H eadlines
JCC Continued from Page 1
of nearly the entire staff to
the rehiring of most of that
staff after securing a Payroll
Protection Program loan.

And then preparations for
summer camp had to begin.

As hard as the last year has
been, though, the efforts to
remain open were a reminder of
what Krulik loved about her job
— thinking about community
fundamentals and the best way
to get people what they needed.

Krulik announced her
departure in an email to
members on Feb. 9, writing
that her last four years working
with the staff have “been
nothing short of remarkable.”
“I am eternally grateful for
the faith and trust that you
have placed in me,” Krulik
wrote. “The JCC has always
and will always have a special
place in my heart.”
Cindy Smukler, president
of the JCC’s board of direc-
tors and a longtime friend of
Krulik’s, said she was disap-
pointed that the JCC would
be losing her, but understood
that MLRT represented “a
wonderful opportunity.”
“Amy has accomplished
much over the past four years
as the CEO of the Kaiserman
JCC,” Smukler said. “We will
miss her leadership and her
talent. With that being said,
we are excited about this new
opportunity and hope to
replace her talent.”
An interim CEO hasn’t been
named. In 1997, Krulik was hired
as the director of communica-
tions and cultural arts at the
JCC, and then transitioned to
a role as membership director
and site director until 2003.

The Krulik family became
deeply enmeshed there. As
she told the Jewish Exponent
in 2017, her children attended
camp, preschool and after-
school programs at the JCC.

From 2003 and 2016, Krulik
held leadership roles at the
Jewish Relief Agency, Colonial
Plantation and JCCs of Greater
Philadelphia, returning to the
JCC as CEO in 2017.

Joel H. Ginsparg, presi-
dent of the board of trustees at
MLRT, said a search committee
scoured the nation for candi-
dates when the synagogue’s
last executive director, Janet
Lee, resigned around the
High Holidays in 2020. MLRT
considered at least 30 candi-
dates from across the country,
conducting interviews by
Zoom. In the end, the search
committee settled on Krulik,
who was already familiar with
the synagogue’s people, history
and culture.

“She just happened to be the
cream of the crop,” Ginsparg
said. “She was the person that
really stood out as we went
through and completed the
process, which is why we’re
thrilled and excited that she’s
joining us.”
When Krulik was contacted
by the search committee, she
was immediately intrigued. In
the last year, Krulik said, she
found herself leaning more
heavily on Jewish ethical study
and Jewish spiritual connec-
tion than she ever anticipated.

So when MLRT offered her
the opportunity to marry
her professional life with
that newfound connection to
religion, Krulik was thrilled
to accept.

“I’m excited to focus
Jewishly on things, on Jewish
practice and Jewish spirituality
in our community,” she said.

At MLRT, Krulik will be
asked to take on a dual role
requiring her to fundraise while
running a complex operation
that has a large congregation,
a religious school and an early
childhood education program.

There will be plenty of
changes: In addition to focusing
more on religious engagement,
Krulik joked that she expected to
see far fewer naked gym-goers,
preschool students and campers
every day.

“I’m proud,” she said laugh-
ingly of her JCC tenure, “that
we have created a comfortable
and respectful environment for
people when they’re at their
least clothed.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Amy Krulik will the leave
Kaiserman JCC by the end of March.

Courtesy of Amy Krulik
The JCC has always and will always have a special place in my heart.”
AMY KRULIK
Basketball instruction at Kaiserman’s Camp Kef in 2020
16 FEBRUARY 18, 2021
James Mara hangs out at Camp Kef.
JEWISH EXPONENT
Photos by Janine Nelson
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Teachers Continued from Page 1
the Philadelphia area,” said
Shira Cohen, a Jewish math
teacher at Feltonville School
of Arts and Sciences in North
Philadelphia who supported
the staff actions. “We’re still in
the middle of a surge.”
Superintendent William
R. Hite Jr. addressed the
reopening plan in a Facebook
Live announcement on Feb. 10.

“This has been a difficult week
for our school district,” he said.

“I understand and respect that
there are various points of view
about how and when schools
should open. As superintendent,
nonetheless, safety has been and
action, but there was no direct
follow-up from the district.

Teachers were ultimately not
mandated to report to schools
due to an arbitration agree-
ment announced by Mayor Jim
Kenney’s office.

Fanwick was frustrated that
the district directed her toward
social media for information
about the reopening rather than
reaching out to staff directly.

“That is not where I feel I
should be getting information
from my employer,” she said.

“They have my email address.

They knew exactly how to
email me this week when
they wanted to let us know
about disciplinary actions.

But on Facebook Live, they
complaints the Exponent wrote
to her about. She was unable to
respond fully by press time.

Amit Schwalb, a Jewish
science teacher at W.B. Saul
High School in Roxborough,
said previous experiences with
loose asbestos in his classroom
made him skeptical about
whether district buildings
really had been made safe.

He stands by his union,
PFT, and its decision that safety
conditions have not been met.

The organization is waiting
to hear the ruling of Dr. Peter
Orris, chief of occupational and
environmental medicine at the
University of Illinois, who the
city has brought in as a mediator.

Fanwick is aware that many
Students could still bring the virus home to their family members,
many of whom might be immunocompromised.”
SHIRA COHEN
Amit Schwalb teaches classes outside in South Philadelphia during the
Feb. 8 protest.
Photo by Rebecca Yacker
continues to be my No. 1 priority
in preparing to return staff
and students to buildings. Any
rumor or statement claiming
otherwise is just plain false.”
Cohen said it would be
irresponsible to open schools
before vaccines were widely
available to staff, and noted
that students and their families
would remain vulnerable even if
their teachers were vaccinated.

“Students could still bring
the virus home to their family
members, many of whom
might be immunocompro-
mised,” she said.

Joan Fanwick, a Jewish
special education teacher at
George W. Nebinger Elementary
School in South Philadelphia,
said the district reached out
to say there would be conse-
quences if kindergarten,
first- and second-grade teachers
did not report to the class-
room when called. Her union,
the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers, then announced that
there would not be disciplinary
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM talked about how every teacher
returning would get tested
once a week, and I didn’t get an
email about that.”
Many of the district build-
ings lack functional heat,
ventilation and cooling systems,
Cohen said. She was told that
the district planned to install
window fans to increase venti-
lation. But that would make
the classrooms cold, and some
windows don’t open at all.

Fanwick could not find the
ventilation reports the district
claimed to have filed.

“If you look in the Google
Drive folder on the school
district’s website that claims to
have all the ventilation reports,
if you actually open the one for
my school, it does not have any
testing, it just has an estimate
of what the testing should say,”
she said.

School District spokes-
person Monica Lewis said the
reports did not look incomplete
to her, but was looking into it,
as well as the teachers’ other
proponents of reopening
schools argue that disabled and
marginalized students like hers
are disproportionately disad-
vantaged by a lack of in-person
instruction. She thinks their
physical health and safety
should remain the top priority.

“A lot of times, there’s an
ableist stretch of that,” she said.

“There’s a thought, ‘Oh, OK,
they need the education more.

And they need to conform to
society.’ And they can only
do that if they’re in school,
and learning how to conform
to society to make it easier
on the people around them.

But a lot of times, we’re not
thinking about what’s best for
them, both health-wise, and
educationally.” Schwalb thinks the fact
that Black and brown families
across the country have
opted to keep their children
at home at higher rates than
white families is being ignored
in arguments that marginal-
ized students who rely more
JEWISH EXPONENT
on school services should be
returned to the classroom as
soon as possible. On Feb. 1,
The New York Times reported
higher rates of Black families
opting for remote learning than
white families in Chicago; New
York City; Oakland, California;
Washington, D.C.; Nashville,
Tennessee; and Dallas.

He said the disruption of
changing learning models at
this point in the school year
will be detrimental to students,
who he believes often need
consistency and routine to
thrive. He has heard reports of
staffing issues and decreased
instructional time from
friends and colleagues in other
districts that have adopted
hybrid models.

Schwalb was among the
teachers conducting class
outside during the Feb. 8
protest, although he hasn’t
been asked to return to his
building yet. A friend who
owns a restaurant donated
outdoor heaters, and he rented
a pickup truck to distribute
them. Students, families and
neighbors also donated heaters
and generators.

“It was just really empow-
ering for me to see that, and
that’s what being in a union
and what social change is all
about,” he said.

He has reflected on the
work of Jewish labor activists
like Karen Lewis, president
of the Chicago Teachers
Union, whose death at 67 was
announced the same day as
the protest. He read her bat
mitzvah d’var Torah and
realized she was someone who
loved and lived Jewish values,
from her personal interactions
to her movement for educa-
tional equity.

“That’s a life of Torah, a
life of not just studying and
learning and loving Torah, but
really living it. And I aspire to
live up to that call,” he said. l
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
FEBRUARY 18, 2021
17