Essays by communal leaders look back on the pandemic five years later, considering its impact on Jewish life, community and education.
It’s likely that many of us don’t look back much at all, or if we do, we don’t look back with any fondness at our communal struggles and adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic that arrived in our area five years ago.
While this reaction may be understandable, given the fear and uncertainty of the circumstances at the time, it’s also clear that there’s a lot we can learn from our communal experiences in the nearly two years that the pandemic, in various stages, gripped our shuls, our schools, our organizations and our sense of kehilla.
In the interest of contributing to a well-informed and clear-eyed view of COVID-19, Rabbi Yehuda Halpert, working under the guidance of Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, editor of TRADITION, served as guest editor for a series of six essays, each written by highly regarded communal leaders, that were published the week of April 21 in TraditionOnline. The “Covid+5” essay series was then capped off with a podcast discussion with each of the participants on Tradition Podcast that delved deeper into the ideas and theories presented in the essays.
TraditionOnline and Tradition Podcast comprise the online platform of TRADITION: The Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, which is published quarterly by the Rabbinical Council of America. Aside from its print issues, through its website, podcasts and presence on social media, the scholarly journal produces ongoing digital content, such as this series on the impact of COVID, to inform the religious community it serves since its founding by Rabbi Norman Lamm in 1958.
The “COVID+5” essays cover a range of topics.
Rabbi Joshua Kahn, the rosh yeshiva of the Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck, and the former head of school of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA) in Manhattan, writes about “COVID+5: The Impact on Education.” Rabbi Kahn finds that COVID-19 prompted schools to “drill down on our values,” prompting them to more deeply appreciate their mission and priorities. He also points out a heightened sensitivity in schools to the mental health of their students and an appreciation of their faculty, which continues until today.
Rabbi Leonard A. Matanky, the rabbi of Congregation K.I.N.S. of West Rogers Park in Chicago and the dean of Ida Crown Jewish Academy, also writes on education, and notes how, after the pandemic, “we have seen a drop in math, science, language arts, Tanakh, and Hebrew reading” among students and struggles in building healthy interpersonal relationships. On the positive side, he highlights how schools adapted quickly to new technology and demonstrated remarkable resilience.
Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin, the rav of Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto Congregation (The BAYT) writes about “COVID+5: The Individual and the Community” and charts aspects of COVID-19 that affect shuls to this day. He outlines a few categories of shul-goers whose attachment to specific shuls waned during the pandemic, such as the “socially Orthodox,” who are colloquially known as JFK attendees (“Just for Kiddush”). He strikes an optimistic chord, stating, “With time, patience, and the ability to adapt to new facts on the ground, we will hopefully succeed in strengthening our shuls and bringing Jews of all stripes back to their religious homes.”
Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, the rav of Congregation Beth Aaron in Teaneck, also writes about the Individual and the community, and notes that the pandemic prompted a radical downsizing of smachot. He states: “They were often described as more beautiful, more emotional, and more genuine than their pre-pandemic counterparts … stripped of elaborate venues, endless courses, and professional entertainment, the essence of the simcha shone through: family, connection, joy, and holiness.” He notes with sadness that “as restrictions lifted and normal life resumed, it quickly became evident that there would be no enduring shift” and encourages people to reevaluate how they celebrate life-cycle events and to prioritize the “true” substance of the simcha.
Gila Muskin Block, the executive director and co-founder of Yesh Tikva, an organization that assists families battling infertility, writes about “COVID+5: From Crisis to Personal and Communal Growth,” and notes that while “the pandemic was a collective experience of uncertainty, isolation, and waiting,” it had the added effect of exacerbating the medical and emotional struggles of families facing infertility. She hopes that the pandemic experience can prompt community members who don’t experience these challenges on a regular basis to develop more empathy for those who struggle with infertility.
Dr. Carl Hochhauser, the yeshiva psychologist and a teacher of Jewish philosophy at Yeshivat HaKotel in Jerusalem, who also maintains a private practice in Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem, writes on the topic “From Crisis to Personal and Communal Growth,” and notes that although the isolation and loneliness caused by the lockdowns led to sharp increases in anxiety and depression (which studies show affected women more than men and young adults more than older adults), he points out three positive outcomes from the pandemic: 1) the reaffirmation of the principle that confronting obstacles can lead to growth; 2) the adoption and normalization of the use of telehealth platforms by mental health professionals, which has continued post-pandemic and helped disabled and immunocompromised patients; and 3) destigmatizing of mental health challenges and mental health treatment.
All six essays, a series introduction by the guest editor, and a podcast in which all the participants in the series delve into each of these issues, can be accessed here:
Rabbi Halpert, the guest editor of this essay series, is the rabbi of Congregation Ahavat Shalom in Teaneck and a practicing attorney and counsel in the New York Office of Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP. He is also an adjunct professor in business ethics and Jewish law at the Sy Syms School of Business of Yeshiva University in Manhattan. He lives in Teaneck with his wife and their four children.
Rabbi Halpert is uniquely qualified to lead this thoughtful exercise in a communal assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as he is the author of “Speaking to an Empty Shul: Timeless Lesson from Unprecedented Times.” In this book Rabbi Halpert shares the weekly divrei Torah that he offered in varying degrees of absentia to his community, and, via the framework of a rabbinic diary, he examines the challenges endured during the lockdown within their historical framework, and relates the spiritual triumphs of a Jewish community as it experienced the pandemic.
For more information on this book, please see: https://www.feldheim.com/speaking-to-an-empty-shul
Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at [email protected] and he welcomes reader feedback. When he’s really lucky, he gets to cover some of the notable people in the Jewish communities in Bergen County.
