O pinion
Editor’s Letter
One Year of COVID, a Mournful Milestone
BY LIZ SPIKOL
I WENT BACK to my office
in the Jewish Community
Services Building in Center
City the other day to pick
something up, and I noticed an
old editorial lineup document
sitting on my desk. My last
full workday in that office was
March 12, 2020 — exactly one
year ago — and I remember
not taking much home with
me when I left; I assumed I’d be
back in a couple months.

Being there now is like
seeing a prepandemic world set
in amber — my wall calendar
still displays March 2020,
March magazines sit on the
desk and that editorial lineup
is from March 19, with the list
of stories we were working on
for that issue. One of those,
slugged “DOCTORS,” talked
about COVID in the future
tense: “How are doctors
and medical professionals
preparing for coronavirus?”
We allocated 800 words to that
story. We could never have
imagined how many words
we’d devote to the subject in
the months to come.

Now, as the nation marks
this imprecise anniversary, we
offer a few more words about
how the novel coronavirus
has changed our lives. It’s
something a number of news
outlets are doing this week,
and I had an opportunity to
speak with fellow journalists
in other cities about how they
were handling the coverage.

Turns out, a lot depends on
where you live.

For instance, one editor
I spoke with felt it wouldn’t
be right to focus on COVID
deaths in their special issue
because there hadn’t been
many in the community her
publication serves. She felt
she had to respond to the
readers’ experience; for them,
COVID has meant an increase
in isolation and loneliness, a
heavier reliance on technology,
and changes in relationships.

She didn’t feel it would be
appropriate to be mournful.

Here in Philadelphia, in
contrast, we’ve had a number of
COVID-related deaths, as we’ve
chronicled in our “Those We’ve
Lost” series. (At first, I wasn’t
even sure if we should make it
an ongoing series. Now we’re
on Part VII.) Our goal with the
series was to make sure every
person in the Jewish commu-
nity who has died from COVID
is recognized as a unique
human being rather than
merely as a data point. We know
we haven’t covered everyone,
but staff writers Sophie Panzer
and Jesse Bernstein have done
a wonderful job with the infor-
mation available to us. In this
issue, we add two more names
to our series and remember
those we memorialized in the
last year.

Still, as my far-f lung
colleague reminded me,
the COVID story is not all
about death. When I asked
the Exponent crew what the
focus of our coverage should
be for this issue, Bernstein
pointed out that while many
people have died, many more
are still alive and grappling
with the way our lives have
been upended. In this issue, he
writes about the changes the
pandemic has wrought, and
how we’ve adapted to them.

I’ve noticed that when most
people talk about the changes,
they focus more on the daily
irritations than the devas-
tating large-scale effects. I do
it myself — I’ll be annoyed
by a Zoom glitch or the fog
on my glasses while wearing a
mask, and I have to laugh: This
is what’s bothering me? I’m
lucky to be alive, to be healthy,
to have a job; I’m one of the
fortunate people in this histor-
ical moment, and yet here I am,
fuming because someone is not
on mute. I suppose the human
inclination toward aggra-
vation is simply hard-wired.

And kvetching is part of our
birthright. But it’s also true that when
there’s so much pain and loss,
it’s simply more sensible, and
socially acceptable, to complain
of minor afflictions than to howl
with grief. In fact, in just a few
weeks, the Exponent staff will
go back to working in our office
— and return to an approxima-
tion of normalcy. I’ll take down
my March calendar, recycle
those magazines and prep a
story lineup for an April issue.

I’ll head to the corner store at
lunchtime for an egg sandwich
and drink the vending machine
coffee during an afternoon
slump. I’ll fight traffic on my
way home and resent the person
who cuts me off.

Assuming the worst truly
is over, we’ll be tempted to put
the horror of this year behind
us and move on; Jews know
plenty about starting over
without self-pity. But a year
like this leaves scars, and some
of us will need more help than
others, whether pragmatically
or emotionally. We all respond
differently to trauma and dislo-
cation; empathy, not judgment,
is what’s required.

Whatever happens, the
Exponent will be here for you.

Stick with us, reach out, stay
well and be safe. We hope to
see you — in person — real
soon. l
Medical Dramas Perpetuate Orthodox Stereotypes
BY SHOSHANA GOTTLIEB
ON FEB. 9, the Jewish internet
was shocked by a scene
from the TV medical drama
“Nurses.” The shocking part
should be that a clip from a
20 MARCH 11, 2021
subpar Canadian medical
drama only airing on NBC
because of a COVID-induced
lack of programming managed
to go semiviral. But no. The
video went viral because of
what many believed was an
anti-Semitic portrayal of a
Chasidic patient.

In the clip, a Chasidic man
(with the worst fake payes I’ve
ever seen) is told that he’d need
a bone grafted from a dead
body inserted into his leg.

“A dead goyim leg,” his
father says, “from anyone. An
Arab? A woman?”
“Or God forbid an Arab
woman,” one of the nurses
retorts. She later uses a story
about King David to help
convince the patient to have
the procedure done because
obviously her Christian under-
standing of the story would
be enough to convince the
man to forego his (inaccurate)
religious beliefs.

This scene would never
happen. For starters, the correct
phrase would be “goyishe
leg,” as a Chasidic man would
surely know. Additionally, it’s
highly unlikely that hearing
a story about King David
would change a Chasidic Jew’s
JEWISH EXPONENT
religious convictions.

But most
important, Orthodox Jews have zero
issues with accepting organs,
or bones, or anything from
non-Jews. This scene is
frustrating because it relies
on harmful, grossly incorrect
stereotypes about Chasidim.

People were enraged, and
rightfully so. NBC ultimately
pulled the episode from its
online platform, and while
the show’s original producers
have apologized in a statement,
NBC has not.

Actually, this clip shouldn’t
come as a surprise. On medical
dramas, too many episodes
have featured some sort of
religious Jew refusing medical
treatment, essentially trying to
martyr themselves.

Take, for example, the first
season of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
One of the storylines on its
eighth episode revolves around
an Orthodox woman who
refuses to get a porcine heart
valve replacement because
they want to put a “pig, a
freaking non-kosher, treif
mammal, into my chest, into
my heart! The very essence of
See Gottlieb, Page 24
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O pinion
A Step Toward Religious Jews Should Embrace American
Freedom in Israel
Evangelical Friendship and Support
MID-ATLANTIC MEDIA EDITORIAL BOARD
LAST WEEK, Israel’s Supreme
Court ruled 8-1 that non-Or-
thodox conversions must be
recognized for purposes of
citizenship under Israel’s Law
of Return. The decision was a
welcome step toward making
the Jewish state a land of
religious freedom for Jews.

Unfortunately, the realities
of Israeli politics could lead to
the ruling being overturned
by the Knesset. The court
decision — which came as a
surprise to most — related to
cases that had been on hold for
15 years, as the court waited
for the government to address
the issue through legisla-
tion. Finally recognizing the
futility of waiting, the court
ruled. But even though the
ruling is significant for Law
of Return purposes, it did
nothing to loosen the haredi
Rabbinate’s stranglehold on
personal status issues in the
Jewish state.

Israel’s Law of Return, which
confers a fast track to citizen-
ship, defines a Jew as “one who
was born to a Jewish mother
or converted, while not being
a member of another religion.”
The court held that conver-
sion in Israel under Reform
or Conservative auspices met
that test. As noted by Harvard
law professor Noah Feldman
in Bloomberg Opinion, “The
question before the court was
not whether Conservative
or Reform conversions were
religiously valid, but whether
they counted socioculturally as
‘Jewish.’” The court concluded
that for those purposes, non-Or-
thodox conversions counted.

Nonetheless, according to
Feldman, the ruling was a signal
“that the country’s legal elites
are tired of deferring to the de
facto Orthodox monopoly over
defining Judaism in Israel,” and
a forceful nod by the justices
“in support of intra-Jewish
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM egalitarianism.”
The ruling was largely
celebrated in the Diaspora, where
the issue of religious pluralism is
a big deal. In Israel, however,
the issue has less currency. So it
was primarily the religious and
political leaders in the country’s
haredi community that reacted
most strongly — and their criti-
cism was stinging.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David
Lau said those who undergo
Reform or Conservative conver-
sions “are not Jews.” And
according to Chief Sephardic
Rabbi Yitzak Yosef: “What the
Reform and Conservatives
call ‘conversion’ is nothing but
a forgery of Judaism.” Interior
Minister Aryeh Deri, of the haredi
Shas party, pledged to overturn
the decision through legislation,
since it constitutes “a mortal blow
to the Jewish character of the
state” and the “complete demoli-
tion of the status quo [on religious
affairs in Israel] that has been
upheld for over 70 years.”
The “status quo” to which
Deri referred dates back to a
time when Israel’s character,
population and politics were
much different than they are
today. Much has changed since
1948. Non-Orthodox streams
of Judaism account for the vast
majority of the world’s Jewish
population, and their influ-
ence is growing in the majority
secular Jewish state. That is
an issue Israel will have to
address as it works to sustain
its foundational commitment
to being both Jewish and
democratic. In the meantime, a move
toward religious freedom and
religious tolerance is a good
thing. Last week’s Supreme
Court ruling is a step in the
right direction. It is something
to be celebrated. l
Mid-Atlantic Media’s editorial board
is composed of media owners and
journalists from Washington, D.C.,
Maryland and Philadelphia.

BY WILLIAM WANGER
IN A RECENT ISSUE of the
Jewish Exponent, there was a
review of the new documen-
tary “’Til Kingdom Come,”
which investigates American
evangelical Christian support
for Israel and which screened
last month at the Gershman
Jewish Film Festival in
Philadelphia. It sounds as
though the filmmaker, Maya
Zinshtein, could have benefited
from doing more research, as
the film apparently simplisti-
cally asserts that the reason
evangelicals support Israel
financially and otherwise, and
show warmth for the Jewish
People, is to convert Jews, and
prepare for the rapture and
Armageddon, during which
Jews will be asked to convert to
Christianity. For a more balanced view,
Zinshtein should have looked
at pro-evangelical sources, like
David Brog’s “Standing with
Israel: Why Christians Support
the Jewish State.” In that book,
the Jewish author states the
primary reason for American
evangelical support for Israel,
and their love for the Jewish
people, is that God said, in
Genesis, that “He will bless
those who bless the Jews, and
curse those who curse the Jews;
and that all peoples on Earth
will be blessed through the
Jewish People.”
That’s it. Oh, and evangeli-
cals believe that God actually
said what is written in Genesis
(and, unlike most Jews, they
JEWISH EXPONENT
can cite the specific Torah
chapter and verse), and
they believe that the post-
Holocaust watchwords “never
again” obligate those modern
Righteous Gentiles to demon-
strate that “never again” is not
a mere platitude.

I am a Zionist, a pro-Israel
advocate and a proud Jewish
American who was brought up
in a Conservative Jewish home.

For decades, I have worked
with evangelical groups,
including Christians United
for Israel and the Delaware-
based Olive Tree Ministries,
on a multitude of pro-Israel-
related matters. In addition,
my business life has brought
me into close and regular
contact with evangelicals.

Among other things,
evangelicals showed me how
to bring God into nearly every
aspect of our modern lives,
from reading (Old Testament,
in my honor) prayers before
board meetings, to treating
employees as family, to humbly
performing charitable acts and
tithing, all to better the lives
of their neighbors (many of
whom are recent immigrants)
and directly support their
greater community. While,
perhaps, my Judaism might
also have taught me those
things, it was my interaction
with Old Testament-steeped
evangelicals that brought
them home.

Moreover, on more than
one occasion, I have sadly
felt more aligned with my
eva ngelical friends than with
my Reform Jewish co-religion-
ists on matters involving
Israel’s security, including the
Golan Heights; Israel’s legal
and the Jewish people’s ances-
tral rights to a united Jerusalem
and Judea and Samaria;
calling out
Palestinian violence and “play to slay”
policies; and demanding that
Israel’s actions be measured
by the same moral and legal
standards that the world
applies to other nations. The
number of evangelicals who
regularly write and visit legis-
lators advocating on pro-Israel
matters, travel to Israel (even
during the intifadas) and
contribute to pro-Israel causes
dwarfs that of most of the
greater American Jewish
community. At none of the CUFI
“Nights to Honor Israel” or
in any of my other interac-
tions with evangelicals was
my conversion, “tribula-
tions,” Armageddon or the
rapture ever mentioned or
implied. Rather, I have seen
Israel honored, and Jews and
Judaism venerated. Unlike
the people interviewed in
the documentary, I am not
uncomfortable with evangel-
ical pro-Israel support and
philosemitism. Would some
evangelicals like Jews to
convert to Christianity? Of
course. Do some support
the Jewish return to Israel to
hasten Jesus’ return to Earth?
Surely. Do some evangelicals
believe that I will not go to
heaven because I don’t accept
Jesus as my savior? Yes. My
response is: “So what?”
I know that the hearts of
some of my evangelical friends
truly ache because they fear I
will not go to heaven. Clearly,
Jews and American evangeli-
cals have different theologies.

I simply don’t agree with them;
and will worry about the after-
life when I get there. That’s
what comes through my
knowledge of my religion, its
beliefs and appreciation of its
particular teachings, laws and
values. Frankly, I say leave it to God
to sort out whose theology is
true, offers a better path to
promoting human goodness
and provides a better value
system. As Dennis Prager and
See Wanger, Page 24
MARCH 11, 2021
21