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YINW Vacczine

03/17/2020 12:00:00 PM

Mar17

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 26

04/27/2020 05:43:56 PM

Apr27

Rachel Kastner

Hello, North Woodmere!

Rachel(i) Kastner here, writing to you from quarantine in Israel. 

I have been living in Tel Aviv since mid-November - and I still miss Gilbert Place, North Woodmere and the US very much. I think of my home across the ocean every single day. I do take comfort knowing we are all in this together - and that we are...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 25

04/26/2020 04:33:58 PM

Apr26

Elana Torczyner

It's 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday as I sit down to write these thoughts.  

I finally fell asleep last night at 3:00 a.m. and I was up at 6:00 a.m. eager to get to Gourmet Glatt in anticipation of avoiding a crowd. Much to my surprise, I was able to walk right in and there was barely anyone in the store. Unfortunately, there was also barely anything yet stocked on the shelves. As...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 24A

04/24/2020 12:37:26 PM

Apr24

Eve Lowenstein/Sidlow

L E T T E R S

From: Eve Lowenstein/Sidlow

Jordan: 

I really enjoyed your 'ramblings' in the last issue.  Six weeks ago at the Shabbat table, after the kids just got off the plane from Israel, I likened what was going on to Albert Camus' The Plague just as you did, and Jonathan piped in: Oh, I...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 24

04/24/2020 12:31:09 PM

Apr24

Shmuli Fischman

ZOOM

Jeremy stared at his computer screen, tapping and deleting and deleting and tapping, not quite willing to comprehend what he was writing. Could he finally be here, a rabbi in full, leading the congregation in Hewlett that he sparsely attended in his youth, only to have it all changed with the flap of a Chinese bat?  

Surely it was...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 23

04/23/2020 12:17:48 PM

Apr23

Jordan Hiller

The New Normal

To pass the time over, er, Passover, I read three books. Well, one wasn't a book, but a machzor. The Koren Pesach Machzor to be exact, and I found myself alone in my backyard, tallis on, often reading through the essays and commentary when I was supposed to be davening. The second was The Sages Volume I by Rabbi Dr. Binyamin Lau. Reading the book made me feel very...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 22

04/22/2020 11:59:09 AM

Apr22

Rabbi Jeffrey Miller

Zooming Through Life

For the record, I've had a zoom account for well over a year.  I've mostly figured out the tools, like the choice of backgrounds:


or ….

Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 21

04/21/2020 02:17:19 PM

Apr21

Judith Gutman

Day 1,547 of Quarantine. 

It probably isn't. It just feels like it’s been an unending stretch of lazy Sundays since Operation Lockdown began in our little part near the biggest city in the world.
 
Great time to learn a language. Get fit. Plant a vegetable garden. Organize the house. You know, all those things you normally push off for 'Next...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 20

04/20/2020 12:21:21 PM

Apr20

Lisa Septimus

I grew up "Modern Orthodox." At the time, what that title meant to me was I could dress like and be tuned in to the same TV shows and movies as the rest of the world – but I also kept Shabbos and went to a Jewish Day School.  I can't exactly say that I felt pride in being modern orthodox as opposed to any other type of observance level on the religious spectrum. I think what I felt can be better described...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 19

04/14/2020 01:20:38 PM

Apr14

Rabbi Jeff Miller

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Do you want proof that "a picture is worth one thousand words"?  Take a look at this photograph, taken yesterday:

A rainbow forms in the sky from the top of...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 18

04/07/2020 12:36:33 AM

Apr7

Jordan Hiller

So Many Questions

Tomorrow night we know which questions to expect. The big four. Mah Nishtana Ha’layla Ha'zeh. Insert joke.

But, going into Pesach, we have the big five. The usual big five queries as we try to navigate and analyze this new abnormal.

Who? What? When? Where? and Why? Let’s take a shot...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 17b

04/06/2020 06:06:27 PM

Apr6

Jeff

L E T T E R S

Dear Eve:

Thank you for sharing your story.  It brought me to tears as I volleyed back and forth between appreciation for you and your work (and by extension, all the medical and para-medical staff) and concern for my 89-year-old mother who has been a patient at S. Nassau for three weeks. Your firsthand descriptions captured my own experiences. Hell,...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 17a

04/06/2020 06:01:23 PM

Apr6

Miriam Bradman Abrahams

Fear and Living in Long Island

Anyone who knows me is aware that I'm not one to sit around at home. I was born with shpilkes, the desire to get out, see and do, visit and attend. So these past couple of weeks of self-quarantine have been weird, to say the least. The only thing that makes it even more (or possibly less) bizarre is the fact that most everyone around the world is...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 17

04/06/2020 05:58:38 PM

Apr6

Rabbi Eitan Zerykier, LCSW

Home Remedy
With Rabbi Eitan Zerykier, LCSW

Jordan,

I know you sent in a question from "someone" about the impulse to collect sports memorabilia for charitable causes due to childhood trauma, but I have been thinking about resilience and growth in the face of severe difficulties. So, I am going with that one, sorry.

Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 16

04/05/2020 05:49:39 PM

Apr5

Dr. Eve Lowenstein (aka Dr. Eve Sidlow)

A Page from the COVID Diaries

With my regular office closed, my main workload these past few weeks has been at teaching hospitals in Brooklyn, where we have largely transitioned to tele-dermatology.  One of these hospitals has been declared 100% dedicated to treating COVID patients.

Last week, I responded to an email plea for volunteers at South Nassau Hospital...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 15

04/03/2020 12:25:24 PM

Apr3

Rebecca Blank and Jordan Hiller

Sacrifice and Survive

The next two weeks will be critical for New York. What happens during this time will predict if we are in this mess for the next six weeks or the next six months. We are appreciated for our hard work and what we are doing is helping to flatten the curve. If we manage to keep families working and engaged for the next two weeks, they will be less inclined to...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 14A

04/02/2020 08:41:32 PM

Apr2

Shelley Hubert

Minyan

Dedicated to the memory of David Herman, z’l

The men greet each other with fraternal love and then find their places, next to their closest friends

It's a fast-moving affair, and the air is filled with the one-mindedness of the mitzvah

Men standing shoulder to shoulder, chanting ancient prayers

Afterwards they talk about work, their house, vacation plans, hopes and...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 14

04/02/2020 08:36:27 PM

Apr2

Jeff Geigel

Leadership
A Note to our Children

I have been watching the events of the last month while trying to maintain a clear perspective. This is the most pivotal point in modern history. Our children will carry this time in their memories, and subconsciously, the behavior of our leaders in action (religious, community, business and political) will remain with them. In times of...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 13

04/01/2020 07:10:00 PM

Apr1

Rabbi Jeffrey Miller

Dayeinu

I wasn’t feeling well yesterday afternoon. It was not that pre-flu feeling; it was more like that 2:00 pm Yom Kippur day headache.  When I told Enid that I was coming home early, she asked that I stop at Gourmet Glatt to pick up another dozen eggs.  And to have my temperature taken. It is, after all, one week until Passover.

The guy at the door with the made-in-China scanner let...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12

03/31/2020 07:03:49 PM

Mar31

Rabbi Eitan Zerykier, LCSW

Home Remedies

With Rabbi Eitan Zerykier, LCSW

Dear Eitan, I have been trying to stay calm and only discussing what is going on with my husband when the kids are not around. But I’m sure they still get a sense of my fear and nerves. How does my anxiety about what is going on effect my children? 

Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 11

03/29/2020 04:06:30 PM

Mar29

Aviva Geigel

This past Shabbat, my spouse turned to me and said, "It's only been two weeks since the kids have been home."

I don't know why I was surprised by that. Did it feel longer? Shorter? On one hand, it certainly did not feel like two weeks, or that the world could have possibly changed so much in just two short weeks. Or perhaps it was being able to be home with my kids every day...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 10A

03/27/2020 12:01:13 PM

Mar27

Ayala Ovits Cohen

I don’t usually remember my dreams, but last night I had two that I can actually remember quite vividly.

In the first dream, I was peeking over a wall into somebody’s living space, and was curious to observe how others are handling themselves during this challenging time. I had the feeling of doing something illicit, by spying on someone’s private space without their...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 10

03/27/2020 11:55:07 AM

Mar27

Rabbi Yehuda Septimus

A couple of decades back there was a popular song played at many Jewish weddings. The lyrics went: He-avar ayin, ve-he-atid adayin, ve-hahoveh ke-heref ayin, da'agah minayin. 

"The past is gone, the future is yet to come, the present passes like the blink of an eye, so worry why?"

The words of the song were written by a medieval French...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 9

03/26/2020 07:02:43 PM

Mar26

Jordan Hiller

Cedarhurst, New York. Day.

A line is formed outside of a supermarket and those on line stare dead ahead, looking impatient. Some cough, sniffle, or sneeze, drawing angry glances from those in the queue. One man is pacing as he waits, seemingly deep in thought, conflicted. He is recognized by a passerby.

MOSHE, a large unbearded man in...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 8a

03/25/2020 05:59:25 PM

Mar25

Shmuli Fischman

Fiction

"PROTECTION"

He was nervous. Of course he was nervous. The incessant gnawing at his nails might have been a dead giveaway. Or maybe it was his leg, shaking north and south and east and west like a yeshiva guy trying and failing to keep himself awake in the beis medrash. 

He checked the room to...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 8

03/25/2020 05:56:26 PM

Mar25

Rabbi Jeffrey Miller

On Being Unessential

I learned this week that Gov. Cuomo and the Chief Judge of New York’s highest court do not consider me essential.  That makes me 0 for 2 in baseball lingo.

My wife, having been declared "very essential" by her agency, has been rather sweet about it.  Perhaps she is concerned that my male-ego is bruised....Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 7A

03/24/2020 02:11:38 PM

Mar24

Miriam Bradman Abrahams

“Love in the Time of Corona”

My daughter Nina was proposed to on bended knee by her beloved Amit in a beautiful field of fall flowers on Long Island on September 13, 2019. They had met in the iconic millennial way on JSwipe exactly a year before. In May 2018, Nina, a lone soldier serving in Israel as a new citizen, was on a short vacation in New York for her brother's...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 7

03/24/2020 02:08:37 PM

Mar24

Dr. Ron Kastner

I would like to write why I'm hopeful. More accurately, how I try to be hopeful. I have my share of worries; a daughter 6000 miles away from home, an 84 year old mother I'm not allowed to host, the daily concern that my wife or I may get exposed by one of our patients, and in turn expose others including our own family.

I'm hopeful because of what I've seen happen in the past...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 6A

03/23/2020 02:15:00 PM

Mar23

Rabbi Barry Dov Schwartz

Five times a year synagogues resound with the words: chazak, chazak, vnitchazek (from the book of Daniel,10:19), admonishing congregants to be strong, stronger than strong and then to strengthen one another.

These words are reserved for the special occasion when we conclude each of the Five Books of Moses as we are about to commence the next sefer. Why is that the blessing we ask from Hashem precisely at...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 6

03/23/2020 02:00:00 PM

Mar23

Rabbi Eitan Zerykier, LCSW

I believe most columns start with an idea. In this case, it began with a challenge. The great* Jordan Hiller challenged me to write something for the YINW Vacczine. Not being an expert at anything, and simultaneously having a desire to do something, I offered to answer questions on a topic I know a little bit about: the human mind and mental health.

Rather than me acting like some guru who knows all the...Read more...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 5A

03/22/2020 02:15:00 PM

Mar22

Yoni Kastner and Grandpa Karl

A DIALOGUE

Yoni: Hi Grandpa, I'm back home! (from Israel study program). Being stuck at home may be difficult... but not when I think about how you were stuck in a dark, gross hole with nothing to do for 18 MONTHS in Nazi Ukraine. How are you?

Grandpa Karl: Yoni - it could be a worse experience. When I was 10, I got a slightly different experience, ha ha ha!

I was not stuck in the hole - I lived in a hole adjacent to...Read more...

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784