BACK TO SCHOOL
SHAPING OPINIONS
Film examines how the media can alter thinking
on contentious topics.

AUGUST 26, 2021 / 18 ELUL 5781
PAGE 32
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH IN PHILADELPHIA —
$1.00 OF NOTE
LOCAL JCC to Eliminate
Fitness Classes
Decision pending
on the fate of its
fitness center.

Page 4
LOCAL Event to Discuss
Post-9/11 Resilience
MBIEE to host a
discussion with a
key figure.

Page 6
LOCAL Synagogue Aims
to Alleviate
Medical Debt
Effort ties in with
Shmita year.

Page 10
Volume 134
Number 20
Published Weekly Since 1887
Jewish Labor
Eff orts
Endure Over
Century SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ASKING WHAT LOCAL radio station
journalists, public school teachers, bus
drivers and train conductors have in
common may sound like the beginning of
a bad joke.

But their shared dismay with poor
working conditions is far from a punchline.

Th is month, unionized workers from
WHYY Union, Philadelphia schools and
SEPTA, among other companies, sat
down with their employers around the
bargaining table, asking for fair contracts,
fair wages and coronavirus protections.

At the helm of some of these eff orts are
a handful of Jewish leaders, holding onto
a century-long Jewish tradition of labor
organizing in the United States.

Arthur Steinberg, president of the
American Federation of Teachers
Pennsylvania, is urging state offi cials to
adopt a mask mandate for students, staff
and teachers in state schools.

“Th e science is very clear that mask
mandates are a critical part of a multi-lay-
ered mitigation strategy,” Steinberg said.

See Labor, Page 16
Camp Saginaw in Oxford, summer 2021
Courtesy of Camp Saginaw
Jewish Summer Camps
Refl ect on 2021 Experience
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
AT JEWISH SUMMER CAMPS, the
motto is oft en “10 months for two.”
Campers wait out the other 10 months of
the year for the two magical ones at camp.

In 2021, though, it was “22 months for
two,” said Sarah Sideman, director of the
JCC Camps of Medford, New Jersey. Kids
ended camp in 2019, mostly sat out the
canceled pandemic summer of 2020 and
fi nally returned in 2021.

As a result of the extended — and
unwelcome — break, Sideman said, “Th ere
was a lot of anticipation.”
And the summer seems to have lived
up to the hype.

Vaccination rates for staff ers and
See Camps, Page 17