USA ‘One Year Has Passed, Yes,
But It’s Still Hurting’: 9 Jews On Their Pandemic Years. By JTA Staff
An Italian Bar Mitzvah Celebrated One Year Later
Clockwise from top left: Gen Slosberg and Jenni Rudolph (Courtesy of Lunar); kindergarteners at the Moriah School in Englewood, N.J. (Courtesy of the Moriah School); Ruben Golran at his bar mitzvah (Courtesy of the Golran family); Sofi Hersher and her boyfriend (DeAjah DeLee); Andrea Kopel volunteers at NCJW's New York food pantry (Courtesy of NCJW-NY); Eliana Light poses (Ori Salzberg)
(JTA) — One year ago, Carol Ackerman’s father was still alive. Andrea Kopel was trying to figure out how to run a food pantry without volunteers. Sasha Kopp hadn’t yet given up on the city she loved. They knew that the pandemic had changed the world in major, wrenching ways. But the impact of COVID-19 on their own lives still had yet to become clear. Earlier this month, when America passed its pandemic anniversary, many reflected on the moments when everything changed. Now, with an end to the crisis coming into view, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency spoke to nine Jews whose lives have been reshaped by the pandemic. Their stories offer a window into the grief, loss, surprise and, yes, joy that has unfolded over the last year — and an outline of some of the dynamics the Jewish world will have to grapple with on its journey toward a new normal.
Because of bans on large gatherings, Ruben Golran, an Italian Jewish kid celebrating his bar mitzvah, had to limit the February 2020 ceremony to close relatives. (Courtesy of the Golran family)
Ruben Golran’s 600-person bar mitzvah celebration was scrapped amid Italy’s early surge in February 2020. One year later, he chanted his Torah portion before 200 masked and distanced community members. His father, Elia Golran: Schools were closed and everything went on Zoom — and the shul and our community. But slowly, slowly, from May until after the [High] Holidays, the situation in Italy was pretty good. A Devastating Loss Reshapes a Family in New York
Stanley Teich, back row, left, seen here at a grandchild’s bat mitzvah, died of COVID-19 in April 2020, an early casualty of the pandemic in the United States. (Courtesy of Carol Ackerman)
Happy Anniversary to all of my friends in the Jewish Community!
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April 2021
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Stanley Teich was looking forward to taking his family to Israel for Passover to celebrate his birthday. Instead, he was battling COVID19 in the hospital when he turned 80. His daughter, Carol Ackerman: We had already booked out all of the travel and the excursions and the highlights we wanted to see. But he decided that it was safer and more prudent to cancel, and we promised we would go in 2021. A Rabbi Who Shut Down Early is Back in Action
Kindergartners at the Moriah School in Englewood, N.J., one of seven Bergen County schools to urge families to abide by school guidelines outside of school in September 2020. (Courtesy of the Moriah School)
When the Orthodox rabbis of Bergen County, New Jersey, decid-
JEWISH LIGHT
ed on March 11, 2020, to end all in-personal Jewish life under their supervision, their choice was unprecedented — but only for a few days. Rabbi Kenny Schiowitz: Until we shut down, we were looking to guidance from the CDC, the Department of Health. And then suddenly in one day we became the ones writing the rules. Missing the Hugs of the Hungry and the Elderly
Andrea Kopel, center, the director of NCJW-New York, joins a volunteer in preparing a food delivery at NCJW’s food pantry in New York on March 15, 2021 (Courtesy NCJW-NY)
The pandemic renewed attention to hunger as a national crisis. On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, See ONE YEAR on Page
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