May/June 2020
While we pause to stop the spread of Covid-19… Join us in a variety of ways to continue to study, pray, question, share, sing and stay connected with your Larchmont Temple Family. Go to www.larchmonttemple.org to engage. Watch for our Friday email for regular updates.
1 Larchmont Temple your own bla 75 Larchmont Avenue, Larchmont, NY 10538 FROM THE PRESIDENT 914-834-6120; FAX: 914-834-6503 www.Larchmonttemple.org The house is quiet, although all four of us are here. My older a member of the Union for Reform Judaism daughter cannot go back to college. My younger daughter is JEFFREY J. SIRKMAN Rabbi engaged in remote learning from MHS. My husband and I are LEORA FRANKEL working from home - every single day. I treasure that time Associate Rabbi together that we never had before, but it is muted by our TRACEY SCHER Cantor sorrow and only occasionally do we find time for a board game RABBI EVE RUDIN or movie. Director of Education, Youth & Families MIA KARGEN Co-Directors of Early Childhood The silence consumes me as I think about why it is so quiet. JANE SABLE-FRIEDMAN Executive Director FREDDA MENDELSON I try to distract myself with work and that ever illusive search for paper goods or Cantor Emerita masks. Everyone is in a separate corner of the house. I refer to it as “the four H. LEONARD POLLERz’l Rabbi Emeritus corners defense”. Why do we self-isolate from each other even in our State EDWARD GRAHAMz’l imposed isolation? It hurts too much to talk about it. I immerse myself in the Cantor Emeritus sunshine blazing through the windows.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES STACEY CHERVIN SIGDA I take a break from my thoughts in order to jump on another LT COVID-19 Task President HARRI TARANTO Force call. The Governor may be making an announcement this week. What do we Honorary President need to do to protect our clergy and congregants? The conclusion to each of these MICHAEL NATHAN Executive Vice President meetings inevitably is to increase the physical distance between us and lock the MARTHA STEINMAN door of the synagogue building tighter. And then, as predicted, the Governor 1st Vice President extends the stay-at-home order. It is wholly expected and justified, but it still JEFFREY WANG 2nd Vice President crushes that tiny morsel of hope to be with you all again. ROBERT ROTHMAN Financial Vice President KAREN ZIMMERMAN At Friday night services, I feel like a kid in a candy store. All of those familiar names Treasurer on FB attending the service remotely like the service itself that is held from Rabbi STEVE LEHMAN Administrative Secretary Sirkman’s and Cantor Scher’s respective homes. Each time a name pops up with a comment “Shabbat Shalom” or “beautiful service”, I can hear your voices uttering JON BIRGER JOHN BORDEN those phrases and want to hug you back “Shabbat Shalom”. I write comments and JORDANA DAVIS MICHAEL FINEBERG personally message anyone I can see is attending the service. It is social. It is MARTHA FRIEDLAND distant. DAVID KAHN JENNIFER PERKINS STEWART ROSS JILL SARKOZI Seeing your faces on the Second Seder zoom was a miracle. Evidence that our CAROL SCHEFFLER community is strong and connected particularly when we need that closeness to TOBY SKLAREW RANDI SPATZ help us cope. Trustees
LARRY GUTTERMAN I miss each and everyone of you with whom I feel so close despite the distance. I Brotherhood President MICHELE METSCH miss the zaniness, arguments and giggles in my home. I miss it all. JOHANNA SNYDER Youth Education Committee Chairs I long for our community’s physical presence together and yearn to return to a ELEISE JONES SELINA WAGOWSKI time when we can go back to bump elbows even if we cannot shake hands. But …. LTNS Parent Association Co- Chairs until that day when we can hug and kiss and touch not just spiritually but Thank you for submitting by the 1st of each physically, that is what I dream of most deeply. month to [email protected] Cynthia Weissman, Editor/Designer Linda Price, Proofreader Be safe, Be well. Hug someone in your home. Maybe even a pet or stuffed animal. You are not alone.
Stacey Chervin-Sigda, President
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New York Times, April 9, 2020 the fog that took over, that I wasn’t eating or drinking For 12 Days a Doctor Lived with Burning Lungs much. ven re armin an already re ared meal By Charles L. Schleien became a ma or chore. lie on a stretcher, thinkin of my t o sons. hey are both healthy, in hiladel hia and anhattan. Seven or days lived ith burnin lun s, malaise, no months before, e suffered throu h the death of their a etite and little usto for life. ne ni ht, my o y en mother — my ife of years. She anted to live so saturation di ed. he ne t mornin , called my badly. fter an month battle ith cancer, she left us. collea ues for hel . n ambulance arrived. e drove from my home in e ochelle, . ., to orth Shore he three of us have otten closer since her death, but niversity os ital in anhasset. kno am no re lacement. fter days of livin ith the coronavirus, admitted myself to the mer ency he infectious disease doctor ordered a lun scan, e artment. and the results sho ed severe, bilateral disease. yin there, thinkin about my future or lack of one , made kno too much about this illness. kno that my three hone calls. called both of my sons se arately, to o y en saturation lummetin the ni ht before is a si n tell them how sick I’ve become, what the doctors and I of advanced ulmonary disease ith ovid infection. were worried about. I couldn’t guarantee them that kno that mi ht need a mechanical ventilator — have ould live throu h the eekend. he third call made is iven this thera y to stran ers hundreds of times. to my close friend, a ersonal attorney, to ensure that everythin ould be in order if died. n arch , the andemic still seemed far a ay. obody had otten ill yet. attended the last lar e emer ency hat afternoon, stabili ed ith no further de radation mana ement system meetin of the orth ell health of my o y en saturation levels. n o y en, felt more system in anhasset, . ., here e discussed su ly secure in my breathin . remained on o y en and as rocurement and ersonnel covera e for the comin transferred to a “Covid floor” where I stayed for six days. andemic. drove back to my office in the ohen be an to en oy my surroundin s. y lun s started to Children’s Medical Center in nearby New Hyde Park. burn less, and my cou h subsided.