H EADLINES
Gatherings Continued from Page 1
once a month for activities like
lunches and visiting a scare-
crow exhibit in October. On
Dec. 13, the Goddesses are
having a Chanukah potluck
featuring brisket,
kugel and salmon, among other
delicacies. “We’ve all been vacci-
nated, and we think enough is
enough,” Heisen said. “We’re
not young.”
Later in December, Heisen
and her daughter will fl y to Los
Angeles to visit her son and his
family. When Heisen’s husband
was alive, the family tradition-
ally ate prime rib on Christmas
Day, his birthday.

Now, they are bringing back
the tradition for the fi rst time
since 2019. Peter Heisen died in
February 2020.

“We can’t eradicate the fl u.

We can’t eradicate colds,” Heisen
Cara Scharf, center, celebrates Chanukah with her family before the
pandemic. Courtesy of the Scharf family
said. “How can we eradicate
COVID? We can’t.”
Heisen is not the only Jewish
local willing to travel for a
holiday gathering.

Cara Scharf of Philadelphia
is planning on going to New
Hampshire and Connecticut for
Meet HERBERTA SMITH
Caregiver SHE’S CALLED SIMPSON HOUSE HOME SINCE 2018
In the 1950s, Herberta went to the Mercy-Douglass Hospital School
of Nursing, an African-American hospital and Philadelphia’s first
school for Black nurses. She started her nursing career in 1955.

In 1988, Herberta looked for change in her life and found it in
the mission field. Over the next three decades, she would spend
a total of six years in various locations throughout Uganda.

She made her last trip in 2016 at the age of 83, two years before
she moved to Simpson House.

Th anksgiving and Christmas,
respectively, with her husband’s
family. Th e New Hampshire party
will include about eight people
staying together in an Airbnb.

Th e Connecticut gathering will
welcome 11-12 guests.

Scharf and her husband also
are getting together with Scharf’s
parents a couple of times to light
Chanukah candles.

Last year for Th anksgiving,
they met with her parents for
a small get-together. But in
December, as cases increased,
they just lit Chanukah candles
over Zoom.

Th is year will be more fun,
Scharf said.

“Th ere’s a sense of togeth-
erness and joy around these
holidays,” she said. “It’s sad
when you’re just doing it over
Zoom.” Scharf added that she trusts
her family members and that
everyone eligible to be vacci-
nated is.

“We feel pretty comfortable,”
she said.

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Herberta and other caregivers choose Simpson House for
retirement living.

2101 Belmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131
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14 NOVEMBER 18, 2021
The Good Grief Goddesses, a group of Jewish widows in the Philly
area, are planning on getting together for a holiday meal on Dec. 13.

Courtesy of Joyce Heisen
Charles Schnur of Center
City is having a family member
come to him: his mother-
in-law. She lives in Stamford,
Connecticut, but wants to spend
Th anksgiving and Chanukah
with her 5-month-old grandson.

She plans on staying with the
Schnurs for “awhile,” Charles
Schnur said.

“We’ll get to celebrate with
her. She’ll get to celebrate
with her grandson,” he added.

“Th at’s nice.”
Another Jewish Phila-
delphian, Bryan Cohen, is not
planning on traveling or having
anyone come to him. But he is
planning on resuming a public
tradition with his father, brother
and his brother’s fi ancee.

Before 2020, the Cohens
would go out for Th anksgiving
dinner in the city. But last
year, they just got together
virtually. In 2021, though, the Cohens
want to go to the Capital
Grille or another steakhouse.

Th ey will probably gather for
Chanukah candle lightings,
too, Cohen said.

“Restrictions are down,”
he added. “We’d like to get
together.” Several
Jewish Phila-
delphia ns
ment ioned
vaccinations as the reason they
feel comfortable seeing family
members again. For some, it’s
not exactly a requirement; for
other families, though, it very
much is.

Peter Gaskill of Bala
Cynwyd usually celebrates
Thanksgiving in Sharon,
Massachusetts, where his wife’s
brother and sister-in-law live.

Th e dinner was canceled in
2020 but is back on this year
under one condition.

All guests who have been
eligible for vaccinations must
be vaccinated and tested before
the event. And the tests must be
negative for COVID.

Even kids 11 and under,
who became eligible for Pfi zer
vaccines in October, will have
gotten their fi rst shots by the
time the family sits down for
turkey. “Just because you’re vacci-
nated doesn’t mean you can’t
get COVID,” Gaskill said.

At the same time, he’s not
worried about the indoor
dinner. “Everyone’s vaxxed, so we’re
feeling safe,” Gaskill said. ●
jsaff ren@jewishexponent.com;
215-832-0740 JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Addiction Continued from Page 1
an online community for Jews
in recovery across the country.

Yet Jews struggle with
addiction, too, Glazer said,
and because of the stigma
within Jewish communities
surrounding addiction, those
Jews must struggle silently.

The American Addictions
Center predicts that 20% of
United States Jews have a
history of addiction within
their family.

Glazer has struggled with
food addiction and codepen-
dency and is in recovery
himself. He was hesitant to
share that he was a rabbi in
recovery because rabbis were
supposed to give, not receive
assistance. But because addic-
tion is so stigmatized, many
rabbis are not equipped to
talk to congregants about the
subject. “I’ve heard people come
into my group, and they say, ‘I
went to my rabbi for support,
and my rabbi had absolutely
nothing to offer,’” Glazer said.

“‘My rabbi said something like,
‘Well, if you hadn’t married
a non-Jew, you wouldn’t have
these issues.’”
Rabbinic schools don’t train
rabbis to address addiction
in their communities, Glazer
said. There’s a belief that Jews
don’t experience addiction or
substance abuse disorders.

During the pandemic, those
with substance abuse disorders
have had a particularly difficult
time. At Amudim, an interna-
tional service that provides
clinical care for those strug-
gling with addiction, mental
illness and abuse, cases rose
rapidly in the U.S. over the past
two years, from 2,818 in 2019
to 4,371 in 2021. In previous
years, cases had risen modestly
by a couple hundred a year.

David Kushner, who works
in government relations and
special projects at Amudim
and lives in Philadelphia,
believes the growing numbers
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Rabbi Michael Perice told his
Temple Sinai congregation in
Cinnaminson, New Jersey, about
his substance abuse disorder in
June. Rabbi Ilan Glazer
Courtesy of Rabbi Ilan Glazer
Rabbi Abby Michaleski
Courtesy of Rabbi Abby Michaleski
Marla Kaufman
Courtesy of Marla Kaufman
Courtesy of Rabbi Michael Perice
are an alarm bell for Jewish
recovery resources and Jewish
community members alike.

“Some of it was somewhat
expected, but the depth and
volume were not expected on
this level,” he said. “Those
that have been successfully
in recovery — many people
relapsed; and those who were
struggling had a much harder
time; and those that didn’t
realize they had an issue —
their issues really came to the
surface.” Because COVID lockdowns
sent individuals to their homes
and hindered social connec-
tions, those with addictions
and substance abuse disorders
lost support systems crucial to
recovery. “Addiction is a disease of
isolation, of disconnection, of
void of spirituality,” said Rabbi
Yosef Lipsker of the Chabad-
Lubavitch of Berks County.

Lipsker has been on the
front line to mitigate the
harms of isolation on those
dealing with addiction. The
Chabad has partnered with
Caron Treatment Center in
Wernersville since 1999. Over
the pandemic, Lipsker has
dropped off Shabbat dinners
at Caron, challah and matzah
ball soup stacked tightly in the
trunk of his car every Friday
afternoon. Out of many Jewish
movements, Chabad was the
first to acknowledge addiction
within the Jewish community
and start providing Jewish-
specific resources, Lipsker
said. He cited the Lubavitcher
Rebbe’s teaching to help “the
weakest link” as his call to help
those with addictions.

“I’m not here to create a
rehab center,” Lipsker said.

“I’m here to look at, assess and
evaluate what’s going on, and
when I see there’s a need for
a certain idea, I jump right
into it.”
Yet Jewish-specific resources
are still few and far between.

Jewish rehabilitation centers
dot the country, such as Beit
T’shuvah in Los Angeles, but
local resources vary.

“The Jewish world has
generally not put any funding
behind this issue, nor have
we thought about it in any
systemic way,” Glazer said.

Jewish Federations and
Jewish Family and Children’s
services, including those in
Greater Philadelphia, have
only recently begun to provide
resources to those struggling
with addiction, Glazer said.

Some Jews have tried to turn
See Addiction, Page 24
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