H eadlines
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and family services, said
that demand for mental
health services was high and
rising. Mental health organizations
have had to change the way
they operate as well.

Tikvah/Advocates for the
Jewish Mentally Ill recently
held its first online gala.

Executive Director Alana
Hilsey was pleased with the
final product.

“Of course, I want to be there
in person and give someone a
hug and congratulate people in
person and give them physical
awards,” Hilsey said. “That
part is different. But I think
like the sense of community,
the essence of Tikvah, that felt
the same to me, honestly.”
doing laundry, cooking dinner
and keeping house for a whole
brood. “When your kids leave the
house, you adjust to them
being gone,” Rosen said.

First-time parents had
radically different experiences
than they’d expected.

Rachel Keiser, who gave
birth to her first child, Bradley,
in September, has juggled
the emotional and physical
demands of motherhood with
isolation from her friends and
family, as well as more time at
home with her husband than
anticipated. “It made me love him more,
how well he kept me safe and
the baby safe,” Keiser said of
her husband, Harrison Keiser.

As for social life, some have
enjoyed online gatherings as a
welcome alternative to freezing
the pandemic began, that
hasn’t stopped visual artists,
playwrights, museum curators,
dancers or musicians from
creating. Online culture has flour-
ished, from exhibits at the
National Museum of American
Jewish History, virtual tours
of the Old City Jewish Arts
Center and streamed perfor-
mances from Theatre Ariel.

We’ve all become accustomed
to Zoom and online streams
for cultural events, including
movies. Both the Gershman
Philadelphia Jewish Film
Festival and the Israeli Film
Festival of Philadelphia went to
a virtual model. Plays, at first
adapted for the Zoom screen,
started to be written for the
medium. Some artists and performers,
like “Pop Art Rabbi” Yitzchok
What I’ve been saying since the beginning of the pandemic, and
especially as we’re trying to sustain this a year in, is it’s all about the
quality of the individual’s experience.”
Fran Orkin meets her great-grandson, Bradley Keiser, for the first time
after weeks of strict quarantine.
Photo by Rachel Keiser
ROSS WEISMAN
Relationships outdoor hangs. Ross Weisman,
engagement associate at Tribe
12, said that the online events
he’s planned for young Jews in
their 20s and 30s are generally
well-attended and people who
join have relished the chance to
interrupt their isolation.

“What I’ve been saying since
the beginning of the pandemic,
and especially as we’re trying
to sustain this a year in, is it’s
all about the quality of the
individual’s experience, not
necessarily, like, ‘OK, how
many people did we get to
sign up for our Zoom webinar
tonight?’” Weisman said.

Moully, have continued to
make art for people to see in
person. Moully’s recurring
experiential art piece based in
a sukkah, “We All Belong,” was
available for a limited number
of visitors to the OCJAC back
in October.

At NMAJH, frequent public
events — movies, lectures, and
performance of Jewish music
— were bright spots in a diffi-
cult year.

“When we can’t get into
our intimate theater because a
pandemic is passing over us,
it’s such a great way to connect,
using music,” Dan Samuels,
NMAJH’s public programs
manager, said in July. l
One of the most frequently
discussed casualties
of the pandemic is personal
relationships. Adults were separated from
their elderly parents and grand-
parents. Those elderly parents
and grandparents were separated
from everyone for a year. Close
friends were unable to see one
another, and peripheral friend-
ships were put on hold.

Graduating college students
found themselves back in their
childhood bedrooms. Recent
high school graduates put
college off for a year or gutted
their way through a dessicated
version. Parents who expected Arts and Culture
to be empty nesters, like Jill
Though we’ve rarely been
Rosen, in Maple Glen, found able to engage with art or jbernstein@jewishexponent.com;
themselves back in an old role: performance in person since 215-832-0740
18 MARCH 11, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
At B’nai Abraham Chabad, congregants are masked and at a distance
from each other during High Holiday services in 2020.
Photo by Moussia Keiser
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM