Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 12, 2020

Superintendent Laura Feijoo and BOE president Amy Moselhi update the New Rochelle school community on coronavirus. Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Young Israel of New Rochelle had an onlinePurim party because they couldnt gather at their synagogue this week.

The congregants check in on one another. They get plenty of takeout food that issimply left at the door.

Some make meals for one another. They check in on their neighbors and have stayedisolated since March 3, as the state prescribed, when the first of its members was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus that has now spread to 108 confirmed cases tied to the temple or the city.

The shul put a form on its website for anyone who needs help.

"We have been model citizens. We shut down our synagogue and our entire membership after one case. We didnt wait for a cluster," said one congregant, who declined to use his name for concerns about stoking dissension.

There is also some growing frustration about why they have been the focal point in New York, as well as what they view as a lack of clear answers over an edict Tuesday that put that them the middle of a one-mile containment area.

Schools, houses of worship and other large gathering places within the containment area will need to be closed through March 25, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's directive. That includes schools in New Rochelle and neighboring Tuckahoe.

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Ribbons outside of Young Israel In New Rochelle March 9, 2020.(Photo: Tania Savayan/The Journal News)

Some synagogue members question why a blanket quarantine of more than 1,000 people in the community remains, even for those who have tested negative, didn't come in contact with a coronavirus patient and have not been sick.

The same mandates have not been applied to other neighboring communities where some cases have been found, they said.Some tests have taken days to get back results; others came in more quickly, adding to their frustrations, some members said.

"No one who has been asymptomatic has been requested to self quarantine except for Young Israel of New York, unless you were in very close contact with someone who was positive," said another congregant, who also refused to use his name.

Local officials said they recognize the frustration: The congregants' lives have been upended.

"I think that we have not gotten a good explanation as to why them, especially if someone who has not been in contact" with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, who represents the community.

"Maybe theres a public health reason, but we are unaware of it because no one is explaining to them or me."

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But Paulin and other officials said they have been overwhelmed by the roughly 400-family synagogue's resolve.

"Considering the stress and the obvious difficulty of being essentially captive in your own home, they have been remarkable," Paulin said.

"I have a never seen a group of people really come together as well as this groupinsuch a hard situation."

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This is the area that will be part of the New Rochelle coronavirus 'containment area,' where large gathering spaces like schools and temples will be closed through March 25, 2020.(Photo: Courtesy: NYS Governor's Office)

The concern started last Tuesday, March 3, when the state announceda congregant who had become gravely ill had tested positive for coronavirus. He had spent fourdays inNewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in neighboring Bronxville.

After the member, a Manhattan attorney, was transferred toNewYork-Presbyterian in Manhattan, the Westchester County health department said there would be a precautionary quarantine of about 1,000 people associated with the temple who may have come in contact with him at the events the week prior.

The number of cases in the community has since skyrocketed, leading Cuomo to announce the containment area on Tuesday and orderthe National Guard to assist residents and disinfect the public areas in the neighborhood.

Cuomo stressed the area isn't on lock down, just large public facilities will be closed and major gatherings will be cancelled.

"Wehave 108 cases in New Rochelle. I think you get an idea, New York City only has 36. New York City is 100 times the size of New Rochelle, OK?" Cuomo said Wednesday on MSNBC.

"So what the containment means is just large gatherings in that area are postponed. People can go and come, etc. It's not a quarantine area, but no large gatherings because that's where it's spreading obviously."

Sen. Shelley Mayer, D-Yonkers, whose district includes the New Rochelle containment area, praised Young Israel for its response to the outbreak.

"They have conducted themselves with tremendous calm and dignity and responsiveness to the science," Mayer said.

"I did reach out at one point to the president of the board just to say we're there for anything they need."

She said the disruption to her district has left her with a "heavy heart," but she understands why the Cuomo administration took the action itdid.

"I defer to the science and I think (state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker) took what I think he believes is the correct scientific position," Mayer said. "I defer to that and I understand why the governor did, because we have to be ruled by science."

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Young Israel of New Rochelle, right, and Wykagyl Country Club, left, on North Ave. in New Rochelle March 4, 2020.(Photo: Peter Carr and John Meore/The Journal News)

Cuomo said he hopes the containment zone through March 25 will keep the virus from spreading further within New Rochelle and beyond.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the number of cases in New Rochelle accounted for 62% of the states 173 cases and about 13% of the total across the U.S.

He said the effort is literally a matter of life and death. No one has died in New York from coronavirus yet, but Cuomo has repeatedly expressed concern for the elderly and those with existing respiratory issues.

Northwell Health on Long Island is setting up a satellite testing area in New Rochelle to more quickly identify who is positive or negative for coronavirus.

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"Containment strategies focus on geographic areas," Cuomo told reporters Tuesday. New Rochelle "is the single greatest public health challenge we have in this state right now."

The wife of the first case at the synagogue wrote Tuesday on Facebook that her husband was still hospitalized.

"I want my husband to get better and hope to have to worry about trying to explain to him all that has transpired while he was sleeping," she wrote.

"But I also recognize that maybe he is a messenger of something good, that his illness was able to make us all aware of the problem. Just maybe he wont be just the one with bad luck, but the one who can to bring this to an end. This will end. Quarantines will work and we will all be stronger for it."

More: Q&A: Are schools in New York now required to close when coronavirus is diagnosed?

Young Israel synagogue in New Rochelle in March 4, 2020.(Photo: Tania Savayan/The Journal News)

The woman's comments are indicative of the strength the congregation has shown, said New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson, who himself lives in the containment area.

"I think some frustration is certainly understandable. When one is confided to ones home for an extended period of time, it is extremely disruptive and grows more with each passing day," Bramson said.

"And yet, my sense is that the great majority of congregants understand the public health stakes of abiding by the quarantine and recognize that this is one of the significant hotspots in the entire country."

The synagogue's rabbi, who also tested positive for COVID-19, has offered spiritual guidance to congregants, allowing them to continue to rely on their faith to get through the difficult period, saidElliotForchheimer, CEO of the Westchester Jewish Council.

Forchheimer sent an email to congregants praising them for the adherence to the quarantine and their resilience.

"Unfortunately, they are poster child at least nationally if not internationally of this virus," Forchheimersaid.

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He said they have had "enormous spiritualleadership and counseling by their rabbi in keeping them focused that this too will pass, and as citizens we do the right thing and we follow the guidelines and that is thebest thing to ensure that we get healthy and everybody else will get healthy as soon as possible."

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Joseph Spector is the New York state editor for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at JSPECTOR@Gannett.com or followed on Twitter: @GannettAlbany

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How a New Rochelle synagogue is coping as an epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus spread - Lohud

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