H eadlines
Vaccine frustrating is when I’m on
Facebook or talking to friends,
and they’ve been able to get the
vaccine,” she said.

Her husband, who is 75
and has a qualifying medical
condition, was able to schedule
an appointment for his first
dose at Penn Medicine, where
he is a patient, on Feb. 8.

The Philadelphia Department
of Public Health did not respond
to a request for comment.

Residents of the counties
outside Philadelphia are also
experiencing setbacks.

Ilana Ponce has tried to
Continued from Page 1
has a home in New Jersey, has a
medical condition that qualifies
him for vaccination according
to both state and local vaccine
eligibility criteria. He is one
of many Jewish Philadelphians
joining the nationwide lineup
for a COVID-19 vaccine. He
hasn’t had much luck.

“Early on, I came to the
conclusion that it was a very
disorganized process, and I
kept hearing about friends and
family who were able to get
appointments, but every time
I tried to get one, I would hit
a stumbling block,” he said.

“The system just was not
prepared to handle the number
of people that were applying in
Pennsylvania and, to a lesser
extent, New Jersey.”
Vaccine distribution across
the country has been plagued
by delays, logistical failures
and supply shortages.

Philadelphia’s rollout
has garnered particularly
negative attention due to the
city’s partnership with Philly
Fighting Covid, a startup
created by a 22-year-old
Drexel University student
with no experience working
in health care. The startup’s
disorganized approach, lack of
staff training and switch to a
for-profit model as reported by
WHYY led the city to sever ties
with the organization, but not
before its registration system
caused widespread confusion
about vaccine appointments
and eligibility.

The differences between
Philadelphia’s guidelines and
Pennsylvania’s guidelines have
also caused confusion among
vaccine seekers. Pennsylvania’s
Department of Health website
states that the commonwealth
is in Phase 1A of vaccine
distribution and eligible
groups include health care
workers, Pennsylvanians living
in long-term care facilities,
people age 65 and older and
those age 16-64 with high-risk
conditions like cancer.

14 FEBRUARY 11, 2021
the government has not been
proactive enough in reaching
out to people to inform them
of their eligibility.

“To put the burden on the
people to get an appointment
is misguided,” he said.

Vaccine appointments
haven’t been chaotic for
everyone, however.

Federation Housing, which
provides affordable living
communities for seniors aged
62 and older, asked the city for
vaccine priority three months
ago. In January, the organi-
zation was notified its request
There is no next step because there’s no
information. Nobody knows anything.”
ILANA PONCE
Connie Berkowitz sits after receiving her first dose.

The Philadelphia Department
of Public Health website states
that the vaccine is being distrib-
uted to people who are eligible
in Phase 1A and Phase 1B of
the city’s own plan. Phase 1A
includes patient-facing health
care workers and elderly
residents of long-term care
facilities, and Phase 1B includes
high-risk essential workers,
those who work and reside in
congregate settings, seniors 75
years and older and people with
high-risk medical conditions.

As a result, Philadelphia
residents who are eligible
under state guidelines but not
city guidelines find themselves
at a loss. Many who are eligible
under both have not been able
to get appointments.

Lori Turner, a Center City
resident with an immune
deficiency that makes her
eligible under both city and
state guidelines, feels like
she has tried every registra-
tion option available with
no results.

“I’ve signed up for every
single waitlist, every single
clinic, every single pharmacy
where I would be eligible for
a vaccine, only to either get a
response saying, ‘Thank you
so much for signing up for the
waitlist,’ or I am not quali-
fied for the category. And that’s
been the biggest confusion,”
she said.

“It seems every place that
you go the category is a little
bit different of who they’re
actually taking and who they’re
not taking. So what the state
says versus what the city says
versus what the place that’s
giving and administering the
vaccine says doesn’t seem to
align,” she added.

Sallie Gorohoff, 73, lives
in Center City and has regis-
tered with five different places,
including local pharmacies and
the State of New Jersey. So far,
none have given her a call back.

She thinks Philadelphia and
Pennsylvania’s vaccine rollouts
have been less efficient than
those in other states.

“The thing that’s the most
JEWISH EXPONENT
get her parents, who live in
Montgomery County, vacci-
nated because they are both
over 65 and diabetic. A contact
sent her a link for a local vacci-
nation site and she managed
to reserve a spot, only to be
told it was a mistake, that the
appointments were for people
getting their second doses and
that if her parents showed up
they would be escorted away.

Her parents contacted
pharmacies like Walgreens
when they heard the vaccines
would be distributed there, but
were told they weren’t available
yet. Now, Ponce is considering
driving them to Florida or
flying them to Colorado, where
she hears people have had
more success.

“There is no next step
because there’s no information.

Nobody knows anything,” she
said. Saewitz said he wouldn’t
care if he got an appointment
scheduled later in the year,
as long as he knew he had a
date and a time. He thinks
would be granted due to the
age of its 1,500 residents living
in congregate housing.

The city paired the organi-
zation with CVS Pharmacy
to set up clinics to administer
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
at each of its 11 properties at
the beginning of February.

The city also has allowed
Federation Housing’s front-
line staff members to receive
the vaccine.

“It’s really been a blessing,”
said Eric Naftulin, executive
director and CEO of Federation
Housing. C on n ie B erkow it z , a
resident at Miriam and Robert
Rieder Apartments, got her
first dose on Feb. 5 and is
looking forward to getting her
second. “My first thing I want to do
when I’m fully immune is meet
my new great-granddaughter,
who was born on the fourth of
January,” she said. l
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



F TAY-SACHS
R F R E E E E
H eadlines
Purim changes, all that means is that
our mindset has changed. We
have tried to identify, ‘OK,
what does God want from us
now?’” he said.

“Maybe in the past we were
emphasizing certain parts of
Judaism, but now that those are
harder to do or unsafe, what
are our priorities? What does
God want from us now? And
that can change in anyone’s
life, anytime, but the goal is the
same.” l
Continued from Page 1
yet again as the pandemic rages.

At Temple Sholom in
Broomall, Cantor Jamie Marx is
busy adapting Purim spiels for
Zoom. His company, The Spiel
Guy, writes and sells scripts to
synagogues across North America
and the United Kingdom.

He is adapting two previous
scripts by changing ensemble
songs and duets into solos
(group singing is difficult
on Zoom because of delays)
and altering stage directions.

Instead of writing “Vashti exits
stage left,” think “Vashti turns
off camera.” He’s also working
with a graphic designer to create
Purim-themed backgrounds.

One of the skits has a
timely twist.

“I wrote a new spiel called
‘Pandemic in Persia,’ which is a
lot of pandemic humor. So for
synagogues that really wanted a
timely, pandemic-themed spiel,
which a lot of people seem to
want, it tells a story of the Book
of Esther, but as if there was a
pandemic in Persia,” Marx said.

Congregation B’nai Israel
Ohev Zedek plans to hold
some in-person activities with
precautions. Rabbi Yehoshua
Yeamans said the synagogue
will hold several staggered
megillah readings to accom-
modate social distancing, and
participants will be required to
wear masks. He is also planning
a Zoom celebration that will
take place a few days before
the holiday and an ice cream
truck rental to provide outdoor
entertainment for younger
congregation members.

“The fact that it’s a holiday
doesn’t change the imperative
to continue to be as strict as we
have been with those protocols.

At the same time, that does
not preclude the opportunity
to fulfill the commandments
and the obligations of the day,”
Yeamans said.

His congregation held an
in-person Purim celebra-
tion last year during which
people were discouraged from
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Participants at Kehillah of Old York Road’s 2020 Purim carnival
Courtesy of Kim Decker
touching hands. Two days later,
he called an emergency board
meeting, and members decided
to close the synagogue.

Kehillah of Old York Road
will host its Purim CARnival
on Feb. 21 at Perelman Jewish
Day School’s Mandell Education
Campus. The event will consist
of activities and performances
that families can enjoy from
their cars, including a clown
performance, groggers and
change-throwing booth with
proceeds going to charity. Nearly
20 local Jewish organizations
will participate.

This is the first car-based
event the KOYR community
has organized, and Director
Kim Decker said having access
to a large outdoor space was a
game-changer. “I feel really blessed that we
can try to do something that’s
not on Zoom,” she said. “We
can have something a little
different to look forward to.”
The most recent in-person
event she organized was last
year’s Purim carnival.

“We got a huge donation of
hand sanitizer that we used as
a raffle item,” she recalled.

Germantown Jewish
Centre typically holds a joint
celebration among its multiple
minyans during Purim, and
this year it plans to hold it
on Zoom.

“One of the things we’re
planning is to have a sort of retro-
spective. We have wonderful
video going back more than 15
years from celebrations past and
so we’re going to create a sort of
greatest hits reel of celebrations,
to allow people to feel some of
that joy,” Zeff said.

He added that this year of
altered ritual life has taught him
to embrace a different defini-
tion of participation. With
in-person celebrations, there’s
an expectation that attendees
need to participate in the
same way for it to count. On
Zoom, however, the options are
endless, from typing in the chat
box to dressing up to dancing.

“There’s a lot of ways for people
to give feedback, other than being
the one who’s speaking and has
all eyes,” he said.

Marx said the pandemic
has taught him the importance
of virtual services in keeping
far-flung community members
engaged. Whereas streamed
services were once consid-
ered an occasional project, the
synagogue now realizes their
potential for allowing college
students, people with limited
mobility and people in rehabili-
tation facilities to feel connected.

In other words, they’re essential.

“This technology has
enabled us to reach all of them
and we have heard such an
outpouring of gratitude and
love and support from our
community,” he said.

For Yeamans, this year has
been a reminder that serving
God can look different.

“God draws the picture of
our lives and our job is just to
color it in. We cannot draw the
picture. And when the picture
JEWISH EXPONENT
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FEBRUARY 11, 2021
15