menorah car parade came down the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway, and “drive-through” events,
to be repeated by many during Purim 2021, were
everywhere. Social Services
Dvora Entin, a specialist in maternal
mental health based in Bala Cynywd,
speaks to clients from her home in
spring 2020
COURTESY OF DVORA ENTIN
FOR OUR COMMUNITY...

JEVS is there.

For more than 80 years, JEVS has been
Making hope happen ® with:
• Job search & career transition services
• Skills training, GED & college degree programs
• Help with addiction, mental health & recovery
• Wide range of services for individuals
with disabilities
Locations throughout Greater Philadelphia
+ online services • jevshumanservices.org
JEVS Human Services partners
with the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia
40 THE GUIDE 2021/2022
Jevs The strain put on Jewish social services in
Philadelphia was unlike anything faced in recent
memory. It’s not simply that groups like Jewish Family
and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia
or Jewish Relief Agency have more people vying
for their services. It’s that those services need
to be provided virtually so they don’t pose a
risk to the provider. Similar dynamics devel-
oped for Federation Housing, the Hebrew Free
Loan Society, HIAS PA, JEVS, the Mitzvah Food
Program and other social service organizations.

Prior to the pandemic, JRA counted on about
1,000 volunteers to deliver a little more than 3,000
boxes of food to clients each month. As of July
2020, 74 food banks ceased operations entirely
and many of them directed their clients to JRA.

Now, fewer than 10% of the typical volunteer base
is permitted inside JRA’s facilities at any given



o M re
Peace of Mind.

A Holocaust survivor wears a mask she got from the Jewish Relief
Agency that was donated by the Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia. COURTESY OF JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA
time. As recently as October, those who were permitted inside were
tasked with getting nearly 3,900 boxes of food, household goods and
PPE to masked drivers waiting outside the building.

“It’s been very challenging,” said Julie Roat, JRA’s chief of operations
in April 2020. Demand has spiked since then.

At JFCS, staff scrambled to move their work online as they brought
their clients up to digital speed. Now, the team deals with the typical
concerns of their clients — finance, mental health, disability services,
eldercare and more — along with a wide variety of COVID-specific
issues. Webinars have become a key feature of their work.

Many organizations received outside help, whether in the form
of federal Paycheck Protection Program loans or assistance from the
Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Last summer, rabbis were
gifted an undisclosed amount of cash, prorated to the size of their
congregation, to discreetly disburse to their congregants, as needed.

“This is a very different way in which we are releasing funds into
the community,” Abbey Frank, director of program operations at the
Jewish Federation, said in June.

School and Education
The first articles about education during the pandemic focused on
the novelty. Teachers and students alike found that they had adapted
quickly, and social life was re-created, to some extent, through class
get-togethers. Students were sleeping in, spared of a commute; teachers
like Toby Miller of Kellman Brown Academy were discovering what a
mute button could do for a room full of second-graders.

But the novelty wore off and the debate over in-person instruction
got heated.

Over the summer, parents, children, administrators and teachers
dealt with a complex web of priorities and competing narratives about
the safety of returning to in-person education. Some dropped the idea
Presbyterian
We understand the balance of
personal obligations while caring for
a loved one can be a challenge.

Allow us to partner with you to
provide simplifi ed accommodations,
delicious meals, and engaging ways
to keep your loved ones strong.

We’re here to help.

215.941.5253 A Continuing Care Retirement Community
Philadelphia, PA
www.psl.org/moreinphiladelphia P E R S O N A L
C A R E
Confi dence in Care:
Healthy Team
Members Open Visitation
with Precautions
High Standards
in Virus Prevention
THE GUIDE 2021/2022
41