CAMP
SCENES ON VACATION
Summer camps wrap up 2021 seasons,
which we document via a photo spread.

AUGUST 19, 2021 / 11 ELUL 5781
PAGES 26-27, 35
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH IN PHILADELPHIA —
$1.00 OF NOTE
LOCAL Rabbi Neil Cooper
to retire in 2022
Temple Beth
Hillel-Beth El rabbi
began there in 1991.

Page 4
OBITUARY Survivor Natalie
Scharf Dies at
Age of 95
Trauma shaped the
rest of her life.

Page 6
EDUCATION Teachers Speak
Out Ahead of New
School Year
Two new school
teachers share first-
day jitters.

Page 10
Volume 134
Number 19
Published Weekly Since 1887
Center City
Mikvah Opens to
Community SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
THE FACEBOOK GROUP to raise
funds for the Mai Shalva Center City
Community Mikvah was created on Oct.

19, 2013, but the need for the mikvah long
predated the page.

Th irty years aft er the initial plan for a
Center City mikvah, and 40 years since
the closure of the previous Center City
mikvah, at long last, Mikvah Mai Shalva
is now open.

Th e mikvah, a ritual bath used for
purifi cation rituals in Judaism, is located
at Vilna Congregation, the Society Hill
shul at 509 Pine St.

Currently open to women exclusively,
the mikvah is primarily being used for the
purpose of taharat hamishpacha, family
purity. However, it also will be available
before Shabbat and weddings, and for
additional ritual use.

Despite spearheading the eff orts to
build the mikvah and hosting it at his
shul, Rabbi Menachem Schmidt wasn’t
originally interested in being involved
Congregation Rodeph Shalom expects more than 200 students to return to in-person religious
school next month.

Courtesy of Congregation Rodeph Shalom
Now In-Person, Religious
Schools Rebuild Community
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
FOR AREA HEBREW and religious
schools, it’s the calm before the storm.

Th ough many will begin the school
year a month or so aft er their secular
counterparts, local education directors at
synagogues have been hard at work this
summer navigating the delta variant and
planning the return to their classrooms,
vacant aft er a year-and-a-half of Zoom
Hebrew school.

“Our plan at the moment is never not
a moving target,” said Abigail Weinberg,
youth and families director at the
Germantown Jewish Centre.

Religious schools are — for now —
back in person. Th ough the format is a
See Mikvah, Page 14
See Religious, Page 15
Call Now to Save Your Space
Interior & Exterior Painting
Pressure Cleaning - Carpentry
Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing
610-664-5555 The Sign of Craftsmanship ®
www.johnneillpainting.com