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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Goodbye, 2020
BY LIZ SPIKOL
I SAW A COMMERCIAL for
Match.com recently in which
Satan goes on a date with a
woman named 2-0-2-0 — and
they sit and stare at the New
York skyline, hoping the year
will just go on forever. I am
not one to cite TV spots in
my writing (my high school
English teacher would call it
déclassé), but in this case I am
making an exception. The ad
is such a perfect encapsulation
of what we’re all feeling — that
2020 just sucked, relentlessly.

But we survived. Bloody,
battle-scarred, our forces
depleted — but the Jewish
Exponent is still here, unlike so
many of our media brethren.

As other Jewish newspapers
closed or shuttered their print
editions, we have continued in
print and online, even as we cut
staff positions, including one
reporter and our digital editor.

(And this week we’re digital-only,
but it’s the only time this year.)
Truth is, compared to most
media outlets, we’ve been
lucky. The pandemic has devas-
tated newspapers, magazines
and digital media products
nationwide, with thousands of
journalism jobs lost, many of
them at local news outlets that
can ill afford a smaller staff.

In Pennsylvania, there were 18
media companies negatively
affected by the coronavirus;
our daily, The Philadelphia
Inquirer, cut 505 jobs.

The Jewish Exponent’s
survival is unquestionably
owed to the passion and
commitment of our readership.

I have never worked at a publi-
cation with a more involved,
invested audience.

If we do something you
like, we hear about it. If we
do something you don’t like,
we hear about it. But we also
get calls and letters just saying
hello, reaching out, making
contact, kvetching about life in
the city. It’s a real community
of readers and, like the Jewish
communities we all belong to,
it’s haimishe.

As grateful as I am for that
support, I am just as thankful
to the Exponent staff as there’s
a tremendous amount of work
that goes into creating this
paper every week. Our whole
team, which switched from
working in an office to working
from home in a matter of days,
has been strikingly resilient.

In fact, staff writer Sophie
Panzer moved to Philadelphia
and started at the Exponent just
a few short weeks before the
pandemic stuck us at home. In
a new city with unprecedented
challenges, she has excelled,
bringing us new coverage areas
and fantastic story ideas.

Jesse Bernstein also made
the switch without missing
a beat, expanding his role as
staff writer and books editor,
and taking on new tasks with
sunny aplomb.

And Managing Editor
Andy Gotlieb, who I call
the Leatherman tool of our
company — he can write, he can
edit, he can probably juggle with
oranges for all I know — kept
our newsroom organized and on
target with deadlines, even as all
our procedures changed.

I couldn’t ask for a better
crew, and I am grateful to them
every day for all their hard work.

There are many other people
who make this paper possible:
Susan Baron, Steve Burke,
Mike Costello, Nicole McNally,
Taylor Orlin, Jennifer Perkins-
Frantz, Sharon Schmuckler,
Shari Seitz and Justin Tice.

I remember in February,
when COVID still seemed
distant, I read some first-person
accounts of 1918 pandemic
survivors. I wondered what
would it be like to live through
such universal hardship. How
would we make it through?
Now, as the calendar turns
to 2021, the answer is clear: We
improvise. We get creative. We
lead with kindness. We band
together. We raise our voices.

We fight.

Here’s to another year of feisty
Jews making a difference. We
promise to be here to cover it.

Crossing Bridges to Learn From Others
BY ABBEY FRANK
I ’ V E A LWAY S H A D a
fascination with bridges.

I clearly recall the thrill of
the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
each summer on the way to
Virginia Beach, looking out
the window to the surrounding
water and feeling a rush of
excitement. This narrow road,
supported by a strong base and
endless wires and pulleys, was
taking me somewhere else — to
10 DECEMBER 31, 2020
vacation and days in the sand.

As I grew older, my fascination
morphed from pure excitement
to hesitation. Crossing a large
body of water on pavement
supported by a skeletal founda-
tion held up by thin pieces of
metal was scary. How is this
bridge holding up all the cars
and people crossing? Is it worth
the risk to get to the other side?
Like others, I give thought
to how the metaphor of
crossing a bridge influences
my personal and professional
life. Like building a physical
bridge, moving forward
through a narrow space is not
always easy. But bringing two
sides together most often leads
to something better; resistance
often leads to stagnation. This
is particularly true within the
Jewish community. Much has
been written about connecting
traditional institutions with
innovative start-ups that are
attracting younger members;
far less, about bridging our
operational structure to those
of the business sector.

In a recent meeting, a lay
leader shared a vision for our
organization — to change
our operations to function
more like a business. In
other meetings, I have fielded
questions about our “product”
and measuring “returns on
investment,” or ROI. These
are welcome conversations
as nonprofits should pay
closer attention to fixed and
variable costs, maintain a
balanced budget and think
strategically about how our
investments impact change.

More concerning, however, is
adapting a for-profit model of
ROI to our work. In the private
JEWISH EXPONENT
sector, managers scruti-
nize monthly, quarterly and
year-end profit statements to
assess their performance. If a
product is not yielding a profit,
it is often abandoned quickly
to protect against further
economic loss.

This is not a strategy that
can easily be bridged from the
corporate world. Our invest-
ments are in people, programs
and strategies that make up a
Jewish community. Measuring
short-term impact, while
useful, only tells a small part
of the story.

Consider an allocation
to local Jewish day schools.

Nationally, on average, grants to
day schools account for 16% of
total allocations. Communities
make this investment utilizing
research that day school gradu-
ates are more likely to have
a strong Jewish identity and
connection to community, and
that these schools are essential
to a Jewish community’s health
and growth.

However, in the United
States, only 7% of Jewish
children attend a day school.

Applying a pure business
model, this does not make sense.

Communities are investing a
significant percentage of scarce
resources to a small percentage
of the population for results
that may not come for 20 to 30
years. But research has shown
that day school education has
significant returns in which an
entire community will benefit.

Similarly, there is growing
investment in innovative teen
leadership programs that are
reaching unaffiliated teens. The
See Frank, Page 16
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O pinion
College Students Are Falling Through
Our Largest Food Safety Net: SNAP
BY MIRIAM LIPSCHUTZ
THERE’S SOMETHING the
incoming secretary of agricul-
ture and I have in common:
a love for dairy cows. Tom
Vilsack is chief executive for
the U.S. Dairy Export Council,
and was the former USDA
secretary under President
Obama. But when I was
studying animal science at the
University of Vermont during
his term, many of my peers
were silently struggling to
afford enough to eat.

One in five UVM students
experience food insecurity.

According to the Hope Center
for College, Community and
Justice, one in three students
at four-year institutions is food
insecure. During the pandemic,
hunger has only gotten worse.

While the USDA’s sprawling
wheelhouse includes addressing
concerns of small farmers, food
supply and animal rights, one
in four Americans rely on the
agency’s food programs to feed
themselves and their families.

Many food-insecure college
students are locked out of
our nation’s largest food
safety net, the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program
— commonly known as SNAP
— thanks to outdated student
eligibility restrictions.

For instance, students
enrolled more than half-time
must work at least 20 hours a
week to be eligible for SNAP.

But with the loss of on-campus
work-study jobs and the closure
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM of restaurants and other service
sector businesses, many college
students are being hit doubly
hard — losing income as well
as their SNAP benefits, with
their route to eligibility cut
off. A GAO report from last
year showed almost 2 million
college students who are poten-
tially eligible have not reported
receiving SNAP, many of
whom are dissuaded from even
applying because of the cryptic
language that explains which
students can get benefits.

This year, more than 6
million new people have
enrolled in SNAP. One in four
students have had to take out
loans to cover the cost of food,
and one-third know someone
who dropped out because
they couldn’t afford to eat,
according to a recent study by
Swipe Out Hunger and Chegg.

Black, Latino and indigenous
students have been dispro-
portionately impacted by the
economic fallout of COVID-19,
burdened with higher rates of
basic needs insecurity compared
to their white peers as well as
a higher drop-out rate. Our
country has continually failed
to invest in higher education
for low-income students, who
are disproportionately students
of color, despite the fact that at
least 60% of new jobs require
some education beyond high
school. Students are dropping
out of school when faced with
the decision of whether to buy
food or the supplies they need
to succeed in school.

We must consider: In the
future, who will have access to
higher-paying jobs, and who
will be saddled with debt and
no degree?
Campus food insecurity
has always existed, but only
recently has been given the
attention it deserves because
of student-centered organiza-
tions like Challah for Hunger
that are uplifting student voices
and advocating for long-term
solutions. While immediate
relief is needed, we also need
to #FUELHigherEd and create
policy solutions that acknowl-
edge food as fundamental for
learning and make nutritious
meals universal. Policies must
be equitable, centering student
populations most impacted by
basic needs insecurity, and these
should not be temporary band
aids, but truly transformative
state and federal policies.

In returning to his former
cabinet post, Vilsack will have a
huge impact on college student’s
ability to fill their own cabinets
at home through how he runs
the agencies and proposed
rule changes to SNAP. During
his tenure under Obama, the
department was able to reduce
food insecurity by the order of 8
million people.

Addressing our nation’s
growing levels of food insecu-
rity, especially the lack of access
to SNAP access for college
students, must be a priority
during the Biden administra-
tion. No student should have to
choose between food and their
education. Miriam Lipschutz is the director of
advocacy at Challah for Hunger
and a second-year master’s of
public policy student at Temple
University. She can be reached at
miriam@challahforhunger.org. STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
maximum of 200 words and may be edited for clarity and brevity. Unsigned letters will not be
published. JEWISH EXPONENT
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Why No Photo of Gadot?
I USUALLY READ most op-eds in your weekly, but this current
one written by Benjamin Kerstein (“How Gal Gadot is Changing
the Image of Jewish Women,” Dec. 24) is puzzling.

Why am I scratching my head? The article is about Gal Gadot
and displays a photo of Kerstein. Why would we want to see a
photo of him and not Gadot?
Thanks, just wondering.

Libbie Soffer | Wallingford
Ed. note: Thanks for writing, Libbie. In our opinion section, as in
most newspapers, we run headshots of the op-ed writers (if they’re
available) rather than photos of the subject matter. The practice
probably derives from holding authors accountable for their
words, but it also puts a face to the bylines for the readers.

Praise for Dentists
If you have ever suffered with a toothache or issues related to
lack of routine care, then you know that dentists are essential
workers (“Dentists Talk About How Life Has Changed During
Pandemic,” Dec. 10).

Kudos to Dr. Barnett and his colleagues for working through
the risk of the pandemic!
The Holocaust survivor dental project should be a lesson to
medical professional everywhere.

Very touching!
Meryl Leviten | via jewishexponent.com
Not Just Jews Who Disagree
Thanks for the great article “Mikveh Israel Archives a Mirror of
Today” (Dec. 10). I’m one of the transcribers for this project and
believe me, there is plenty of conflict among the Christians too
(even the Quakers)!
Carolyn Klepser | via jewishexponent.com
What Now?
My parents and grandparents were born and raised in Northeast
Philadelphia. They were loyal subscribers to the print version of
the Jewish Exponent for decades. (My great-grandparents hailed
from the Pale of Settlement, Zhtytomyr and Berditchev.)
Adam Milstein’s “Never Again the Canary in the Coal Mine” (June
18) is highly topical, especially the entreaty and call-to-arms: “We, as
a community, must adopt several principles to win this critical battle.

First, embrace and support the state of Israel without any preconditions.”
I am jubilant at the progress made during the Trump admin-
istration, facilitating full diplomatic ties between Eretz Yisrael
and Bahrain, Sudan and even the Himalayan Kingdom of
Bhutan a few weeks ago. I never imagined that Jared Kushner
could be the architect for peace leading to the Abraham Accords.

I want Israel to thrive and become a strong independent nation,
respected and welcomed by its neighbors. I am worried though,
because President Trump’s administration will not be able to
nurture and preserve these recent accomplishments.

What can we do to ensure the well-being of the state of Israel
during the next four years? I’m anxious, and afraid.

Lisa Kesselman Wells | via jewishexponent.com
DECEMBER 31, 2020
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