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COVER STORY Jewish life in Bay Area upended by coronavirus
Jewish life in Bay Area upended by coronavirus
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GABRIEL GRESCHLER | J. STAFF
When 82-year-old Hinda Gilbert boarded the Grand Princess cruise ship in San Francisco on Feb. 21, she was looking forward to relaxing and playing some bridge as she and a friend headed to Hawaii for a 15-day voyage.
On their way back on March 6, just one day before the cruise was to end in San Francisco, several passengers started showing flu-like symptoms. Then the news broke: 21 people on board the ship had tested positive for coronavirus.
“We were quarantined to our room,” Gilbert, a member of San Francisco Congregation Emanu-El, told J. “We could not leave for five days. It was like a movie.”
The ship’s passengers were told to disembark at the Port of Oakland, and Gilbert and her friend were brought to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield for a mandatory 14-day quarantine. They will remain there until March 24.
“I’m just taking this one minute at a time,” said Gilbert, who is worried she’ll become ill with the virus through close contact she had with other cruise passengers. “You can’t complain you’re in this situation. You have to grin and bear it.”
The coronavirus has caused dramatic disruption everywhere. Schools are canceled, synagogues are moving worship online and senior homes are on lockdown. JCCs in San Francisco, Palo Alto, the East Bay and other locations have closed. Jewish agencies are offering very limited social services.
But the full impact of the virus, which now has residents in nearly every Bay Area county sheltering at home and restricted to essential travel only, goes beyond just closures. It is causing emotional, spiritual and financial ripples across the entire Jewish community. And nobody knows how long it will last, or what the long-term effects might be.
“It’s been very stressful having to make decisions about community events that impact a lot of people,” said Rabbi Chai Levy of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley. “I’ve been feeling the weight of that.”
Netivot is closed, and all meetings, groups and gatherings have shifted online.
“The Jewish value of saving a life overrides everything,” Levy said. “We need to err on the side of caution.”
Congregation Emanu-El has canceled all programming until April 8 and is hosting services and classes online. Bar and bat mitzvahs through May 8 have been rescheduled, per CDC guidelines to avoid gatherings of more than 50 people.
The temple lost “thousands and thousands” of dollars from the cancellation of its March 9 Purim carnival alone. “When you lose that kind of money, it does have an impact,” said Rabbi Jonathan Singer.
Synagogues aren’t the only institutions worried about the financial fallout. The Contemporary Jewish Museum is closed indefinitely. The museum was already hurting from the coronavirus before the March 12 closure, according to chief operating officer Kerry King, when corporate partners who usually rent out space all started canceling.
“It does feel very surreal,” King said. “Like many other things right now.”
The Reboot Ideas Festival, a national gathering scheduled for late March in San Francisco that would have brought dozens of high-profile Jewish community leaders from around the world to the Bay Area, has been canceled, a move that CEO David Katznelson estimates will cost the organization in the six figures.
“That’s hard for a midlevel nonprofit,” said the Bay Area resident. “The hope is that we will be able to recover that in various ways.”
The Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, closed until April 13, is facing a very serious financial situation, according to CEO Zack Bodner. The JCC has about 450 employees and a monthly payroll of $1.5 million.
“For us to be able to cover that, we need the revenue coming in from programs, which we’ve had to cancel,” Bodner said. “Revenue coming from gym membership and personal training sessions is no longer happening. Revenue coming from preschool tuition and afterschool tuition isn’t happening.”
Bodner said the only way the organization will be able to cover costs is through fundraising.
“We’re really counting on the generosity of the community,” he said. “Understanding what the need is right now so that the mishpacha can be taken care of.”
Hebrew Free Loan in San Francisco announced that it would be offering interest-free loans to those who are hurting
financially in the crisis, whether from missing work, suffering small-business losses or dealing with health care costs. “We want to help people who are struggling from financial effects related to this,” HFL executive director Cindy Rogoway said. (Visit hflasf.org for more info.)
Apart from financial worries, many Jewish leaders are concerned that closures deny people a familiar place to find solace during a high-stress time, when community is even more important.
“The synagogue is a place for times of difficulty,” said Ellen Bob, executive director of Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto. “But the way to keep people safe is to keep people separate. So, there’s a lot of tension. It’s not good for people’s spiritual or mental health.”
Etz Chayim is closed indefinitely. Bob said the congregation is figuring out how to hold virtual activities, learning sessions, prayer services and committee meetings, “and how to just make sure no one gets too lonely or isolated at home.”
She also shared the personal toll the virus has taken on her as a communal leader.
(Clockwise from top left) Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto; Jewish Community Federation in San Francisco; and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
Netivot Shalom Rabbi Chai Levy
“It feels a lot like the days after the shooting in Pittsburgh,” she said about the Tree of Life massacre in October 2018. “It’s a very heavy responsibility.”
Some Jewish institutions are set on remaining open no matter what.
“We run a crisis organization,” said Naomi Tucker, executive director of Shalom Bayit, a Berkeley-based center for domestic violence prevention. “We can’t have our staff work
remotely. We already work with a vulnerable and at-risk population.”
While the organization is suspending public events and restricting nonessential people from its office, it will still be escorting its members to court hearings and holding small support groups.
“It’s not an option to leave clients more isolated,” Tucker said. “We’re providing a vital service that must go on.”
Other Jewish organizations, including the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, Jewish Family and Children’s Services based in San Francisco and Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay are also staying open to provide critical services such as counseling (by phone and video) and food delivery.
The pandemic has had a huge impact on Jewish organizations that work with older adults, who comprise the most vulnerable group. According to the CDC, those 60 and older are at higher risk from becoming very sick from the virus.
JCC East Bay CEO Melissa Chapman said she’s particularly worried about the elderly who are in need of community, but who no longer can attend social events such as senior classes, clubs and lunches. The center is closed until at least April 5 and all events have been canceled.
“The potential for extreme isolation is very real,” Chapman said. “If you pull those opportunities, what does that look like for them? That’s going to have a trickle-down effect on their health. That’s what every piece of research will tell you.”
Senior homes are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of coronavirus, which has attacked such facilities to deadly effect. Twenty-nine deaths were linked to one longterm care facility outside Seattle. Jewish senior homes in the Bay Area have put a number of measures in place to ensure the safety of residents and staff and are keeping up with a rapidly evolving situation.
Jay Zimmer, CEO of the Reutlinger Community in Danville, said staff members are “nervous.” At a recent meeting, Zimmer said, “I could look around the room and see that people who are already concerned — not only about themselves, but the residents and their family and friends — took on another look of concern.”
There are concerns that separating the elderly from their family members could do harm to those whose physical health benefits from social contact.
“We’ve been using video conferencing to engage families, at least to allow people to see each other,” he said. “Over an extended amount of time, that would not hold up.”
On March 12, the city of San Francisco ordered all long-term care facilities to restrict visitors through April 21. The regulation includes the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living, which already had been limiting visitors. In addition, CJL spokesperson Marcus Young said, all staff and essential personnel are being screened before entering,
The Moldaw Residences in Palo Alto also is taking additional precautions. Communal dining has been suspended, and all prepared meals are either delivered or available for residents to pick up.
“It’s frightening and very upsetting,” said 91-year-old Gisa Oloff.
While the coronavirus presents much less risk to young people, they too are affected by the disruptions. Schools have been closed and trips to Israel and Europe postponed.
Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco announced on March 12 that classes would shift online. Teachers will give assignments and do routine check-ins through video conferences with students, but won’t hold full classes. This will allow educators to tend to their own children at home, head of school Rabbi Howard Ruben said.
“It’s been a cascading range of planning,” said Ruben, whose team had been anticipating a shift to online teaching for weeks. He said it is too soon to know what will happen if the school needs to remain closed.
Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto also canceled school for and moved classes online.
Meanwhile, Jewish leaders will continue offering emotional and spiritual support to those who are struggling. Rabbi Menachem Landa of Chabad of Novato said last week that he had been counseling “a bunch” of congregants.
While Landa’s center is now closed, it has set up a relief service delivering food and supplies. The rabbi said he’s been getting about 10 requests per hour since starting the program on March 17.
“At times like this, a leader is here to create comfort,” said Landa, whose first name means “comfort” in Hebrew. “That’s my job.” n
Zach Bodner, CEO, Palo Alto JCC
How have Jews fared during times of pandemic?
GABRIEL GRESCHLER | J. STAFF
Once the deadly virus started spreading all over the world, devastated communities struggled to confront a pandemic they did not fully understand. Soon the finger-pointing started as people looked for someone to blame: It was the Jews.
It was the mid-14th century, and the Black Death had begun to ravage Europe. In the end, it reduced the overall population by about a third. Rumors spread that it was a Jewish conspiracy, and as a result Jews suffered terrible discrimination.
“When there are big epidemics, people get scared,” said Rutgers University’s Martin J. Blaser, a historian and professor of medicine and microbiology. “They often look to blame some kind of intruder or stranger. It has happened especially with the Jews.”
Throughout the European continent, it was said that Jews were poisoning wells with the plague. Blaser said there is evidence of European Jewish communities being massacred during this time, a period he described as the “worst persecution of Jews” before the Holocaust.
One source of the conspiracy theory may have been the lower death rates among Jewish communities. Blaser said that could have been related to the fact that once a year, Jews cleaned out their grain supply for Passover, lowering their chances of being exposed to rats, carriers of the plague.
From the Black Death all the way up to the measles outbreak in 2019, Jews have been used as scapegoats for outbreaks of disease, Blaser said.
Jews in New York City were blamed for last year’s measles outbreak, which disproportionately affected Orthodox Jewish communities. Health officials believe it was more easily spread in the tightknit community because of the large number of children in each family, extensive international travel and low rates of vaccination. The Anti-Defamation League reported a spike in anti-Semitic incidents related to the outbreak.
Interestingly, it seems that Jews were not blamed for the Spanish Flu of 1918, the influenza pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people around the globe. Jews even played a pivotal role in fighting it. The city’s health department was headed by a number of Jews, including Lawrence Arnstein, who helped organize the Red Cross response to the disease. Matilda Esberg, president of the Congregation Emanu-El Sisterhood, was involved on a local level in San Francisco overseeing the response.
During the current coronavirus pandemic, Chinese and Asians have been blamed and discriminated against because the disease originated in China. Asian Americans have faced racist attacks, and there have been reports of Chinese businesses seeing a downturn in customers.
Blaser sees parallels to how Jews were treated during past outbreaks of disease.
“It’s the same mob mentality,” Blaser said. “Finding a victim. Unfortunately for Chinese people, they’ve borne the brunt of this so far.” n
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In this illustration from a 1349 history book by Gilles li Muisis, residents of a town stricken by the plague burn Jews, who were blamed for causing the disease.
Synagogues go online to ‘gather’ in time of coronavirus
DAVID A.M. WILENSKY | J. STAFF
Around sundown on March 13, Rabbi Daniel Stein of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek gathered with his family and about two dozen congregants to welcome in Shabbat, lighting candles and singing a couple of songs.
They “gathered” not in their synagogue or in someone’s home, but virtually, through the online conferencing platform Zoom. They could all see each other’s faces and hear one another’s voices — but the tiny lag time made singing in unison
impossible, and the physical distance made “Good Shabbos” hugs and handshakes impossible.
People expressed appreciation and smiled at the sight of their rabbi and friends, but there still are technological kinks to be worked out.
“We’re going to continue trying to think of ways to connect,” Stein said at the end. “It’s going to be a tough few weeks, but we’re going to make it through together.”
For the foreseeable future — under the threat of the novel coronavirus, the necessity of social distancing and the imposition of shelter-in-place orders — this is Shabbat.
That same evening, Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco put on a full Shabbat evening service, streaming it via Facebook Live. Framed closely as they were by the camera, it was almost easy to forget that Rabbis Jason Rodich and Sydney Mintz and Cantor Marsha Attie were otherwise alone in Emanu-El’s cavernous domed main sanctuary.
Facebook “likes” and heart “reacts” floated by as virtual congregants showed their appreciation for each new prayer or song. “Sing out! I promise that wherever you are, we can hear you,” Mintz urged.
During Mi Shebeirach, a prayer for healing, attendees typed in comments with the names of people they were praying for. And throughout the service, congregants commented with their appreciation: “Thank you to all our clergy for making this healing Shabbat available to us. I feel you are there for each of us.” “This is wonderful!!! The kids are dancing to the music!”
At the end, Rodich emphasized, “We are not closed. We are finding new ways to
gather.”
And, because some things never change, there were, of course, congregational announcements: Senior Rabbi Jonathan Singer typed a comment reminding people to tune in for Torah study the next morning.
“It was a strange experience, and it was strangely beautiful, too,” Mintz told J. a few days later. “When I lead services, I get my energy from people smiling and clapping, so it was an exercise in creative imagination to reach out and try to feel this sense of hineinu — we’re all here — right now, in this virtual Shabbat.”
Before the service, Mintz, Rodich and Attie said Shehecheyanu together, a prayer said the first time one does something — in this case, it was the first time they had livestreamed a service. And then Mintz said a blessing for the internet.
She also likened it to Purim, which is thought of as topsy-turvy time, when everything is turned on its head. “Purim was ‘canceled’ because of the virus, but it was like it was still going on, everything still upside-down. Normally we ask people to turn their phones off at the beginning of a service, but here we were asking people to turn on a screen just to be a part of the service.”
For those who go to synagogue weekly, the coronavirus restrictions are jarring enough — how much more so for those who attend a daily minyan. Marilyn Heiss, who has been attending morning minyan every day at Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco for 20 years and often leads part of the service, feels a major disruption. Her father, Seymour Heiss, died in June, so
she is still in the one-year period of saying Mourner’s Kaddish for him daily.
Though many synagogues are streaming Shabbat services, fewer are streaming daily minyans. But Heiss found out that Temple Beth Am, a Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles that she previously has been to, is livestreaming their morning minyan every day. It’s halachically dicey, but Beth Am has decided that more than 10 people in attendance virtually is good enough to say Kaddish.
“From my point of view — there were 25 people watching — I would call that a minyan,” Heiss said. “But it has been the weirdest thing.”
Meanwhile, her own shul’s ritual committee was scheduled to meet this week to decide whether and how they will proceed with streaming morning minyan.
Streaming Shabbat services is well and good for some Jews, but that option is not open to Orthodox communities.
As of Thursday of last week, the Modern Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley was still planning to hold Shabbat services, albeit with some modifications: seats spread farther apart, no sermon, no kiddush gathering afterward. But by the next day, synagogue leaders canceled services altogether.
“Once the school district closed in Berkeley, we saw that as an expression of what the public stance is, and it became very clear that if we gathered as a community, it would undermine that effort,” said Beth Israel’s Rabbi Yonatan Cohen.
Though it was an unusual experience for him to be hunkered down at home on a Friday evening rather than in front of his
community, Cohen said leading and attending services isn’t the most important part of his job.
“My primary role as a rabbi is behind the scenes most of the time,” he said. “So rabbis teach classes and they give sermons and convene the community on Shabbat, but that’s a limited part of the week. The rest of the week we’re there for people for one-on-one learning and reaching out and pastoral counseling.
“All those things happen all the time, and now due to the circumstances, they’re becoming much more public because it’s becoming the core of the rabbinate and it needs to be communicated publicly. Most parts of my job have become more intensified.”
That’s not to say that Shabbat isn’t important, but that other things are coming to the fore now.
“Shabbat is an essential mitzvah in our week and in our lives, but at this time, our role is to focus on all the other mitzvot that are so pronounced right now, in terms of what it means to be a community. It’s easy to be a community on Shabbat morning, but what does it mean to come together when we can’t be together?
“Everyone who stays home now is performing a mitzvah just by staying home,” Cohen continued. “We’re protecting the health of others, our own health, respecting our elders in profound ways.”
Some of these changes in mentality and way of connection may be permanent, too.
Said Mintz: “When this lifts, it will have irrevocably changed every human being and every community, in how we connect with each other and how we think of connecting virtually.
“But we’ll have to circle back when it’s all over and see how things shake out.” n
Rabbi Daniel Stein (top right) leads candle lighting and some songs over Zoom before Shabbat, March 13, 2020.
DAVID A.M. WILENSKY
Rabbi Sydney Mintz
Federations, JFCS announce coronavirus emergency funds
GABE STUTMAN | J. STAFF
The Bay Area’s largest Jewish nonprofits have launched emergency fundraising efforts to combat the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
As fallout from the novel coronavirus, and responses to it, ripple across the local Jewish community, institutions that rely on a membership-based model, such as JCCs, have been hit particularly hard, according to Roxanne Cohen, director of community impact for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
Shelter-in-place orders are in effect throughout the Bay Area, shuttering non-essential business for at least three weeks.
“There’s certainly concern about business disruption and uncertainty about long-term impacts,” Cohen said, noting that generally, JCCs rely on gym memberships for between 70 and 90 percent of their revenues.
Last week, the Federation announced a COVID-19 Response Fund and created a portal on its website where people can donate. The donation page can be accessed directly at my.jewishfed.org/covid-19.
In recent years, the S.F-based Federation has opened single-issue emergency funds after serious incidents, including terrorist attacks in Israel, the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and the 2017 North Bay wildfires that devastated communities and largely destroyed Camp Newman in Sonoma County.
The organization raised about $1.3 million after the North Bay fires, with funds going not only toward rebuilding but also toward emergency preparedness for future events.
Cohen said it was premature to set a funding goal for the COVID-19 Response Fund “until we get a full scope of what the need is.” She said the Federation this week will be sending out a survey to local Jewish institutions, including synagogues, to “learn more about needs as they are projected.”
Cohen stressed that dealing with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic will be “a marathon, not a sprint.” To that end, the Federation has also established an emergency COVID-19 task force, chaired by San Francisco philanthropist John Goldman, a past president of the Federation and the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services. Since the taskforce was still in the process of forming at press time, the Federation could not make Goldman available for comment.
“Other than his agreement to spearhead the task force, the details have yet to be fleshed out,” spokesperson Kerry Philp wrote in an email.
JFCS also launched an emergency fund in recent days with money going directly to those affected by the coronavirus crisis. Nancy Masters, the agency’s associate executive director, said that as of March 17, the agency was almost entirely focused on responding to needs emerging as a result of the public health emergency. JFCS caters to many elderly Jews through its Seniors At Home division.
“The initial calls are from people who don’t have food and who need food delivered to them, people who need care at home and from isolated seniors who need support,” Masters said.
She said the situation was evolving and that, over time, additional needs may become apparent. Many people will be facing lost wages as the economy suffers from global fallout and local businesses stay closed.
“JFCS has always provided, and will continue to provide, emergency assistance to the community in need,” Masters said. “Exactly what will be needed? This is just Day 1 of the shelter-in-place order.”
Donations to the JFCS coronavirus community emergency fund can be made at donate.jfcs.org/give/277027. In addition, executive director Anita Friedman has posted a coronavirus update, recapping her agency’s current services, at tinyurl.com/ jfcs-sf-update.
Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay, which serves a similar clientele on the other side of the Bay Bridge, is collecting donations for vulnerable populations, such as low-income families, refugees who have lost their jobs and isolated seniors, at jfcs-eastbay.org/donate-now-2.
Jyl Jurman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley, said in an email that the agency was busy coordinating with its community partners and was still assessing needs. More information, including a link to donate to the coronavirus response, can be found at jvalley.org.
With the stock market tumbling and more layoffs anticipated, financial effects are expected to increase.
Hebrew Free Loan is offering interest-free loans to individuals affected by the coronavirus pandemic, either from missed paychecks, small-business losses or health care costs. More information can be found at hflasf.org/apply/loans-we-offer.
Masters said JFCS has a long history of reacting to crises and will be prepared to meet the challenges sure to emerge in the coming weeks.
“We’ve had multiple scenarios over many years where we’ve needed to gear up and respond to these types of emergencies,” she said, citing, among other things, wildfires and recessions. “We’ve been gearing up to respond to disasters since 1850.” n
COURTESY SUE TENEROWICZ Jewish Family and Children’s Services in San Francisco delivering food during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic.
Here are the Jewish organizations open and offering support
GABRIEL GRESCHLER | J. STAFF
This week residents in most Bay Area counties have been following orders to limit all nonessential travel and stay in their homes through April 7 as public health officials work to slow down the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
While grocery stores, pharmacies and police and fire stations will remain in operation — along with media outlets including J. — there are also a number of Jewish organizations offering critical services to Bay Area residents who are in need of food, counseling or other forms of help.
San Francisco-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services, which also serves the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma counties, is offering delivery from its food bank, delivery of food and supplies to seniors, and counseling for families and adults. Need assistance? Call the JFCS Bay Area Critical Help Line at (415) 449-3700.
Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay is providing counseling and case management (Go to: tinyurl. com/jfcs-eastbay-counseling) by phone or video conference, and meal delivery services to those in need. For delivery information, email kwinogura@jfcs-eastbay.org.
Shalom Bayit, a Berkeley-based center for domestic violence prevention, is still serving its clients. However, it is suspending public events and restricting nonessential people from its office. Go to shalom-bayit.org
Hebrew Free Loan in San Francisco is offering interest-free loans to those who are hurting financially in the crisis, whether from missing work, suffering small-business losses or dealing with health care costs. For more information, contact Aimee Gruber at (415) 546-9902.
Locations of Meals on Wheels in San Francisco, Contra Costa and Alameda counties, as well as in Castro Valley, Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Diablo Region, are requesting younger volunteers. Meals on Wheels is considered an essential service under the “shelter in place” order. Go to: tinyurl.com/mealswheels-find
Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley is still offering phone appointments for therapy clients and emergency food assistance for Holocaust survivors and isolated seniors.
The S.F.-based Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, which provides spiritual care to those living with illness or caring for the ill, will remain open. Go to: tinyurl.com/ healing-center
Jewish funeral home Sinai Memorial Chapel in San Francisco, Lafayette and Redwood City is remaining open. Go to sinaichapel.org n
Agencies, therapists reach out to the anxious and isolated
MAYA MIRSKY | J. STAFF Isolation, uncertainty, fear — therapists, social workers and doctors are expecting coronavirus anxiety to increase over the next three weeks, as 7 to 8 million people in most Bay Area counties have been ordered to self-quarantine at home.
But the mental health community has also been encouraged by the measures people are taking to reach out.
“A lot of what we’re hearing is people want to figure out ways to stay connected, even with public health demands to be isolated,” said Rabbi Eric Weiss of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center in San Francisco.
With this week’s shelter-in-place announcement asking residents to stay home except for essential errands (like food shopping or getting medicine), Rita Clancy is concerned about seniors.
“It’s going to be really, really hard,” said Clancy, the director of adult services at Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay. “People are going to be scared and anxious.”
The agency provides home care, counseling, legal help and mental health services to seniors, many of whom are housebound. They are some of the people at highest risk physically, but they can also suffer mentally from anxiety caused by the uncertainty around symptoms and contagion.
Clancy foresees even more anxiety over the coming weeks as seniors become more and more isolated from caseworkers and other people in their support system. Instead of face-toface visits, the agency’s social workers will communicate by phone. Clancy said that’s not ideal, but it’s the only way they can keep on top of clients’ physical and mental health without compromising their own safety.
“We’re not going to be sitting idle, that’s for sure,” she said. “We’re going to be doing what we can.”
Meanwhile, S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services has set up resources for people feeling anxious or overwhelmed during the crisis. Beyond making sure vulnerable Jewish seniors and disabled people are being looked after, the agency is offering emergency counseling, consultation and advice by telephone or video conference, as well as online workshops with tips for parents to support children struggling with anxiety over the pandemic.
Across the bay, Berkeley-based psychotherapist Jason Brand said, “In the mental health community, we’re kind of scrambling to figure out how we’re going to continue to do our work.”
Brand, who works with couples and young adults, said for many of clients the reality of the situation hadn’t really sunk in. He was seeing clients in his office the day before the shelter-in-place order was announced. “I think we will see a shift as we all start to be cooped up inside,” he said.
He said that an enforced quarantine in a household could bring many stressors, as families feel the pressure — especially if parents are having trouble getting along or have children with mental health issues.
But Brand encourages couples and families to work together as team members and allies, especially in the face of their own kids’ anxiety. He recommends keeping calm in front of children and limiting their exposure to the media.
“We don’t need to sugarcoat this, but they don’t need the full onslaught,” he said.
Brand also said that families with children out of school should find order in routine.
“Kids want structure,” he said. “As much as they complain when their alarms go off, they know internally that they need that structure.”
Elissa Epel, a professor of psychiatry at UCSF who studies the causes and effects of stress, told J. in an email that routine and structure can help people deal with uncertainty.
“Routine and self-care behaviors are especially important during this time,” she said. “Now that people are working at home, new rules need to be set. This will be more of a challenge for large families in smaller homes.”
But according to Epel, there’s a plus side to anxiety: It gets people to take the recommended safety measures seriously because they aren’t downplaying the risk.
“Anxiety is good,” she said. “Clearly the safety behaviors are what we need to be doing. Anxiety drives social distancing and safety behaviors.”
And concern about isolation is actually encouraging people to make an extra effort to reach out to others. Clancy said volunteers have been calling her agency offering to help.
“It’s better to reach out,” Clancy said. “It’s better to care and do a little gesture for somebody.”
She’s mustering volunteers to make regular phone calls to isolated seniors to help preserve the human-to-human connection that is very important to those who are home alone.
Weiss said that facing the unknown can encourage creativity and innovation; he’s been hearing about people creating art, journaling and making music as they’ve been at home.
Epel suggested finding strength in Jewish ritual. “Prayer can be very powerful right now if we let ourselves focus and connect with our spirituality and religion,” she said.
And although isolation and fear create uncertainty, there are many ways of fighting anxiety, whether it’s with a song or a prayer, or just a phone call to a friend.
“Feeling in touch with our common humanity right now is important,” Epel said. “This terrible virus brings us to our shared experience of being human, and we can feel compassion for each other.” n
Rita Clancy Jason Brand
BAY AREA NEWS | EVENTS | PEOPLE East Bay case inspires effort to bolster state’s hate crime law
continued from page 3 charge levied against Farca would prove unwieldy to prosecute, the case is bolstered by two weapons charges, both more serious than the threats charge.
According to police, a search of Farca’s Concord home at the time of his arrest turned up an assault-style rifle that was illegally assembled (in addition to 13 high-capacity magazines, paper targets, a sword, camouflage clothing and what Mahan described as a “tremendous amount of anti-Jewish hate stuff,” including pro-Nazi and “pro-concentration camp” materials).
Farca’s attorney, Joseph Tully, has said his client is autistic and that he did not mean for his threats to be taken seriously. Autism is not known to increase violent behavior.
Of the illegal assault weapon felony, Mahan said, “that’s probably going to be the strongest charge. It’s a physical item that actually exists, that we found.”
Introduced Feb. 21, AB 2925 was co-authored by a halfdozen members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, including Marc Berman, whose district includes parts of the Peninsula and Silicon Valley. On March 5 it was referred to the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee. The bill is in its infancy and no votes have yet been taken or scheduled.
The bill proposes changing the hate crimes law from a misdemeanor into a “wobbler” — a crime that could be prosecuted either as a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on circumstances. If charged as a felony, the crime could be punishable by up to three years in jail, and could add $25,000 or more to the bail amount. If cash bail is eliminated in California (pending a voter referendum in seven months), a judge will consider the felony charge in determining whether the accused poses a threat to public safety, Bauer-Kahan said.
A supporter of eliminating cash bail, Bauer-Kahan said this about the Farca case: “If the only question was whether he posed an imminent danger, I think he would have been held.” Instead, bail was set at $125,000 and posted days after Farcas’ arrest with the help of a bail bonds company.
Mahan believes a stronger hate crimes law in place would have given law enforcement an additional tool, which might have increased the bail amount. Then perhaps Farca would have remained in custody.
“Higher bail would have helped us,” Mahan said.
The new legislation is similar to an assembly bill (AB 907) introduced last year that would have created a new prohibition against criminal threats targeting places of worship. That legislation earned unanimous support in the assembly but stalled in the state Senate.
Bauer-Kahan stressed that if passed, AB 2925 would be applicable not only to threats against Jews, but also to threats against other protected classes and their locations, such as LGBTQ centers, black churches and women’s health clinics.
“One can define terrorism in many different ways,” Bauer-Kahan said. “I believe threats of this nature are terrorism.”
Mahan called the bill a “pretty darn good idea.”
“We live in a day and time when this kind of extremism is on the rise,” Bauer-Kahan said. “It’s incumbent upon us to do everything we can to keep our community safe.” n
