Excerpt:

While many public schools on the east side of Cleveland will begin the school year remotely, Jewish day schools will offer in-person instruction in the fall for the first time since mid-March.

…

Citing pedagogical considerations, small class sizes and relatively large classrooms, heads of schools said they believe they can protect their students and offer higher quality instruction than can be offered remotely. In addition, at least two day schools are offering remote learning options.

Read more at Cleveland Jewish News.

It is with a mixture of intense gratitude to Hashem and raw sadness that Atideinu announces it will not be opening for the school year of 2021.

For the past 5+ years, Atideinu fulfilled its mission of building strong leaders for a vibrant Jewish future by cultivating meaningful relationships between our staff and children. With the current virtual platform we cannot effectively maintain these relationships which are the catalyst to meet our mission statement.

We thank the community for its support over the past several years and hope to see the redemption shortly.

Excerpt, full article at Cleveland Jewish News.

Michele Kaminsky, a Beachwood resident and owner of Mika’s Wig Boutique and Spa in University Heights, was recently elected president of National Council of Jewish Women / Cleveland.

Kaminsky, a member of Park Synagogue in Cleveland Heights and Pepper Pike, spoke with the Cleveland Jewish News about her new role and her hopes for the future of the organization.

Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Excerpt, full article at Cleveland Jewish News.

Michele Kaminsky, a Beachwood resident and owner of Mika’s Wig Boutique and Spa in University Heights, was recently elected president of National Council of Jewish Women / Cleveland.

Kaminsky, a member of Park Synagogue in Cleveland Heights and Pepper Pike, spoke with the Cleveland Jewish News about her new role and her hopes for the future of the organization.

Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

On July 19th, Bikur Cholim Cleveland together with LakeHealth Beachwood Medical Center had the honor of hosting a COVID-19 plasma antibody-testing drive. Even with over 100 people registered for testing, the organization handled the event flawlessly. Donors were met with warm smiles, hot coffee, and fresh pastries. After checking in, donors’ temperatures were taken, and they were immediately led to the collection area, with a total visit time of less than 10 minutes. After collecting blood samples for antibody testing, visitors were offered a fresh pack of cotton masks.

Rabbi Sokol of University Heights commented, “What a beautiful facility. I didn’t realize what a gem we had in our backyard. They were so professional, and I barely felt the needle stick”.

Philip Mulivor commented, “It was painless, easy, well-organized, and filled with nice people. I would definitely recommend it”.

After the success of the first Drive, Bikur Cholim of Cleveland is hoping to host another in the near future.

Update from Agudath Israel of Ohio from Agudath Israel on Vimeo.

There is a protest planned at 2:30 at Severance Center today. Recommendations received via social media are that all men be home, all children and everyone else be inside, that there be no toys or anything on the front lawn, the driveway, etc. Per CHPD there is no expectation that this will turn non-peaceful c”v. Hopefully, there will be no trouble, but we do not want to do anything to attract attention.

Cuyahoga County, Ohio
June 2, 2020

The Cuyahoga County Police Chiefs Association stands with and in support of the family of George Floyd in mourning his death. We are sorrowful for this loss and regret that it came at the hands of a police officer whom we trusted to obey the law. We know, too well, that our profession is one that requires difficult decisions and reactions, but we, wholly, condemn the actions of this case.

Cuyahoga County is blessed to be made up of diverse populations and police personnel. We hear our communities when they say that there is much to do to improve race relations. We, together with the community, want to facilitate those improvements by listening, even more, and together developing a tangible way forward. The actions of this one officer do not represent what our profession stands for, but we acknowledge that he represented all police officers while he was employed as an officer. We feel shame that our trust in him was broken in such a way as to lead to the death of Mr. Floyd and which is bringing into question the actions of law enforcement everywhere.

The Cuyahoga County Police Chiefs Association is committed to help heal the division
that this and past incidents have caused. It is only through a continued effort of collaboration that we will begin to make headway. Without the support of our residents, we could never be successful. Therefore, we continue to push community relations, diversity training, and improving our hiring practices. We want to assure you that the voice of the people is being heard and we want to work with our communities to create a better path forward.

Bikur Cholim arranged a drive-by birthday parade in honor of a transplant patient and his brother who donated a partial liver to the birthday boy.

A truck played a video of birthday messages and was accompanied by a police car and families from the community who joined in their cars to show support.

Social distancing will not stop Cleveland from bringing joy and comfort to our patients in their time of need! 

Temporary funding through the Prevention, Retention, and Contingency (PRC) program will allow Cuyahoga Job and Family Services (CJFS) to provide emergency assistance to eligible families through a PRC voucher. While limited funding is available, COVID-19 PRC vouchers will provide assistance with additional food assistance, select essential supplies, and housing costs.

Please click below for additional details.

PRC Covid-19 Emergency Relief Program

• Changes in income should still be submitted. No negative action will be taken at this time.

At a press conference on April 16th, Governor Mike DeWine stated that Ohio will start easing restrictions on closed business starting May 1st. He cautioned, however, that what we’re used to an “open” business looking like will not remain the same. Some of the restrictions and safeguards you’re currently seeing at business that haven’t closed–such as social distancing, limits on the number of customers shopping at once, masking, gloving, and more–will be necessary for this new normal.

Excerpt from Cleveland Jewish News:

Even when businesses start to reopen, life will not look the same as it did before. The businesses deemed essential that have stayed open have put together stringent measures to keep their employees and customers safe.

The advisory board put together preventative measures such as regular checks of PPE stock and supply, a limit on visitors into the business, screening upon entry and clear guidelines on hygiene.

Full article at https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/8-414-covid-19-cases-in-ohio-1-331-in-cuyahoga-county/article_1caf54cc-800b-11ea-89ae-c711750e30e5.html

Spring is not cancelled! Our fruit trees have started to bloom.

All are welcome to 3654 Shannon.

We have 2 signs with Beracha posted separate from each other so people can maintain distance.

From Dr. Mendel Singer PhD MPH

Based on success in other countries, the CDC is now recommending that people wear cloth face coverings when out in public and social distancing can’t be maintained, e.g. grocery stores and
pharmacies. I would add Jewish stores as well. The reason is that as cases mount in an area (as they are in many Jewish communities), there are many people who are infected but don’t know it. Some may have no symptoms at all, but might still be able to spread the virus by coughing, sneezing, or even talking from a close distance. By wearing a cloth mask you may be protecting others, and if others are wearing them too, they will protect you. Kol Yisroel areivim zeh b’zeh! And wearing gloves may protect both you and others.

DO NOT WEAR SURGICAL MASKS OR N95 RESPIRATORS – leave them for the professionals who desperately need them.

THEY ARE EASY TO MAKE! They can be made with or without sewing! For example, a t-shirt and scissors is all you need! Or a bandana and a coffee filter! Instructions here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html (Consult your Rav about the permissibility of making these during Chol HaMoed)

Spring is not cancelled! Our fruit trees have started to bloom.

All are welcome to 3654 Shannon.

We have 2 signs with Beracha posted separate from each other so people can maintain distance.

by Mendel Singer, PhD, MPH (Master of Public Health)

The consensus is remarkably broad: Rabbinical experts, leading physicians, the CDC and Hatzolos. They all agree. People should not be traveling for Pesach. People from the hard hit NY/NJ/CT area especially should not be traveling and shouldn’t be leaving home except for the true necessities. In Lakewood, Rabbinic and medical leaders are telling people not to get together for Pesach – even within Lakewood! This is very hard to do. New chossonim and kallos will be making Pesach by themselves. Families will be apart. It will be hard logistically and emotionally. It may mean using kulos you normally wouldn’t rely on. But is it really necessary? But my (fill in the blank) can’t make Pesach. Can’t? There are some cases where this is literally true. But we need to
ask ourselves – what if being together for Pesach causes, chas v’shalom, a tragedy? Hashem would know. Your family would know. Certain friends and neighbors would know. But most importantly, you would know. How would you live with yourself? After all the experts said not to do it.

We are hearing of terrible tragedies, not just sick elderly, but some healthy frum people in their 30’s and 40’s who have died. About 1/3 of cases are age 20-44, and about 1 in 5 of the hospitalization. This is all too real. Who is at risk? All adults are at risk. Some are at greater risk of death than others. How many will get infected? We are expecting several hundred thousand cases in Ohio alone. How many will die? Way too many.

But we can be very careful in the house! We can clean constantly! When a person with COVID-19 coughs, droplets travel up to 6 feet – and onto surfaces. On metal, it survives for about 2 days. And people touch things! And then they touch their face – about every 3-5 minutes, though they aren’t aware of it. If an infected individual is in the house, before they even know they have the infection, they will be leaving the virus around the house. If someone is isolated in the house, they will have touched things first before reaching their area of isolation. Someone else will interact with that person. It is very hard to contain. There are many large families where all members got the infection.

What if the visitors and the local family just all self-quarantine for 14 days? But it may be much, much longer than 14 days. During those 14 days, if someone gets infected, you now have 14 days from then. That could repeat again for each person in the house getting infected. 14 days could easily turn into a month. And what happens if you have trouble with your refrigerator/oven/plumbing around/during Pesach? How do you get it fixed?

What we don’t know can kill. How many people are infected but show no symptoms? We can’t know until we have capacity to do population testing. Can these people without symptoms transmit the infection – yes, but we don’t know how common that is. How many children are infected without symptoms and able to transmit? We don’t know. Does recovering from the virus mean you’re immune? Most likely, but we don’t know for how long. It certainly isn’t expected to be lifelong immunity. Will immunity last until the end of this outbreak, including potential second wave in the fall? We don’t know. We know some people have tested positive within a month after recovering and having tested negative, though the cases we know about haven’t had symptoms. Can they transmit? We don’t know. But we are literally learning more every day.

But maybe we will all end up getting it eventually anyway? The extreme measures we are adopting is intended not only to minimize the number of cases, but to “flatten the curve” – minimize the number of cases at any one time so we don’t overwhelm our hospitals and intensive care units. This is a real concern. In NY, Gov. Cuomo is talking about a huge shortage of ventilators in the next 2 weeks. Many other states are not far behind. Our local hospitals are very concerned. But that isn’t the only reason to try and delay cases. It won’t be that long before we know much more about the effectiveness of several promising treatments that are being tested now. Delaying cases may mean pushing cases to a time when it can be treated successfully. The stay home measures are critical to saving lives – perhaps someone you love, or even you. A vaccine is a long way off. Several have just started testing, but to know that they work and to mass produce it – probably 8 to 12 months. Meanwhile, social distancing, stay home and various other measures are our primary means of saving lives. That and washing our hands very well and often. 20 seconds, with soap.

In Lakewood they sell “Pesach meals in a box” – all 10 Yom Tov meals for a family of 5 for $349. Where there is need, people step in. Videos are posted teaching how to make Pesach at home. We can do this.

But there’s another way to look at this – a more positive way. We have a very great opportunity. By not getting together with others, by not traveling for Pesach, we can be oisek in the mitzvah of pikuach nefesh! I have confirmed this with HaRav Boruch Hirschfeld, Shlita. How many of us have dreamed of having the chance to save a life, to fulfill the mitzvah of pikuach nefesh? This is your chance. The people who do this mitzvah daily are begging you. And many have changed their plans. Yasher koach to them all!

As a professor who does public and population health, I am speaking out. My colleagues and many former students of mine are working day and night at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health or at/with the hospitals, or other community health organizations. As someone who suffers from an immune system disorder, I can’t be on the front lines with them. I am at home. Like most of us should be.

Stay Home, Save Lives. Pikuach nefesh is literally within your grasp.

Mendel Singer, PhD MPH
Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Education
Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

An open letter to the Cleveland community,

What I have been seeing daily on the front lines in the Emergency Department astounds me. What I see on the streets of our community horrifies me.

I have started to see more and more out of state license plates gracing our home city. Maybe I am misjudging, but my suspicion is that there are people coming from the New York and New Jersey area for Yom Tov.

Why? Because we can’t make a Yom Tov ourselves? Because our family is pushing us? Because we think we are above the rules? The rules of law and nature?

The coronavius is not particular in whom it infects. You may have it and not know it. The cold you had last week may, or may not, have been it. Devastating effects are seen not just in the elderly and otherwise sick, but in regular people, just like “me”. And for all the numbers of people that have died of the disease that it causes, COVID-19, there is an equal number that have a high chance of being ventilator dependent. Their numbers don’t get factored into the death toll published daily by the Ohio Department of Health, but their numbers are rising exponentially.

Do you think you are more important than your neighbor, your parents, your children? Do you think you are smarter than the rabbanim who have essentially forbidden coming or having family over for Yom Tov? Are you smarter than the medical doctors, epidemiologists and military personnel who do this professionally? Come on people. Think of someone else if not yourself. Stay home. Ma’aras ayin is real and so are the numbers.

Stay home, so I can go to work and take care of those who can’t care for themselves.

I just received a phone call from the manager of a store in the Cedar Green district. He is seeing people from New York and New Jersey coming into his store. He knows they are from there because he has spoken with them on their past visits, and when they order things and leave a New York or New Jersey phone number, or when he helps carry things out to their car and they have New York and New Jersey tags, he knows that these folks are here from out of town. He asked me what I could do about it.

Last week I issued an announcement strongly encouraging people to not host company from out of town at this time especially from these states, and asking for voluntary compliance. I’m disappointed that people are not looking out for everyone’s interest. This is a public health emergency, and we must all take it seriously. Anybody who is now here from New York or New Jersey should immediately self quarantine for 14 days, together with whomever is hosting them. And part of self quarantining is not going into our stores.

I know this is a difficult time emotionally because this is a time of year that we normally spend with our family, and the holidays have great significance. That is all the more reason why we must be vigilant about staying safe. So that we can celebrate the next holiday and the holiday after that and all the ones after those.

Dear Residents,

Thank you for all the steps you have been taking to keep healthy and minimize the spread of the COVID 19 virus. Staying at home as much as possible, per the Governor’s order, and keeping six feet distance between non-family members, will make a difference to your health, as well to the health of others in our community.

Today I am requesting another precaution to help contain the spread of the COVID 19 virus in Cleveland Heights. Starting immediately, I am asking each resident if you have any visitors coming in from states that have been hard hit by the virus, such as NY, NJ and FL, or if you’ve traveled or recently hosted guests within the last fourteen days, I am asking you to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days.

New York, New Jersey and Florida have been some of the states hit hardest by this dangerous virus. Other states that I am also concerned about are CA, IL, LA, MA, MI, PA and WA. I’d like to ask for the same voluntary 14 day quarantine for you, any family members that may have been present, and for those individuals traveling here from those states.

Staying at home, socially distancing, regular hand-washing are just a few important steps we must take to eliminate this virus. Using good judgement, and also self-quarantining when you may have come into contact with higher-risk people are also critical components in keeping healthy.

Remember, you can go out and enjoy our beautiful parks and walking/biking paths, but you must keep six feet distance from non-family members. Take a walk, walk your dog, work in your gardens and enjoy the nicer days we’ve been experiencing. Please stay off the playground equipment as it is not sanitized, and our basketball and tennis courts are closed for the time being.

Beachwood and University Heights have issued similar requests. If we all work together we can minimize our own risk of exposure and the overall health and safety of our families and our community.

I thank you in advance for your cooperation. I wish you good health.

Mayor Jason Stein

Sign up at https://forms.gle/432f2W3U6aGrbBoL8

Order commences 11:59pm Monday. Details to follow.

5-7pm Monday at Lee Road Library.

From Cleveland Patch:

The Heights Libraries will be holding a drive-thru produce pantry on Monday. Guests will not need to leave their car for any reason during the pick-up process.

Full article link: https://patch.com/ohio/clevelandheights/drive-thru-produce-pantry-be-held-monday-heights-libraries