H eadlines
Building Repairs Continue After Flood
pieces of memorabilia from the
Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall
of Fame were packed into big,
square boxes and stored in the
building lobby. Industrial fans
are blowing around the clock,
drying the last of the water that
once reached 7 feet high.

The building’s facilities team
and Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia executives agree
that progress has been steady,
but slow. Robb Quattro, the
building’s director of informa-
tion technology and systems,
N M OW
OD L
EL EA
S SIN
OP G
EN !
! M LE
OO LAB
DR AI
BE V
2 TS A
I UN
has a mantra to summarize the
progress made over the last three
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
weeks: “Slow is better than no.”
Steve Rosenberg, the Jewish
THE BASEMENT OF the Jewish
Federation chief operating
Community Services Building
officer, and other Jewish
looks vastly different than it did
Federation executives aim to
on Sept. 2, but it still bears little
have staff and tenants back
resemblance to what it looked like
in the building on Oct. 4, the
prior to Hurricane Ida.

date originally set for many
Since then, large, rectan-
employees to return from
Two hundred and fifty auditorium seats were removed after they were
gular chunks of drywall were
pandemic-precipitated remote
damaged in the flood.
Photos by Jamaal Chambers
removed from the wall, and
work in March 2020.

250 auditorium seats were
Though the Jewish Federation employees return then, it is facilities staff to carry furniture
ripped out; all salvageable
has committed to having willing to be flexible if necessary. and supplies throughout the
“We’ve told staff to be ready building — relies on a trans-
for Oct. 4,” Rosenberg said. “And former to function. Because the
if you’re ready for Oct. 4, you’ll transformer is located at waist-
be ready for Oct. 11 or 18 or 25.” level, it was entirely submerged
With more employees working and needs to be replaced.

from home once again, remote
In the meantime, a crew
UPPE R DU BLI N
access to the server through the will begin cleaning the entire
previously never-before-used building, which has remained
disaster relief site has increased empty since the hurricane.

to almost 30 people. Quattro has According to Rosenberg, the
tripled the bandwidth on the cleaning process will take about
virtual private network.

two weeks. Facilities staff also
Facilities staff works on discovered minor damages to
building repairs daily.

the building’s roof, which will
“The team is in here by 7 need to be repaired.

a.m. every day, really working,”
The memorabilia from the
Rosenberg said.

hall of fame will be assessed and
On Sept. 13, the building’s cleaned by local museum special-
heating, ventilation and air ists until it is eventually moved
conditioning system was up and to a new home, which is still
running again, leaving the eleva- being decided upon by Stephen
tors as the only component of the Frishberg, the hall’s chairperson.

main system still not operable.

During the building cleanup,
Though facility manager Chambers noticed some new
Jamaal Chambers and his team needed repairs that wouldn’t
Designed with luxury in mind, The Residences at the Promenade
lifted the two elevators in the have otherwise been discov-
building lobby to drain three ered — such as a leak in the
off er lavish apartments situated above a beautiful town center.

feet of water from one elevator lower-level bathroom behind
• Park Trails
• Dog Parks & Washrooms
• Bocce Court
shaft over two days, the elevators the drywall — so he considers
are waiting on parts before they the building lucky, despite the
• Pool with Sundeck • Media & Game Rooms
• Fitness Center
can be repaired.

existing damage.

Amenities too many to mention!
Those elevator repairs are
The building is about 50
straightforward and likely years old, but Chambers said
Clean Juice • Sprouts Farmers Market • Lululemon
minor; the Jewish Community that its age has been an asset to
Fine Wine and Good Spirits! • Home Goods
Services building also has two its integrity. The foundation of
elevators in the back — one the building is brick, which is no
Coming Soon!
passenger and one freight longer the to-go material when
Banfi eld • La Scala’s Fire • Trinity Physical Therapy
elevator — that are presenting constructing buildings meant to
Smashburger • Carbon Health • Starbucks • Serenity Nail Bar
higher hurdles to clear.

house many tenants.

The passenger elevator in
“A lot of the older build-
the back of the building experi- ings are built better because
enced the brunt of the flooding nowadays, all these new devel-
and is too muddy to be lifted opments — a lot of it is just wood
and drained of water. The
A Bruce E. Toll Community
freight elevator — used by the
See Repairs, Page 5
L OCA L
UPSCALE LIVING
STEPS ABOVE IT ALL!
Welsh & Dreshertown Roads • Dresher, PA
833-238-1100 ResidencesUD.com
4 SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Confused About Shemini Atzeret?
Us Too: The ‘Hybrid Holiday’ Explained
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT is
a thought experiment used in
quantum mechanics that —
without getting into the hairy
details — consists of a cat in
a box becoming radioactively
poisoned and, upon one opening
the box, the cat is found to be,
paradoxically, both dead and
alive. The Jewish holiday of Shemini
Atzeret, sandwiched between
Sukkot and Simchat Torah, has
nothing to do with radioactive
cats or quantum mechanics, but
it’s an anomaly in its own right:
“It’s a hybrid holiday,”
said Rabbi Eliezer Hirsch of
Mekor Habracha/Center City
Synagogue in Philadelphia.

Shemini Atzeret is both its
own holiday and an extension
of the holiday of Sukkot and the
preface to Simchat Torah.

“In the Torah, we’re told to
have a sacred congregation, a
gathering, on the eighth day of
Sukkot,” Congregation Beth
Tikvah Rabbi Nathan Weiner
said. In Hebrew, “shemini” means
eight, and “atzeret” means
assembly. The holiday is first
mentioned in Leviticus 23:36
and, according to a midrash, is
a way to linger in God’s presence
following the intensity of the
weeks of the High Holidays.

“We have spent so much time
with God and in synagogues
over the last couple of weeks,”
said Rabbi Yonah Gross of
Congregation Beth Hamedrosh
in Wynnewood. “Before we head
back to our lives, Hashem says,
‘I want to spend one more day
with you.’”
Celebrated on the 22nd of
Tishrei in Israel or the 22nd
and 23rd of Tishrei elsewhere,
Shemini Atzeret, in short, is
a celebration that acts as the
transition from Sukkot to
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Shemini Atzeret is both a
standalone holiday and connected
to Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

Rabbi Nathan Weiner
Courtesy of Getty Images
Courtesy of Nathan Weiner
Simchat Torah.

Like most concepts in
Judaism, however, the simple
explanation is not necessarily
the most satisfying one, and it
certainly doesn’t account for
why Shemini Atzeret remains a
lesser-known Jewish holiday.

The holiday is a Yom Tov, a
festival day, where one refrains
from using technology like
on Shabbat. During Shemini
Atzeret one can — but doesn’t
have to — dine in the sukkah;
however, it’s not necessary to
say a blessing, shake the lulav
and etrog, eat a specific food or
complete certain ritual practices.

“There’s not a very clear,
tangible meaning that people
can grab onto,” Weiner said.

Shemini Atzeret
is observed differently based on
one’s geography and Judaic
movement, making the holiday’s
ritual practices even harder to
pin down.

In Israel, as well as in the
Reform and Reconstructionist
movements, Shemini Atzeret is
a one-day celebration that also
combines Simchat Torah.

In the Orthodox and
Conservative movements
outside of Israel, Shemini Atzeret
is a two-day affair.

Yet Weiner tacks an asterisk
onto this idea.

“It’s where you live, not
where you are” that determines
if your celebration is one or two
days. If you’re in Israel but are a
Conservative Jew from the U.S.,
you’d celebrate the holiday for
seasons but is said at the end of
Sukkot to make sure that rain
doesn’t fall while we’re dwelling
in a sukkah and eating outside.

And like most every Jewish
holiday, Shemini Atzeret blends
joy and grief, as it is another
opportunity for Yizkor, the
memorial service, following
Yom Kippur, Hirsch said.

If Jews can figure out how to
find harmony in the seeming
contradiction of celebration and
mourning, then we are certainly
capable of deciphering the
meaning of a holiday that both
stands on its own and is inter-
twined with others. Besides, it’s
got to be easier to understand
than quantum mechanics. l
Repairs Continued from Page 4
and plaster and Sheetrock,”
Chambers said. “The fact that it
was an older building helped us.”
Despite the building’s solid
foundation, flooding damage
was inevitable, Chambers said.

Storms such as Ida aren’t
seen on the North East Coast
as frequently or with as much
severity as in the Southeast. Had
Ida been a better-predicted and
less-severe storm, Chambers
would have stacked sandbags
around the building to limit water
from entering the basement.

But given the level of
unexpected rainfall, trying to
prepare for the storm was futile.

“It was just bad luck,”
Chambers said. “I would never
say ‘never,’ but I doubt we’ll see
something like this again.” l
two days, despite being in an
area that celebrates for just one.

To make matters more
complicated, Simchat Torah
is not a biblical holiday like
Shemini Atzeret and Sukkot are,
meaning it was developed by
rabbis and is not in the Torah.

The two-day celebration of the
holiday was likewise created srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
rabbinically, largely for practical 215-832-0741
215-832-0741 reasons.

Outside of Israel, several
holidays, such as Passover,
consist of two-day celebrations,
instead of one in Israel, to create
a larger margin of error for the
lunar calendar.

“The calendar needed to be
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word to get out when exactly the
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To make sure those outside
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THINK ABOUT –
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But regardless of how or
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