H eadlines
Doctor Takes on Vital Role During COVID Crisis
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
BEFORE COVID, Dr. Steven
Sivak was a veteran physician
who had risen to the admin-
istrative level, overseeing the
Einstein Healthcare Network’s
practice locations and hospital
patients in the Philadelphia
medical center.

After COVID broke out, he
became the medical equivalent
of a wartime general, respon-
sible for building pandemic
processes on the fly and then,
once the vaccine became avail-
able in December, organizing
a community inoculation
program on the fly, too.

The Jewish doctor rose to
the unprecedented challenge,
according to Einstein colleagues.

“The staff pulled together,”
said Dr. Eric Sachinwalla,
Einstein’s medical director for
infection prevention and control.

“He said, ‘It’s not just about
the people within our walls,’”
recalled Juanita Way, who is
running the network’s Tabor
Road vaccine site. “‘It’s about
the people in our community.’”
In the spring of 2020, Sivak’s
goal was to prevent people
from dying.

Einstein Medical Center
Philadelphia was caring for 65
ventilator patients at a time, up
from pre-pandemic norms of
about 20. It also had a packed
emergency room of about 200
patients. Sivak, then 68, was meeting
daily with his team and working
100-hour weeks. Despite their
best efforts, like most hospital
workers then, they saw a lot of
deaths. But, according to Sivak,
Einstein’s death rate was lower
than other area hospitals. And
no Einstein employees got
COVID infections from caring
for sick patients.

Sivak attributed the success
to processes that his team devel-
oped over those early months.

Einstein employees started
screening people at the doors
and enforcing pandemic rules,
like mask-wearing and social
distancing, inside facilities.

They quarantined all positive
patients into COVID-specific
units. They also started using all
types of doctors, including
cardiologists and other special-
ists, as critical care doctors.

Sivak’s team even called up
medical residents to the
emergency room.

“We had to accommodate
a sudden influx of critically ill
patients that far exceeded our
capacity to manage patients,”
From left: Drs. Steven Sivak and Eric Sachinwalla discuss the COVID
vaccination rollout at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia.

Courtesy of Einstein Healthcare
Sivak said.

By the winter, though,
Sivak’s team was able to use
vaccines to help people live
again. For the first month of the
vaccination process, like most
hospital systems, Einstein
jabbed its essential workers.

Using the Philadelphia hospi-
tal’s largest auditorium, Sivak’s
team set up six vaccination
stations, did 500 shots a day
and inoculated 75% of the staff.

“It was exhilarating,” Sivak
said. “You could feel a sense
of relief come over the whole
organization.” After that first month,
Einstein extended the shots to
See COVID, Page 13
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H EADLINES
JFNA Head Advocates
for Security
NATIONAL SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
“It’s really been a boon to our
area,” Schatz said.

Schatz secured two grants for
the Jewish Federation in past
years, and increased funding of
the program would allow the
organization to apply funds
from future grants to expanding
security measures elsewhere.

Generally, the allocations fund
jobs for security guards, instal-
lation of security cameras and
other security infrastructures.

According to Shira Goodman,
regional director of Anti-
Defamation League Philadelphia,
though 2020 saw a small dip in
local antisemitism, Philadelphia,
Montgomery and Delaware
counties remain the state’s
antisemitism hotbeds.

“We have seen people who are
motivated by hate emboldened
in recent years,” Goodman said.

Along with the national grant
program, Pennsylvania organi-
zations can apply to a similar
state-based grant program
through the Pennsylvania
Commission on Crime and
Delinquency. Because these
programs fund primarily faith-
based organizations, advocacy
from the Jewish community to
increase program funding is a way
to stand in solidarity with other
religious communities.

“It’s a good opportunity for
us all to realize the things that
unite us rather than divide us,”
Goodman said. “It’s important
both for offi cial lobbyists, but also
people on the ground who are
working with those communities,
to keep building those ties.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt
was among the other faith-based
leaders who testifi ed on far-right
extremism. Both Fingerhut
and Greenblatt expressed their
support for the Pray Safe Act, a
bipartisan bill that would provide
additional resources for faith-
based organizations. ●
ERIC FINGERHUT, president
and CEO of the Jewish Federations
of North America, testifi ed to
the Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
Committee on Aug. 3 as part of
a hearing on the prevalence of
“racially, ethnically, religiously
and politically motivated”
terrorist and extremist attacks.

Fingerhut’s testimony
primarily focused on the
demand to increase the budget
of the Nonprofi t Security Grant
Program, which provides funds to
organizations looking to enhance
security measures for commu-
nities oft en targeted by violent
extremism or domestic terrorism.

“Security has always been
a core concern of Jewish
Federations,” Fingerhut said.

“We know that the ability and
the confi dence of our commu-
nity to participate fully in
Jewish religious and cultural life
depends on feeling safe.”
Spurred by 9/11 and created
in 2004 through the Department
of Homeland Security, NSGP
funds between 140 and 1,500
organizations, with annual
expenditures of $35 million, small
by federal standards, according
to Fingerhut. Th ough this year’s
budget ballooned to $180 million,
the program still couldn’t accom-
modate many applicants.

Jewish organizations are the
primary grant recipients, with
$115 million out of this year’s
$180 million allocated to Jewish
organizations nationally.

Since the program’s inception,
organizations in the Philadelphia
area have received more than
$2 million in grants, according
to Robin Schatz, director of
Govenment Aff airs for the Jewish
Community Relations Council of
the Jewish Federation. Th is year,
four Philadelphia organizations srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
received grants totaling $413,389. 215-832-0741
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AUGUST 12, 2021
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