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Residents Refl ect on COVID Era
Two Years in
BY JARRAD SAFFREN
I n Philadelphia, the mask require-
ment for indoor establishments is
no more, and the same is true
across most of the United States.

It feels like a post-COVID moment,
especially as the news cycle rushes
thumb-fi rst into a new memetic war:
the literal war in Ukraine started by
Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But in the Greater Philadelphia area,
there’s a feeling that is probably also
common around the country: COVID
may be ending, but we have changed,
and we’re not sure if that’s good or bad.

In reality, it’s probably both.

Local Jews did their best to fi nd clar-
ity about this confusing time.

Lela Casey, a Doylestown resi-
dent and mother of three, said there
were two big things she’d miss from
pre-pandemic days — moving about
in the world without a heavy feeling of
risk and being able to talk to her neigh-
bors without some political implication
hanging over them.

Casey used to be able to travel
without thinking twice. Th e writer’s
social life once existed in New York
City, where she’d meet up with writer
friends. Now, neither of those things
are true.

Th e mom also used to be able to
talk to her neighbors without group-
ing them into the mask or anti-mask
categories. But in March 2022, she no
longer can.

“It’s become this identifying factor,
and that’s diffi cult to stop,” Casey said.

“I hope it goes away.”
Th ere may not be an upside to the
political creep into neighborhoods that
we’ve all experienced during the pan-
demic, but there is an upside to trav-
eling less, according to Casey. She now
focuses much more on local issues.

In November, Casey was part of
a group of parents that lobbied the
Central Bucks School District to
condemn the antisemitism that was
breaking out in the district. Central
Bucks leaders listened and denounced
antisemitism at a December school
board meeting.

Casey said it’s “healthy for all of us to
take care of our communities.”
“And not only to take care of our
communities, but to have a commu-
nity,” she added. “When you’re always
running off to work or wherever, you
don’t pay attention to it.”
Daniela Burg of Furlong has under-
gone a similar shift during the past
couple of years.

Burg, who works for an insur-
ance company, spent her week-
days in an offi ce before March 2020.

She also formed a tight bond with a
group of female classmates at a local
Orangetheory Fitness.

But COVID moved Burg’s offi ce to
her kitchen table and her workout rou-
tine to the screen on which she takes
her Peloton classes. (Burg has “hacked”
the Peloton system by not buying the
bike, she explains, paying only $13 a
month.) “Sometimes, I do miss getting up
and leaving the house,” Burg said.

At the same time, the mother of two
has a lot more time to fi nish work,
attend to her children and talk to her
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