H eadlines
Caterer Offering COVID Tests at Events
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
DANIEL ISRAEL, owner of
Deluxe Catering and Deluxe
Events in Philadelphia, wants
deluxe, catered events to come
back in full.

Israel has a major business
interest in making people feel
comfortable at big gather-
ings again. But he also feels
sympathy for customers who
end up in a situation he keeps
seeing during the omicron
stage of the pandemic.

“We’re getting events where
only half the people are saying
yes due to COVID,” Israel said.

To raise that number from
50% to 100, the owner is adding
a new feature to his parties:
rapid COVID tests.

Starting on Jan. 30, Deluxe
Catering and Deluxe Events
will offer tests to all guests
who want them. An individual
who wants a test will walk into
the lobby, take one, wait 15
minutes and then, if negative,
continue walking into the
party. Then for the rest of the night,
instead of fearing COVID, they
can just take their mask off,
dance and have fun.

“People can feel confident
going to an event,” he said.

Israel hosts
affairs throughout the Philadelphia
area. Business has been good
lately, but not as good as it
could have been.

Customers are still hesitant
about holding big events.

Often, even when they are
willing to have a lot of people,
it’s the people who are hesitant.

If only half of the invited
guests come, it creates an issue
for the caterer and planner that
accounted for the full party. It
also creates an awful feeling for
guests of honor like the bride
and groom, Israel said.

So rapid testing, according
to Israel, “is helpful for
everybody.” 8
JANUARY 20, 2022
A recent event catered by Daniel Israel
Israel will administer his
first set of tests in a little over
a week at a birthday party at
Lower Merion Synagogue.

After that, he will offer them
at other birthday parties,
weddings and any type of big
event he plans.

Hosts can decide whether
they want the planner to do
tests and whether they want
everyone to take them. Even
if they do not require tests,
Israel plans on making them
available to anyone who might
want one.

If a bride, groom or other
host wants everyone to take
tests, they can say so on their
invitations so people are more
inclined to say yes. All rapids
will be “free for the consumer,”
he said.

Israel is not sure how long
he will do this.

“COVID will tell us,” he
said. “We’ll do it as long as
Michelle Camperson Photography
necessary.” But he is sure that he has
the supplier: Pennpac Care, a
new company in Bala Cynwyd.

Pennpac offers PCR and rapid
tests with proof of health
insurance, passport or Social
Security number, according to
Hallie Schapiro, its director.

Pennpac unveiled
its Facebook page this month
and friended Israel, the caterer
in the Main Line commu-
nity. Shortly thereafter, Israel
messaged the company saying
he had to figure out testing for
his events.

Then, for a Jan. 15 gathering
Israel planned, guests had to
get tested the morning before.

The owner then decided to take
that idea a step further.

“I was like, ‘We should be
offering this for all events,’”
Israel said.

Israel already requires
masks and vaccinations for his
JEWISH EXPONENT
Daniel Israel 
employees who work events.

But now he will require them
to take these tests, too.

He does not expect pushback
from guests.

“At least not in the Jewish
world,” Israel said.

He also says venues are open
to the idea because they like to
prioritize safety, too.

“But usually we supply most
of the staff,” he said. “So it’s not
Michelle Camperson Photography
that big of a concern.”
A bigger concern is that,
almost two years into COVID,
we’re still not out of it.

“We want people to come
back out and socialize again,”
Israel concluded. “We can’t
force everybody to stay in for
too long.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H EADLINES
Bucks County Synagogue Zoom Bombed on Shabbat
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
TEMPLE JUDEA of Bucks
County in Doylestown was
victimized by a Zoom bombing
during a Shabbat service on Jan. 7.

While the gathering was
taking place, the intruder entered
and started writing antise-
mitic, racist and homophobic
comments in the chat section.

Th e “unwelcome participant,” as
a Temple Judea email described
the intruder, also drew “an off en-
sive image on a shared slide
containing a healing prayer.”
Synagogue leaders shut down
the meeting and reentered to
complete the service. But the
damage was done.

Days later, Temple Judea
Rabbi Sigal Brier and President
Len Saff ren sent out an emailed
statement explaining the incident
to other Bucks County rabbis,
cantors and Jewish organi-
zations, including the Bucks
County Kehillah, part of the
Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia. “We still feel the pain and
shock of it all as we write this.

Our community is shaken by this
breach,” they said. “We are doing
our best to support each other, to
heal and to mend.”
Also in their email, Brier and
Saff ren said they reported the
incident to “several organiza-
tions” and were “reaching out
for support outside the organiza-
tion.” But they did not fi le a report
to the Doylestown Township
Police Department, according to
the department.

Toward the end of their state-
ment, the synagogue leaders
alluded to “antisemitism and
hate rhetoric in Central Bucks”
more generally.

At a Central Bucks School
Board meeting last November,
a man used his three minutes
during public comment to
spew antisemitic falsehoods.

His rhetoric, and hate speech in
general, was condemned by school
district leaders at the following
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Ohev Shalom of Bucks County’s congregation faced a Zoom bombing
shortly after switching to virtual services during lockdown in 2020. Rabbi
Eliott Perlstein was able to kick out the intruder and resume the service.

Courtesy of Evan Glickman
board meeting in December.

Temple Judea’s rabbi and presi-
dent explained that antisemitic
attacks would not stop them from
carrying on.

“We are committed to
protecting our right to exist and
to continue to carry on the Jewish
legacy, to express and celebrate
Judaism in community and in the
public square,” they said.

“The public square” now
includes the digital space, and
Zoom more specifi cally, according
to other Bucks County rabbis who
received that email.

Several synagogue leaders said
that they use Zoom for Shabbat
and other services, too, and
have been since the pandemic
began. It became necessary due
to lockdown policies then, but it
has become a convenient tool for
helping people attend services ever
since. During this time, Zoom
bombings have become a new,
unanticipated threat.

Ohev Shalom of Bucks County
in Richboro faced one in 2020
shortly aft er opening Shabbat
services in the digital space.

According to Rabbi Eliott
Perlstein, the attacker “got a line
in and was done.” Perlstein and
Ohev leaders kicked the intruder
out and resumed the service. Ohev
congregants didn’t even have to
leave and come back in.

Th e anguish from the event
was diffi cult, to be sure. It was
diffi cult enough for Perlstein to
stay on aft er that service to see if
anyone needed to talk through
what happened.

“It’s terribly disturbing,” he
said. But as Perlstein explained,
nobody got physically injured. So
despite the anguish, the threat of
a Zoom bombing is not dangerous
enough to outweigh the benefi ts of
Zoom services.

Virtual reality brings people
together who may not have been
able to get together in person.

“Th e benefi ts vastly outweigh
the risks,” said Rabbi Anna
Boswell-Levy of Congregation Kol
Emet in Yardley.

But congregations can’t ignore
the risks, according to Perlstein
and Boswell-Levy. Virtual services
have become yet another domain
in which Jews need to protect
themselves. Since that 2020 Zoom
bombing, Ohev Shalom requires
participants to state their names
and reasons for attending before
they enter. Th ose questions are
not foolproof, as an outsider can
still make up a good story. But for
service leaders, it does help clarify
the judgment call about whether
to let the person in.

Th ey also allow the synagogue
to stay open to outsiders who
genuinely want to pray.

“Usually, there’s a reason why
that person is joining us,” Perlstein
said. “Like there’s a person who
had a loss in their family.”
Kol Emet leaders don’t share
the Zoom service link in a promi-
nent place on their website.

Instead, they email it to congre-
gants in the weekly newsletter and
embed it in an event link on the
synagogue’s website calendar.

Th e Reconstructionist insti-
tution also uses a Zoom with a
password and a waiting room. If
an unfamiliar name enters the
waiting room, Boswell-Levy and
her fellow leaders ask the same
questions that Ohev Shalom
leaders ask.

“So far that approach has
worked,” she said. “If it’s not
enough, it might change.” ●
jsaff ren@jewishexponent.com;
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