HEADLINES | 6
SPECIAL SECTION | 15
INFERTILITY
PASSOVER
Jewish groups say it's time to talk about it
Try some matzah bourekas this year
MARCH 12, 2021 | ADAR 28, 5781 | VOLUME 73, NUMBER 13
March marks a year of praying, learning and playing differently SHANNON LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR AND NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER
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abbi Aviva Funke misses the sound of other people humming and singing along to her music. “When we can’t sing together, it feels not only isolating, but it feels like something is missing from my soul,” said Funke, a community rabbi and principal of the Bureau of Jewish Education's Hebrew High. Funke regrets the way the pandemic has altered Jewish life, pointing out that people are unable to hold one another while singing “Oseh Shalom” or sit shiva together in person. “The fact that we have not been able to physically be together has rippled through the fabric of our people,” she said. And yet, after dealing with the fallout from COVID19 for a year, many in the Jewish community have come to terms with new and virtual ways to be together. Some leaders see real value in these methods and plan to keep using them even once COVID restrictions are lifted. But it’s a mixed bag. Many people appreciate that technology has made the pandemic more bearable, but it still has felt like a lost year for others. Funke pointed out that while virtual programming in synagogues, schools and camps might be here to stay, COVID has been nothing if not a wake-up call for the community. Across the board, there’s a sense of longing for the time before, she said. Now’s the time “to really assess how valuable our traditions and our customs are now that we haven’t been able to have them.” ‘Friendships blossom over Zoom’ Precautions against the spread of COVID have kept people physically apart and away from religious services and gatherings. A year ago, as people were preparing for SEE ANNIVERSARY, PAGE 2
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Jewish community prepares for another virtual Passover NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER
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aron Morrill created a special Passover Haggadah last year once it became clear there would be no normal, in-person celebration. He thought of it as a fun opportunity — something special for a difficult time. And he intended to use it only once. But at the end of this month, he and his family will dust it off for one more Passover on Zoom. “When I was writing it I would have bet money that we would not be using it, at least in this pandemic, ever again,” said Morrill. He has celebrated Passover in Phoenix with his grandparents just about every year of his life. He was 19 the last time they shared a seder, and he knew then he wouldn’t spend all his future holidays with them — he just never expected 2020’s abrupt halt. Now 21 and a student majoring in Jewish thought and data science in New York, it just feels “weird” not to be together, he said Jane Wabnik, Morrill’s grandmother, said his Haggadah was the “biggest gift” that came out of 2020’s forced distance. Last year, she hosted two guests in person and held a mini-seder over Zoom with her daughter, son-inlaw and two grandchildren. Despite the distance, they were still able to have some fun at the seder, and this year’s second edition of SEE VIRTUAL, PAGE 3 Passover in a pandemic
Aaron Morrill holds “A Haggadah for Passover during a Pandemic” on PHOTO BY AARON MORRILL Thursday, March 4, 2021.
Masked up and vaccinated Seniors sat outside and in cars for a Smile on Seniors Purim celebration. Rabbi Yisroel Matusof read the Megillah while vaccinated, masked and socially-distanced seniors enjoyed the beautiful Purim weather. To see more community photos, go to p. 22. PHOTO BY RABBI LEVI LEVERTOV
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