F TAY-SACHS
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CANAVAN CANAVAN
SCREENING SCREENING
Schools Continued from Page 1
It’s the second Sunday
the protesters have come to
make their voices heard here:
Arkoosh is the chair of the
Montgomery County Board
of Commissioners, and the
Montgomery County Board
of Health announced on Nov.

13 that all K-12 schools would
close for two weeks in the face
of an unprecedented spike in
COVID-19 cases.

Many members of the
Jewish community were
outraged by the decision, and
decided to fight back. A Lower
Merion Jewish parents listserv
touted the Sunday morning
protest, urging, “Make your
voice heard by participating.”
On Nov. 22, protest organizer
Jaret Gale, who is not Jewish,
said his efforts have been
strongly supported by the
Jewish community, and that
the owner of a Jewish day care
was one of the first people on
the scene.

Gale choked back tears as he
spoke to the Exponent about
his opposition to the school
closure. In the spring, he said, he
found a note written by his
teenage daughter, in which she
expressed a desire to commit
suicide in concert with a few
friends. The shock of the
pandemic and the isolation of
at-home schooling had pushed
her to her breaking point. She’s
feeling all right now, but Gale
remains on constant edge.

“As a parent, I can’t sit back
and watch that happen anymore,”
Gale said. “I just can’t do it.”
The Board of Health’s
5-0 decision to mandate the
two-week closure, made with
guidance from CHOP PolicyLab,
has also rankled leaders of Jewish
day schools in Montgomery
County, along with the parents
and students they serve.

Parents at Kohelet Yeshiva
received an email on Nov. 17
from Rabbi Gil Perl, head of
school. Acknowledging “the
rising prevalence of COVID-19
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM in our area,” Perl nonetheless
expressed disappointment
that schools appeared to have
been given no ability to apply
for an exemption from the
order, based on precautionary
measures or rates of in-school
transmission. Additionally, he wrote, the
fact that the order failed to
distinguish between school
for students K-5 and schools
with students in grades 6-12
“was similarly difficult for us
to curb the spread of COVID-19,
including wearing masks and
engaging in social distancing,”
Troodler wrote on Nov. 13,
“I cannot in good conscience
endorse a nonsensical directive
that unnecessarily and unjustly
impacts my children in an
adverse fashion.”
Audrey Gornish, mother
of three Kohelet students, was
more succinct.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,”
she said.

they were closing schools when
they were leaving open restau-
rants and gyms and bowling
alleys and all these other places
where we know that there’s
been transmission of disease,”
she said.

Daniel, Kleinman’s sixth-
grade son, has enjoyed his time
away from Zoom school.

“I get to play recess and get
outside,” he said.

Montgomery County Judge
Richard Haaz denied an order
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They always say, ‘Follow the science.’ The school is following the science. So I’ve kind of
lost faith in people that want to make those types of decisions.”
AUDREY GORNISH
to understand.” Perl informed
parents that a letter was
submitted to the board, with
the support of the school’s
Medical Advisory Committee,
requesting flexibility or an
exemption for the K-5 students.

The Montgomery County
Board of Health did not
respond to multiple requests
for comment. Arkoosh, for
her part, has responded to the
protests that have taken place
outside her house:
“As a parent, I understand
that the past 37 weeks have been
extremely difficult for everyone
in our community, and I respect
these parents for advocating for
what they believe is best for their
children,” she said in a statement
distributed to media outlets. “I
want to make clear that I want
in-person school to continue,
and based on our data in
Montgomery County, our team
believes this five- to eight-day
pause in in-person schooling
will support this goal.”
Kohelet parent Nachi
Troodler was one of those who
objected to that pause. Writing
in his publication Philadelphia
Jewish Link, Troodler expressed
the anger felt by many.

“While we should all be fully
supportive of measures intended
If kids had been “dropping
like flies,” Gornish said, then
the decision would’ve made
sense to her. It was the fact
that no allowance was made
for schools to be judged on
a case-by-case basis, she said,
that she was objecting to. Her
children experienced distance
learning once already and, with
the weirdness of the spring, it
just seemed like what one had
to do. But now that they’ve
been back in school, the idea of
returning to distance learning
is devastating.

“They always say, ‘Follow
the science,’” Gornish said.

“The school is following the
science. So I’ve kind of lost
faith in people that want to
make those types of decisions.”
Deborah Kleinman’s
children are split between
the Morris and Rose Caskey
Torah Academy of Greater
Philadelphia and Kohelet.

What they’re not split on is
a desire to remain in school,
where they’ve been able to
see their teachers and friends
in person since school began
again in the fall. Their mother
doesn’t feel any particular
tension when it comes to her
assessment, either.

“I was sort of surprised that
JEWISH EXPONENT
on Nov. 20 by parents seeking
to stop the board’s directive,
according to the Inquirer. A
second lawsuit has been filed in
federal court.

Despite the protests, public
health officials — and a signif-
icant portion of the population
— back the restrictions. They
note that new cases of COVID-19
in Pennsylvania have roughly
tripled since the end of October
and that similar restrictions
are being implemented across
the country.

Barbara Wadsworth, a
member of the Montgomery
County Board of Health and
senior VP of patient services
and chief nursing officer at
Main Line Health, told The
Philadelphia Inquirer, “If we
don’t do this, we will be in
a significantly worse situation
post-Thanksgiving holiday.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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