Attleboro
altogether, opting for pod education. As Jewish day
schools announced their intention to use the hybrid
model, or go fully in-person, enrollment actually
went up in some cases.

At public schools, the debate over the return to
in-person classes has pitted teacher safety against
student mental health and development. Jewish
parents were part of an organized opposition to
Montgomery County school closures last fall.

“They always say, ‘Follow the science,’” one
parent said of the closure. “The school is following
the science. So I’ve kind of lost faith in people that
want to make those types of decisions.”
On the other side, some teachers have expressed
skepticism over the safety precautions taken by
their superiors. Thousands of educators, includ-
ing Jewish teachers, taught outside in freezing
weather on Feb. 8 to protest the Philadelphia school
district’s reopening plan.

Mental Health
The last year has been a challenge in terms of
mental health. According to The Atlantic, “the
share of Americans reporting symptoms of anxi-
ety disorder, depressive disorder, or both roughly
quadrupled from June 2019 to December 2020.”
Isolation remains an issue, especially among the
immunocompromised and the elderly.

Last spring, we spoke to mental health profes-
sionals who were transitioning their clients to
telehealth. Men & Boys
Sun: By Appointment
Fran Orkin meets her great-grandson, Bradley
Keiser, for the first time after weeks of strict
quarantine. 
PHOTO BY RACHEL KEISER
42 THE GUIDE 2021/2022



Think Outside
No Box Required
Gan students at the Stern Center with teacher Marlee Glustoff
COURTESY OF PERELMAN JEWISH DAY SCHOOL
“Even if it’s not in-person, face-to-face interaction,” said David
Rosenberg, JFCS senior vice president of programs and strategy, “that
telehealth allows us to check in with people and keep them connected
and let people know that we’re here and we care about them.”
In the fall, Courtney Owen, JFCS’ director of individual and family
services, said that demand for mental health services was high and rising.

Mental health organizations have had to change the way they oper-
ate as well.

Tikvah/Advocates for the Jewish Mentally Ill recently held its first online
gala. Executive Director Alana Hilsey was pleased with the final product.

“Of course, I want to be there in person and give someone a hug and
congratulate people in person and give them physical awards,” Hilsey
said. “That part is different. But I think like the sense of community, the
essence of Tikvah, that felt the same to me, honestly.”
Relationships One of the most frequently discussed casualties of the pandemic is
personal relationships.

Adults were separated from their elderly parents and grandparents.

Those elderly parents and grandparents were separated from everyone
for a year. Close friends were unable to see one another, and peripheral
friendships were put on hold.

Graduating college students found themselves back in their child-
hood bedrooms. Recent high school graduates put college off for a year
or gutted their way through a dessicated version. Parents who expected
to be empty nesters, like Jill Rosen, in Maple Glen, found themselves
back in an old role: doing laundry, cooking dinner and keeping house
for a whole brood.

“When your kids leave the house, you adjust to them being gone,”
Rosen said.

First-time parents had radically different experiences than they’d
expected. Rachel Keiser, who gave birth to her first child, Bradley, in September,
has juggled the emotional and physical demands of motherhood with
isolation from her friends and family, as well as more time at home with
her husband than anticipated.

“It made me love him more, how well he kept me safe and the baby
safe,” Keiser said of her husband, Harrison Keiser.

As for social life, some have enjoyed online gatherings as a welcome
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THE GUIDE 2021/2022
43