HAPPY NEW YEAR!
DECEMBER 30, 2021 / 26 TEVET 5782
‘LICORICE PIZZA’
Youth is wasted on the young in this
Paul Thomas Anderson film.

PAGE 14
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH IN PHILADELPHIA —
$1.00 OF NOTE
LOCAL New Year’s
Resolutions Philadelphia’s
Jewish community
set goals for 2022.

Page 4
LOCAL Antisemitic Acts
Break Out in
South Jersey
Investigators looking
into two incidents in
Burlington County.

Page 6
LOCAL JNF-USA Names
Philadelphia JNFuture Leader
Sean Siegel shares a
devotion to Israel.

Page 17
Volume 134
Number 38
Published Weekly Since 1887
Jewish Leaders Take
Stance on
Abortion SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
IF A JEWISH PERSON was asked to vote
for one of two candidates in an election
— one who advocated for abortion on
demand or one who banned abortion
entirely — medical ethics expert Dr.

Daniel Eisenberg said that halachically,
Jews should vote for the candidate who
allowed abortions on demand.

American Jews are not being asked
to make this black-and-white decision,
but the U.S. Supreme Court is heavily
weighing the question of allowing
abortion in the United States. In July, the
court will convene to decide whether to
uphold Mississippi’s 2018 law banning
abortion aft er 15 weeks of pregnancy and
potentially to strike the 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision, which granted federal protection
to women seeking abortions.

Republicans and Christian establish-
ments have led the movement to restrict
abortion access, but they are not the only
ones with voices on the matter. Many
area Jewish leaders would agree with
Eisenberg’s ethical argument.

See Abortion, Page 8
A cohort of campers play at JCC Camps at Medford in 2020, a year when many camps canceled
their summer sessions.

Courtesy of Sara Sideman
2021: Year in Review for
Jewish Philadelphia
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ON NEW YEAR’S EVE 2020, it seemed
people were expecting the winds of change
to come in 2021.

Health care workers receiving their fi rst
COVID jabs in December and an election
yielding a new president in November
were interpreted as harbingers. In 2021,
we hoped COVID would be eradicated
and, in its place, would be a return to what
was comfortable or a new normal that
was even better than what life looked like
before the pandemic.

Instead, we continued and continue to
brave the unknown and move forward,
adapting to COVID’s new challenges, a
changing climate and political landscape.

Turn to page 9 for some stories from
the Jewish Exponent that shaped 2021.

See Review, Page 9
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