H eadlines
Balaban Continued from Page 10
community was very different.

I’m trying not to come into
this role with a preconceived
notion. Right now it is about
listening. I want to make sure
that as I’m making decisions
and retooling the organiza-
tion, it addresses Philadelphia’s
specific and unique needs.

JE: How would you charac-
terize the Philadelphia Jewish
community? MB: There’s a uniqueness
about Philadelphia. There are
some similarities to Broward
County, Florida, where I
came from. The Greater Fort
Lauderdale area was nestled
between Miami and Boca, two
deeply rooted Jewish commu-
nities that were seen as mega
producers. Here we’re situated
between New York and
Washington D.C., and it can
cause one at times to look to
our left or to our right, or up
the coast or down, as opposed
to taking a look inward at who
we are and what we can accom-
plish. We found in Florida
that once we stopped trying
to compare ourselves to the
others around us and started
diving into who we could be,
we grew and were able to really
create excitement, create a
lot of wins for ourselves and
ultimately had those other
two communities chasing us
instead of us chasing them.

There’s something about the
psyche here that is a little
similar to that.

JE: And how is the Jewish
Federation of Philadelphia
different than the Federation
in Broward County?
MB: There’s much more
deep-seated legacy here than
was there, because no one’s
from Broward County, Florida.

Everyone I dealt with, for
the most part, was a trans-
plant. But you’ve got diehard
Philadelphians here, and there
are things that are rooted
in the nature and culture of
this community that Florida
just didn’t have. And that’s a
good thing — that’s a great
thing — in many respects.

However, sometimes you have
to let go of ghosts of the past
in order to rebuild your future.

The pursuit of perfection can
impede improvement, and
sometimes the ghosts of the
past also impede. So we’ve got
to make sure we balance that
proper respect for what was,
but we have to be willing to
move forward. Part of my job
is pushing and pulling people
over that threshold.

JE: Why did you decide to
come back to Philly?
MB: We came back for
family, and the opportunity to
reset the future for the Jewish
community that my family
grew up in. It’s an honor, and
a responsibility that weighs
heavily. But I’m fortunate to
know that the weight of that is
carried by a tremendous group
of lay leaders and an amazing
staff of professionals here.

going to go anywhere fast.

COVID helped the Federation
to realize that it needs to play
a greater role in bringing the
spokes all closer together as
partners working together. It’s
important to point out that
the Federation never closed
during COVID. We may have
stopped working out of 2100
Arch, but we never closed.

Equally, it was the same for
our agency partners. They
are a team of unsung heroes
who are working in childcare
centers, synagogues, schools,
JCC, Federation housing,
Jewish Family and Children’s
Service, Jewish Vocational
Services, JLV, JChai, Hillel and
many, many more committed
agencies. It’s a group of people
who are incredibly committed
to their clients and to their
customers. The world doesn’t
stop turning, and COVID and
this delta variant is a reminder
that life speeds up around
you, so you better learn to run
faster. JE: What are some of the
effects COVID had on the
Jewish Federation?
MB: I look at the Jewish
community as a wheel with
spokes. And over the years,
the spokes between Federation
and its agency partners have
gotten further and further
apart. Not out of purpose
— just out of organizations
working to fend for themselves,
trying to find their own way.

JE: How is the extreme
So COVID helped, on some partisan polarization in our
levels, rebalance the fact that country and our community
the community needs a hub. affecting the Jewish Federation?
A wheel without a hub isn’t
MB: We’ve got to find a
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way to bring people to the
center. I don’t mean that in
the political perspective; I
mean that in the sense that
the world has moved to a place
where if I’m right, you must
be wrong. This happens on
a whole host of issues, be it
politics, be it masks, you name
the subject, someone’s going
to have an opinion. And those
opinions have started to create
silos in the community and
push people away. We need to
be able to come together and
learn how to listen to each
other. We need a community
focused on caring for the
needs of the Jewish people
and building a more vibrant
Jewish future.

JE: That’s a tall order.

MB: There’s so much oppor-
tunity in this community. I
have faith and the determina-
tion to ensure that we will be at
the top and become one of the
best nonprofits and commu-
nities out there for people to
envy. It’s going to take a little
bit of time, but we’re going to
get it done. l
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Event Continued from Page 1
Philadelphia and suburban
counties surpass 5%, which the
CDC considers dangerous.

“We’re definitely getting
nervous,” said
Michelle Durinzi,
the marketing
director for Robert Ryan
Catering in Collegeville, which
also operates three wedding
and bar/bat mitzvah venues in
the suburbs. “We’d be silly not
to after the past year.”
According to Durinzi, the
company’s October schedule
is the busiest in its 29-year
history, with 41 weddings.

Due to cancellations, in
2020 Robert Ryan’s revenue
plummeted $2
million compared to a normal year.

Revenue is still down about
$1.5 million for 2021 due to
COVID capacity limits from
the first half of the year.

Half of the company’s
events for 2021 are booked
for September and October.

All are going to be open to
capacity crowds of more than
125 people ... at least for now.

“We’ll just keep crossing our
fingers,” Durinzi said. “We’ll
see what comes and address it
when it comes up.”
Some owners and managers,
though, are not waiting to
make contingency plans.

At the Artesano Gallery in
Philadelphia, Jewish owners
COVID Continued from Page 6
its most at-risk patients.

Then, Jewish Family &
Children’s Service of Greater
Philadelphia reached out and
asked if the hospital could
vaccinate area Holocaust survi-
vors. So, Sivak’s team moved
the operation to Einstein’s
Elkins Park facility and vacci-
nated a few hundred survivors.

Later, Philadelphia asked
the network to help inoculate
SEPTA workers. So, Sivak’s
team vaccinated between 800
and 1,000 of the region’s most
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Jaime and Mildred Kaplan
will soon meet with their event
manager, Talia Kassie, to decide
on official delta variant proto-
cols for their packed September
and October schedule.

The facility already requires
employees to show proof of
vaccination or a negative
COVID test from the past 72
hours before each shift. Then,
when they are on duty, all
unvaccinated employees need
to wear masks.

Kassie said she is already
starting to ask couples to
make the same requests of
their wedding guests. Most
are happy to do it to keep
their weddings on schedule.

Some, though, have already
postponed their big days.

The event manager wants
Philadelphia to implement
public restrictions, like New
York City’s proof of vaccina-
tion requirement for indoor
activities, to take some of the
pressure off of venues.

“No one wants to be that
venue that becomes the super
spreader,” she said. “But we
don’t want to lose business,
either.” Susan Norcross, owner of
The Styled Bride, plans Jewish
and non-Jewish weddings in
Philadelphia, the Main Line
and New Jersey.

In a normal year, she books
20 to 30 weddings. In 2020,
she did just six, and most were
essential employees.

“We were vaccinating
anybody who came our way,”
Sivak said.

Finally, the city gave
Einstein a $300,000 grant
to open the Tabor Road site.

Almost 10,000 people have
gotten vaccinated there, Way
said. Einstein has vaccinated
about 60,000 in all.

Sivak credited other
hospital networks, like
Jefferson Health, Temple
Health and Penn Medicine,
for playing significant roles
in the local process, which
has inoculated millions.

micro-weddings with 12-20
guests. This year, she is on
track to throw more than 30
celebrations. “I’ve lost count,” Norcross
said. She also said she’s not too
worried. The fall of 2021 is
different from the spring of
2020. After the pandemic broke
out, the safest choice was to
postpone big events. But with
the vaccine, it’s possible to pull
off big parties even with the
delta variant and perhaps some
restrictions. Norcross has five weddings
in August, and only one has
seen a dropoff in confirmed
attendees due to the delta
variant. Many of The Styled
Bride’s couples have all
vaccinated guests. And, for
the most part, her partner
vendors’ employees are all
vaccinated. Some couples that don’t
have fully vaccinated guest lists
are starting to ask Norcross
about rapid testing.

“That’s the other thing: You
can ask guests to be rapid-
tested,” she said. “You can do
due diligence to see the family
members and friends that
you’re going to see.”
But Norcross acknowledged
that, just like in March 2020,
we still don’t know what’s to
come. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the
“Medical centers took on
the role because the city didn’t
have the infrastructure to do
it,” Sivak said.

The doctor said his
expanded role isn’t likely
to scale back anytime soon,
either. With the delta variant
causing a new round of cases
and restrictions, his goal now
is to get everyone vaccinated.

“If you get it from the delta
variant and are vaccinated,
you’re very unlikely to end up in
the hospital or die,” Sivak said. l
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chief medical adviser to
President Joe Biden, is warning
that a new variant, one that
has proved adept at evading
COVID vaccines, may emerge
if more Americans don’t get
vaccinated. To date, about half
of the U.S. population is fully
vaccinated, according to CDC
numbers. “I can’t speculate,” Norcross
said. “But I do think over the
next several months, this is
going to be a new normal for
us as we try to figure out what
this looks like in the hospitality
industry.” l
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