H eadlines
Girls’ Hoops Teams Resilient in COVID Season
S P ORTS
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
THOUGH THE WINTER
2020-’21 Penn-Jersey Athletic
League basketball season was
canceled due to the pandemic,
the Kohelet Yeshiva and Jack M.
Barrack Hebrew Academy girls’
basketball teams were far from
idle in the season that never was.
Kohelet coach Kevin Scholla
hosted voluntary practices
for players to build skills for
the 2021-’22 season and had
graduating seniors show up,
even though they knew they
wouldn’t play another game in
their high school careers, to
support the team.
At Barrack, coach Sean
Rochester hosted bimonthly
practices and a virtual motiva-
tional speaker series called
“Wisdom Wednesdays,” where
players learned leadership and
life skills.
The unconventional coaching
practices during last year’s
non-season paid off. This year,
both Kohelet’s and Barrack’s
girls’ basketball teams achieved
some of their respective teams’
best results.
The Barrack team played
the Abington Friends School in
the Pennsylvania Independent
Schools Athletic Association
state tournament quarterfinals
on Feb. 21, beating them 63-36,
earning the team’s first PAISAA
state tournament win in school
history. Kohelet Yeshiva became
district champions and made it
to the top eight in the conference
championship for the second
year in a row, its highest finish
ever. “We just have all different
types of girls, as far as their skill
set, as far as their personalities,”
Scholla said. “But everybody
kind of comes together when
we’re inside the lines.”
Scholla attributes
his team’s success to its aggressive
“Dobermann defense.”
“You just have to be
completely tenacious: full speed,
big arms, big legs on defense,”
Scholla said.
Because of their focus on a
good defense, anyone on the
team can try to be aggressive,
regardless of height or skill set.
“That doesn’t mean you’re
going to do it well, but you can
do it as best as you can,” Scholla
said. The team has a “deep roster,”
meaning Scholla has encour-
aged his players to “accept their
roles,” big or small, to minimize
conflict on and off the court.
While Rochester
also advocates for players knowing
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The 2021-2022 Kohelet Yeshiva girls’ basketball team
their roles, he implemented a
new offensive strategy where
the ball is constantly moving, as
players aggressively pass and cut.
“They used to run a lot of
set plays where things were very
kind of robotic and designated
for certain people to touch the
ball at certain times, and this is
a little bit more equal opportu-
nity,” Rochester said.
Though COVID gave the
coaches and players an oppor-
tunity for fresh starts and new
strategies, it’s also presented its
fair share of challenges.
“We’ve had a few different
times where we’ve had girls
out due to testing positive. Our
school, while it is an inconve-
nience at times, we’ve had a very
tight COVID protocol, so we
always wear masks on the road,”
Rochester said.
The Barrack team also wears
masks and social distances as
best it can during practices, even
wearing masks during games.
In most cases, opponents go
maskless. “It is hard sprinting in masks,
and when we play teams that don’t
play with masks, we are at a great
disadvantage,” Barrack senior
player Arielle Zabusky said.
However, players aren’t
resentful of the mask-wearing.
Senior Jessie Singer said that the
school’s strict COVID protocols
“instilled in all of us a higher
purpose in keeping our commu-
nity safe.”
Scholla said that Kohelet’s
team has had games canceled
at a moment’s notice due to
members of opposing teams
testing positive.
The team also didn’t have a
bus driver this year, and players
and parents carpooled to every
game, something Scholla said
“showed a lot of commitment.”
Players seemed to take this
year’s obstacles in stride, coaches
noticed, just grateful to play ball
again. Not only competitive, the
respective teams have formed
tight-knit bonds.
“I love hearing girls clap
and say ‘her’ name, just excited
for each other, not just for
themselves,” Scholla said. “So
that’s made them a real team.”
Kohelet and Barrack also find
themselves in situations unique
to few other teams. They repre-
sent the Jewish community in a
secular league.
“As teams play against us,
that’s certainly something that
they’re aware of,” Rochester said.
According to Singer, many of
the teams in the league haven’t
interacted with many Jews on or
off the court.
“Our whole team works hard
to emulate ideal sportsmanship
values, both because it is the
proper and respectful way to
play, but also because we want
to make sure we are giving a
good, kind name to the Jewish
people and acting in a way that is
representative of Jewish values,”
she said. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
H EADLINES
NEWSBRIEFS Arizona Jews Sue to Stop State from Using Hydrogen
Cyanide (Zyklon B) at Executions
LEADERS OF ARIZONA’S JEWISH COMMUNITY are suing the
state to prevent it from using hydrogen cyanide — the same lethal gas
deployed at Auschwitz — to carry out executions, JTA reported.
Th e Nazis used pellets of Zyklon B, a hydrogen cyanide formu-
lation, in the gas chambers at Auschwitz and other death camps.
Using the gas in United States executions is “tantamount to
approving of what the Nazis did,” said Janice Friebaum, former
vice president and spokesperson for the Phoenix Holocaust
Association. “It’s a very painful way to kill a person, and it’s
fundamentally inhumane. To think that it was done to millions
of people during the Holocaust is horrifi c enough, but to think
that 70 to 80 years later we’re thinking of using it as a method of
capital punishment is mind-boggling.”
Arizona stopped executions by lethal gas in 1992 but allowed
for its uses for people who had already been sentenced; that
leaves 17 people potentially subject to that form of execution.
JFNA Names Ben Platt’s Mom as Chair
Julie Platt was named as the second woman to chair the
Jewish Federations of North America, one of the largest Jewish
fundraising organizations in the United States, JTA reported.
Platt is a one-time banker who has become a leader in promoting
Jewish education and also is musical star Ben Platt’s mom.
Th e JFNA brought in $270 million in 2019.
An organization news release said that Platt has chaired the
Los Angeles Jewish Federation and chairs JFNA’s fundraising
campaign and its eff ort to enhance security protection.
Platt will formally succeed Mark Wilf this summer.
Florida Parent Arrested After Making Threats About
Orthodox Day School Mask Mandate
A parent of a child at an Orthodox Jewish day school in North Miami
Beach was arrested aft er saying he wanted to “burn this school to the
f***ing ground” in a group chat, JTA reported, citing CBS Miami.
Mark Polyakov’s son was a student at Scheck Hillel Community
School, which requires students to wear masks indoors and outdoors.
Polyakov reportedly wrote several messages in a group chat
of about 70 parents opposed to the mask policy called “No more
masks hillel” on Feb. 8 in which he said he wanted to burn the
school. Police arrested Polyakov on Feb. 14 aft er another parent in
the chat reported his comments to the school administration. He
was charged with one count of threatening to kill or do bodily
harm, which can result in up to 15 years in prison and $10,000 in
fi nes. His son was expelled.
February 27, 2022
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German Dictionary Changes Defi nition of ‘Jew’
A German dictionary entry for the word “Jew” was changed aft er
members of the country’s Jewish community called the defi ni-
tion problematic, JTA reported.
Th e defi nition off ered by the Duden dictionary included a
note that the term is sometimes used as a derogatory slur, in
addition to being the simplest way of referring to Jews.
But German Jews pushed back against the inclusion of the use
of the word “Jew” as a slur, saying the term is the correct one and
should be used without qualifi cation.
Th e entry was updated on Feb. 14 and included the Central
Council of Jews in Germany’s approval of the use of the term. ●
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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FEBRUARY 24, 2022
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