PASS THE LO MEIN
DECEMBER 23, 2021 / 19 TEVET 5782
MELTING POT
Chef Michael Twitty explains how Jewish food is
an amalgam of worldwide cultures.

PAGE 18
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH IN PHILADELPHIA —
$1.00 OF NOTE
LOCAL Religious Schools
Scramble to Find
Teachers Pandemic caused
since-resolved shortfalls.

Page 4
LOCAL Group Forms to
Support Jewish
Security Efforts
Security is more
than locks, cameras.

Page 5
LOCAL Mummers Adapt
to the Times
Sensitivity training
a part of pre-march
preparation. Page 8
Volume 134
Number 37
Published Weekly Since 1887
Perelman Day School
Leader to
Retire JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
IN HER EIGHT YEARS leading the
Perelman Jewish Day School, Judy Groner
faced two major tests: presiding over a
generational change in the teaching ranks
and COVID-19.

And she passed both, according to
Perelman teachers and parents.

Groner took over as head of school in
the summer of 2014 and is retiring at the
end of the 2021-’22 school year.

Th e Philadelphia resident has been
a Jewish educator for four decades. She
wants to step down while she still enjoys
the work. She also wants to spend more
time with her husband, four children,
three step-children, one grandchild and
fi ve step-grandchildren.

“It’s just the right time for me,”
Groner said.

Groner took the pre-K-5 Perelman job
to be closer to her husband. In the decade
leading to her decision, she worked in
Greensboro, North Carolina, while he was
in Philadelphia.

But for the longtime educator, the
Kismet Bagels co-owners Alexandra and Jacob Cohen have called 10 diff erent distributors to
fi nd a reliable supply of cream cheese.

Photo by Mike Prince
Bagel Businesses Navigate
Schmear Shortage
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ONE CAN’T TALK about cream cheese
without bringing up the City of Brotherly
Love for which a popular brand is named.

And these days, Philadelphia bagel
purveyors can’t talk about Philadelphia
Cream Cheese without bringing up their
See Perelman, Page 12
notable lack of the stuff .

Th e national cream cheese shortage,
the latest casualty of global supply chain
issues, has hit Philadelphia, and local
schmear sellers are feeling the eff ects.

“Th e price started creeping up just a bit,
and then in the last month or so, it’s been
incredibly diffi cult to even secure cream
See Schmear, Page 13
LEARN TO DRIVE
IN A TESLA!