky-Hymanson)
GREENE, Lillian (Wolf), 85 – formerly of Revere and Malden. Died on April 8, 2020. Wife of the late Thomas Greene. Daughter of the late Jennie Wolf. (Goldman)
HEITNER, William, 96 – late of Peabody, formerly of Chelsea and Revere. Died on April 9, 2020. Husband of the late Lorraine (Luster) Heitner. Son of the late Harry and Dora (Silverstein) Heitner. Father of Barry Heitner and his wife Connie of East Amherst, N.Y., and Donna Heitner of Peabody. Grandfather of Connor Heitner, and Holden Heitner and his wife Sarah. Great-grandfather of Raegan Heitner. (Stanetsky-Hymanson)
SILVERSTEIN, Stuart Barry – late of Melrose, formerly of Chelsea. Died on April 7, 2020. Son of the late Ida and David
NOTICES
continued on page 13
Pests
Silverstein. Father of Jessica Kennedy and Jason Silverstein, and father-in-law of Jenifer and Daniel. Brother of Alan Silverstein and his wife Arlene. Grandfather of Ethan, Eiley, Maya, William, and David. (Torf)
TABB, Rose (Raum), 101 – late of Lynn, Swampscott, and Chelsea. Died on April 15, 2020. Wife of the late Morris Tabb. Mother of Charles Tabb (Randi Fox Tabb) of Penfield, N.Y., and Rhonda Tabb of Brockton. Grandmother of Jamie Tabb (Bianchi Suarez), Jesse Tabb (Andrea Tabb), Joshua Tabb (Amanda Lavergne-Tabb), Courtney Radin, and Brett Radin. Great-grandmother of Eli, Isabelle, Bryce, and Zachary Tabb. Sister of the late Norman (Mabel) Raum and sister-in-law of Robert and Lena Tabachnick. Daughter of the late Morris and Dora (Rutisefsky) Raum. Aunt of many nieces and nephews. (Stanetsky-Hymanson)
WULF, Alan – late of Peabody, formerly of Everett. Died on April 9, 2020. Husband of Judith (Judi) Tassler. Son of the late Sam and Gertrude (Alperovitz) Wulf. Father of David and Debbi Wulf of Herndon, Va., Andrew and Irina Wulf of Swampscott, and Laurie and John Cantalupo of Boxford. Cousin of Richard and Sheila Wulf of Norton, and Henry and Roberta Wulf of Vienna, Va. Grandfather of Jocelyn, Charlotte, Darian, Aydan, Nicholas, Nathaniel, and Alex. (Stanetsky-Hymanson)
OBITUARIES THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 13
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Lillian Aronson, of Bedford, formerly of Brookline and Salem, died on April 10, 2020. She was a 102-year-old Sergeant First Class (Retired), a 20-year U.S. Army Veteran.
Lillian was predeceased by her parents Ida and Samuel Aronson, her sisters and broth-ers-in-law Ada and George Goodwin, Flossie and Roy Gelin, Ruth and Joshua Yonis, Rhoda and Milton Kellerman, and Dorothy and Max Blair. She was the beloved aunt of Donna (Marvin Berman) Bean-Berman, Barry and Kathy Blair, Patricia and Harry Stewart, Arthur and Mary Kellerman, Elaine and William DellaCroce, Daniel and Julie Kellerman, Doreen Goodwin, Cynthia and Steve Linsky, Ralph Yonis, Linda (the late Robert) Weaver, Sheri and Jay Yonis Demir, Helaine and Daniel Berg, Dana Gelin, Roberta Gelin, and Michael Gelin. Great-aunt and great-great-aunt of many nieces and nephews. Also survived by many extended family and friends.
A special thank-you to the entire staff of the Edith Nourse Rodgers Memorial Veterans Hospital, especially Building 4A, for their outstanding care and
service, not only to Lillian but to all the veterans in their care.
A funeral service will be privately held. In lieu of flow-ers, donations may be made to Edith Nourse Rodgers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Attn. Building 4A Activities, 200 Springs Road, Bedford, MA 01730, or to a char-ity of one’s choice. The staff at Stanetsky-Hymanson Memorial Chapel, Salem had the honor of caring for Lillian and her fam-ily. For more information or to register in the online guestbook, visit stanetskyhymansonsalem.com.
Lillian Aronson, 102, of Bedford, formerly of Brookline and Salem Beverly Norman, of Peabody,
entered into rest on April 1, 2020. She was the beloved wife of the late Martin Norman.
She is survived by her chil-dren and their spouses Harriet Norman, Nancy B. Norman Horrigan and her husband Mark Horrigan, and Scott E. Norman; her grandson Ryan M. Horrigan; and several beloved extended family members.
She was predeceased by her parents Harry and Nellie (Bornstein) Shatz and two ador-ing siblings.
Beverly had an incred-ible sense of humor, so in some ways it seems appropriate for her passing on the first day of April. As her grandson loving lovingly described her, Beverly
was a “Great Lady.” She abso-lutely loved so many. Beverly had a vivacious smile, remarkable strength, and was young at heart.
Beverly was a very proud co-owner of Marblehead Antiques. She found so much joy in her work.
Although her family is heart-broken to say goodbye, they take comfort in knowing that some of her last words were telling peo-ple how much she loved them. She was sweet and kind and will be greatly missed.
A celebration of Beverly’s beautiful life will be held at a later date. For those who wish, in lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to Northeast Arc to honor her grandson Ryan Horrigan, who has a close con-nection to the incredible ser-vice and support offered there. Please visit ne-arc.org for more information. For more informa-tion or to register in the online guestbook, visit stanetskyhy-mansonsalem.com.
Beverly Norman, of Peabody
Aaron J. Wiseman, of Peabody, entered into rest at the age of 95 April 17, 2020.
He was the beloved husband of Roslyn (Grubert) Wiseman. Aaron was the devoted father of Leslie A. Garber and her hus-band Douglas L. Garber, and Howard Wiseman and his wife Jane (Strunsky) Wiseman. He was the cherished grandfather of Melanie Garber-Letitia and her spouse Danielle Garber-Letitia, and Rebecca Wiseman Lee and her husband Daniel Lee, and great-Grandfather of Caleb Wiseman Lee and Elizabeth Lee. He was the brother-in-law of Toby Grubert, and brother of the late Louis Wiseman. He was
the son of the late Michael and Molly (Tanzer) Wiseman.
Aaron grew up in Peabody and graduated from Peabody Schools. He worked for his entire career in many capacities at the General Electric Company in Lynn. He loved reading and following the Red Sox. His great-est joy was his family to whom he was totally devoted. He will always be remembered for his great smile with which he greeted everyone. Aaron was a member of Congregation Sons of Israel in Peabody.
Interment will be at Maple Hill Cemetery in Peabody. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sym-pathy may be made in Aaron’s
memory to Care Dimensions, Ste. B-102, 75 Sylvan St., Danvers, MA 01923. The staff at Stanestsky-Hymanson Memorial Chapel had the honor of caring for Aaron and his fam-ily. For more information or to register in the online guestbook, visit stanetskyhymansonsalem.com.
Aaron J. Wiseman, 95, of Peabody
NOTICESfrom page 12
On the morning of Holocaust Remembrance Day, vandals painted the word “Palestine” in red in Arabic on the UMass-Amherst Hillel building just yards away from the campus of the state’s flagship university.
Hillel officials at the Jewish organization on college campus said it is in communication with the Amherst Police Department.
“This cowardly act of hatred towards the Jewish community amidst a time of global crisis and on Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day, is reprehen-sible,” UMass Amherst Hillel wrote on Facebook. “Our UMass Jewish community is resilient and strong, and in the face of this hate we will only deepen our commitment to empower-ing students to build vibrant community based on values of love, respect, justice and peace.”
After the vandalism was reported on Tuesday, UMass Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy condemned the vandalism.
In a statement, he said, “In a brazen act of anti-Semitism, the exterior of the UMass Hillel House was defaced today with spray paint. The timing of this cowardly act, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, is deeply repugnant. In this period of global crisis, it is more important than ever that we reject hatred and intolerance. Our Jewish students, faculty and staff add to the rich diversity that makes UMass such a special place, and Hillel is a source of support and strength for so many of our students. The hateful actions of any individual cannot change that, and will, in fact, strengthen our resolve to stand in solidarity with the members of our Jewish community.
“Because Hillel House is located off campus, the Amherst Police Department (APD) has jurisdiction over this incident. However, the UMass Police Department has been noti-fied and has contacted APD to offer assistance. We have been advised that a thorough investi-gation is underway.”
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to test every one of our residents and staff as quickly as possible, rather than wait for directives from the state and CDC,” said Adam Berman. “It was so impor-tant for us to get ahead of this sit-uation in any way possible.” Staff began working round the clock and set up COVID-19 recovery areas for those who tested posi-tive. All recovery units, which are overseen by medical staff, are located in isolated wings at each skilled nursing residence.
All of the residents have been tested multiple times, which is not the norm at nursing homes according to Barry Berman. And while the organization is not out of the woods yet, most of the residents who have tested posi-tive are getting better. “Due to the testing, we have information that’s allowed us to make some critical decisions,” said Adam Berman. “I really believe this data has saved lives.”
According to Adam Berman, the staff have worked diligent-ly since the late winter to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Residents and staff are screened daily for any signs of COVID-19, including taking temperatures, practicing social distancing, and delivering meals to residents’ rooms. The staff is in touch with all families on a regular basis through phone calls and emails. Additionally, the organization deployed extra mobile devices to arrange video calls with residents and families through Skype and FaceTime.
“We are so incredibly proud
of our staff,” said Barry Berman. ”They have gone over and above. Clearly, they care deeply about the well-being of our residents.”
Chelsea Jewish Lifecare also has a strategic plan in place for the future. As people recover from the virus, they “graduate” from the COVID units and return to their rooms. “We do not know when things will return to nor-mal, but with each passing day we’re seeing more and more peo-ple improve, and we’re starting to see light at the end of the tun-nel,” said Adam Berman.
Elliot Katzman has been truly impressed with the way the staff has treated his father. “During this very challenging time, the staff has remained steadfast and focused on providing excellent care,” said Katzman, who speaks with his father, Myer, on a regular basis. “I appreciate the transpar-ent communication. It has been so helpful and comforting, espe-cially now. We feel like family is calling and giving an update – versus an institution. The staff is truly amazing.”
In Chelsea, pain and hopefrom page 1
their apartments to reduce the risk of infection from the coro-navirus. To date, the pandemic has claimed the lives of nine people who lived at the kosher oceanfront facility, among 22 residents who tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, other Hebrew SeniorLife facilities have also been hard hit by the coronavirus. At the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston, a 675-bed long-term chronic care hospital, 11 people have died among 111 who tested positive. At Orchard Cove in Canton, which has 255 apartments, four residents have died among 18 cases reported.
One of the nine residents who passed away at the Satter House was Barbara Levine, a 10-year resident who previously lived in Marblehead.
Levine, 77, had been vaca-tioning in Florida, flew to Boston on March 10, and returned to the Satter House. “She had been home several weeks before she began feeling ill,” said her daugh-ter, Risa Tracey. “She stayed home to ride it out. We suspect-ed it could be COVID. On March 24, she went to Mass General and they confirmed it. We had no idea there were already cases
at the Satter House. Within one hour at MGH, she was sedated and put on a ventilator.”
Tracey said she learned about the cases at the Satter House at the same time her mother was admitted to the hospital. “They were limiting [visits] when my mother went in the hospital, but shortly after mom went into MGH, they put everyone in lock-down,” she recalled. “I have no problem with the Satter House. The state hadn’t shut down. Our leaders in government refused to shut things down. The governor started to put things in place. You can’t lay blame on anyone in the state or at the Satter House.”
A travel agent for many years, Levine ‒ who survived multiple bouts of cancer ‒ had recently returned from Egypt and was planning more trips.
“She was just a wonder-ful, loving, caring woman who enjoyed all the people around her,” said Tracey. “She had a pos-itive attitude and a zest for life.”
Coping with Isolation“We were getting out —
walking around the building, participating in events, attend-ing Friday night services with Rabbi Lior Nevo,” said Linda
Dubinsky of life at the Jack Satter House. “Before, we would see our kids and grandkids. We’d sit out front on the deck and have family gatherings. I miss them very much. But we’re in contact through FaceTime.”
Now, all meals are left for resi-dents at their doors, as is mail and laundry. They cannot walk in the hallways or even open their doors for but a moment. Staff sing-alongs to brighten their spirits are held outside the building, and residents can open their windows to participate.
“They’re not letting anyone out of the building,” said resi-dent Paula Weiner.
Dubinsky, who is 79, had a home health aide assisting her with daily needs. That was
until she learned from the Lynn Health Department that her aide had contracted the corona-virus, and that she would have to monitor her own tempera-ture and symptoms. The aide survived and, fortunately, Linda was not infected. However, she and Arnold, 85, are wary of hav-ing aides return, despite finding it difficult to manage on their own. “It’s amazing what you can adjust to,” said Linda.
Home health aides are screened before coming into the residence, said Paula Lowe, a spokeswoman for Hebrew SeniorLife.
Paula Weiner, who is 72 and in good health, has a wide circle of friends at the Satter House. She grew up in Malden, and recently lived in Haverhill. Weiner would step outside of the Satter House and walk Revere Beach with friends, attend Friday night services, play mah-jongg, give tours of the building, and volunteer in the coffee shop and grocery store where she got to know nearly all the residents.
Now, she walks around her one-bedroom apartment, enjoys the ocean view, and is grateful that the Satter House
provides for all her needs.“This place has so much:
contests, sing-alongs with the staff from our window, grocery store deliveries,” she said.
She deals with the isolation by watching TV, playing games on her cellphone, reading the Satter Sentinel newspaper, and making lots of phone calls to friends, making sure they’re OK.
Like the Dubinskys, Weiner is grateful she is being kept safe. The staff is constantly spraying, disinfecting, vacuuming, and sanitizing railings and door-knobs, said Weiner.
Weiner had been a recep-tionist in a doctor’s office in Newburyport and was accus-tomed to being friendly and open with people. It’s some-thing she’s looking forward to once again when life returns to some form of normalcy.
Loneliness is something residents are dealing with, said Lowe. Management encourages residents’ children and grand-children to write cards, and send pictures and letters.
“We are trying to keep peo-ple engaged. Even some board members phone residents. We’re making sure people don’t feel lonely,” Lowe said.
Barbara Levine, who lived at the Satter House, died after con-tracting the coronavirus.
Coping with isolation at the Jack Satter House in Reverefrom page 1
Barry Berman
Vandals spray-paint UMass-Hillel building
UMass Amherst Hillel was vandal-ized with the word “Palestine” in Arabic.
On March 31, Sylvia Hertzel, a resident at the Jeffrey and Susan Brudnick Center for Living in Peabody, turned 100. Although her family couldn’t physically be with her to celebrate due the current coronavirus visitation restrictions, they celebrated with her virtually – as did the center’s staff and residents.
Sylvia and her husband Ralph Hertzel grew up in the same Dorchester neighborhood. Ralph delivered newspapers and used to throw the paper up to Sylvia’s family second floor bal-cony. Sylvia would watch and thought he was very cute. Sylvia and Ralph were married in 1943 during World War II. Sylvia fol-lowed Ralph throughout the country while he trained as a medic prior to going overseas. She waited for over a year for him to come home. One of Sylvia’s most cherished posses-sions is a card Ralph sent her during the war. The last sen-tence expressed his sentiments perfectly. He wrote, “How much longer can the war keep me from you?”
The couple moved to Sharon in 1950, where they bought a brand-new ranch house to raise their two children, Pam and Bob. In addition to running the household, Sylvia worked as a bookkeeper at her husband’s hat making business, which was located in Boston’s gar-ment district. Leisure time was spent with friends and families at Franklin Park Field. Sylvia enjoyed (and still does) read-ing, painting and card games. Sylvia and Ralph loved living in Sharon and spent 53 wonderful years together until, sadly, Ralph passed away in 1996. At that time, Sylvia moved to an apart-ment in Sharon and lived alone until she was 98!
Bob Hertzel, Sylvia’s son, described Sylvia as an extremely loving and loyal wife and moth-er. Bob posted a heartfelt tribute to Sylvia on Facebook, which ended with the following words: “You made it Ma – from the year the Sox traded Ruth to the Yanks; from the year women got the right to vote, through the depression and war and the sub-urbs to a quiet and lovely life. Happy 100th Birthday Mom!”
For the past two years, Sylvia has resided at the Brudnick Center for Living in Peabody. She is beloved by both staff and resi-dents alike. Ellen Gordon, direc-tor of Resident Life at Chelsea
Jewish Lifecare, said that people like to be around Sylvia. “Sylvia is a role model to all of us,” said Gordon. “She shows us, every day, how to treat people respect-fully, how to maintain a positive attitude by an always-present smile on her face, and how to age gracefully … Quite simply, I adore her.”
Pam Krinsky, Sylvia’s daugh-ter, explained that her mom has a very practical approach to life and living. When asked the secret to her longevity, Sylvia replied in her straightforward
manner, “Everything in modera-tion.”
Through the marvel of FaceTime, Sylvia’s children and grandchildren were able to cel-ebrate Sylvia’s birthday and watch the Brudnick staff sing a rousing edition of “Happy Birthday.” They also presented Sylvia with a beautifully deco-rated cake. Sylvia, gracious as always, could be heard saying, “You didn’t have to go to all this fuss for my birthday, but I appre-ciate it very, very much. Thank you everyone.”
Undaunted by the threat of a pandemic, Roberta Levy, 71, of Lynn and Richard Davis, 70, of Guilford, Vermont were mar-ried under a beachside chuppah on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands on March 20.
The couple met at their 50th Sharon High School Reunion in 2017 and a lasting relation-ship quickly developed. They grew up in the same neighbor-hood and attended all school grades together but they were not friends growing up.
Roberta has lived in Lynn for the past 15 years and is retired from a career in the business world. She has volun-teered at JF&CS Family Table in Swampscott for a number of years and is on the board of the Clifford Improvement Association.
Richard is semi-retired after 40 years as a registered nurse in Vermont. He has been active in Vermont health care politics for nearly three decades and has written a weekly health care col-umn in the local newspaper for 25 years. He now writes a week-ly blog on health care related issues.
Richard sat down next to Roberta at the reunion and, within a few minutes, asked her to go to Tuscany with him. Roberta said, “Absolutely yes,” and the course of their relation-ship was sealed.
They have traveled to Israel, St. Croix three times, Hawaii as well as Tuscany in September.
The couple planned a trip to St. Croix for March 16-26 and decided that would be a good place to be married. As the pan-demic spread they were hesitant to make the trip but decided to take a chance. As Richard said, “At our age, how more adven-tures will we have?”
They were married by Rabbi Marcy Delbick of Congregation B’nai Or of St. Croix. The cou-ple purchased a ketubah in the Jewish ghetto in Venice on their recent trip and Rabbi Marcy officiated over an abbreviated ketubah signing ceremony.
The chuppah was built from driftwood and Willie, the main-tenance man at the condo com-plex, helped to make sure it was solid and sturdy. It was still guarding the beach a week after the wedding.
Roberta and Richard are now safely hunkered down in Vermont and will consider the time spent in isolation as a unique pandemic honeymoon.
PEOPLE THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020 15
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Despite pandemic, Levy and Davis exchange wedding vows
At top, Richard Davis and Roberta Levy at their wedding. Below, Davis and Levy under the chuppah on the beach in St. Croix.
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Sylvia Hertzel celebrates her 100th birthday party at Brudnick Center with Activities Assistant Judy Mullen.
Hertzel turns 100
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Epstein Hillel School is thinking about families and the greater community during this difficult time.We hope you are staying well, and we wish a speedy recovery for those directly impacted by COVID-19.
We want to thank the healthcare workers, first responders on the front lines, and all of the individuals who are meeting the essential needs of the community.
Stay healthy! Stay connected!
16 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – APRIL 23, 2020
