Issue

Volume # 81

Summer 2021(5781)

In this issue
Quarantining in a Crunch
Kashrut

Quarantining in a Crunch

When Covid broke in March 2020, I had one overriding concern: how would we supervise a massive cheese plant in the Midwest?

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: The Pandemic Classroom
Cover Story

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: The Pandemic Classroom

Rabbi Ari Schonfeld By Steve Lipman Two days after Covid forced Yeshiva Beis Hillel of Passaic to close its doors, Rabbi Ari Schonfeld went online. His eighth-grade class at the northern New Jersey day school missed “one day, maybe two,” before he resumed teaching on Zoom. A week after the school closed, Rabbi Schonfeld went […]

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: Leadership During Covid
Cover Story

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: Leadership During Covid

Rabbi Mordechai Willig By Sandy Eller Posekim are no strangers to dealing with life-and-death questions posed to them by shul rabbanim as various situations arise. But as the pandemic struck, there were numerous instances when Rabbi Mordechai Willig found himself juggling well over a dozen such she’eilot simultaneously, a situation that was anything but common. […]

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: Of Rabbis and Rebbetzins
Cover Story

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: Of Rabbis and Rebbetzins

Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern By Steve Lipman About half a year before the pandemic struck in the United States, Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern, rabbi of the Young Israel of Scarsdale, took part in a study mission to Israel sponsored by a Middle Eastern peace organization. The orientation for the mission included a session with other participants via […]

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: Women Who Took Charge
Cover Story

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: Women Who Took Charge

Sara Lea Wetstein By Steve Lipman Summer began three months early in Baltimore last year. At least it did for a staff member of one Baltimore day school. A native of New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood who has lived in Baltimore for two decades, Sara Lea Wetstein serves as food services director and IT […]

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: From the Medical Trenches
Cover Story

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: From the Medical Trenches

“Rafi” By Steve Lipman During his eight years as an emergency room physician “BC” (Before Covid), Rafi* saw “just about everything.” Heart attacks. Broken bones. Infections. Emotional breakdowns. Standard stuff for the doctors and nurses who staff an ER, the medical profession’s first line of defense for many physical and mental conditions. In the year-plus […]

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: The Final Chesed
Cover Story

On Covid’s Jewish Frontlines: The Final Chesed

Yvette Kaweblum By Steve Lipman During the first weeks of the pandemic, Yvette Kaweblum, a Mexico-born resident of Boca Raton, Florida, rarely left her home; she self-quarantined to keep herself and others safe. Then the elderly mother of a close friend died. And Kaweblum, a founder of the Boca Raton Synagogue Chevra Kadisha burial society, […]

Opening New Doors
Business

Opening New Doors

A great rabbi once told me: God closes one door and opens another. I hope the second door opens quickly.

Musar from Microsoft
Opinion

Musar from Microsoft

It isn’t often that an email from Microsoft arrives in my inbox containing a profound theological lesson.

Sora and Jerry Wolasky
Portrait of Philanthropy

Sora and Jerry Wolasky

As a young couple in Norfolk, Virginia, Sora and Jerry Wolasky got involved in the local NCSY chapter when the rabbi sought their help with the shul. Sora began to organize Shabbatons and brought advisors into the area from Baltimore for the chagim, giving public school youth the life-changing opportunity to learn more about their […]