Schools and Synagogues Adapt Purim Celebrations to Zoom Phoenix-Area

HEADLINES | 8 HOME DESIGN & REAL ESTATE | 16 BIG THANK YOU SHORT-TERM RENTALS Local teacher Community thinks receives gratitude through housing legislation FEBRUARY 19, 2021 | ADAR 7, 5781 | VOLUME 73, NUMBER 11 $1.50 Schools and Phoenix-area residents start new synagogues adapt businesses during pandemic NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER Purim celebrations rin Finger was ready for the biggest youth sports league Aseason yet: 2,500 kids had jerseys and were assigned to different sports teams. They were on rosters and scheduled SHANNONto Zoom LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR to compete. It was April of last year, just when the COVID- 19 pandemic began to wreak havoc and “everything came enee Joffe had to do a double take when she walked crumbling down.” Then, people wanted their money back. Rinto one of Congregation Kehillah’s classrooms recently. “This is my sole source of income for my family,” he said. “I’m Preserved on the white board was a lesson about Tu B’Shevat sitting in my office saying, ‘This is not going to work. I have to — the students’ last pre-pandemic lesson. do something, and I have to do something fast.’” “That blew my mind when I looked at the whiteboard, Today, Finger still runs the i9 Sports Arizona franchise he and I’m like, ‘Oh my God! That’s the last thing they taught started seven years ago, but he also sells wood-fired pizza from in person,’” said Joffe. a pizza trailer. Business is going so well that he is looking to Purim planning this year coincides with the first anniversary turn it into a franchise. of COVID-19, and Joffe said seeing the remnants of that It’s no secret the pandemic devastated businesses across lesson left her with a “weird feeling” realizing that a year has Greater Phoenix. Arizona had the fourth-highest rate of business already passed. closures in the country relative to the number of total businesses Typically celebrated with costumes and parades, this year in the state between March and July of last year, according to Purim’s preparations may seem a bit subdued. But across a Yelp survey. Greater Phoenix, people are planning to keep things festive But Finger, like several people in the Jewish community, where they can. Purim is a difficult holiday to do over Zoom, according to was able to change course by starting a new business since the Rabbi Alicia Magal of the Jewish Community of Sedona and pandemic started. the Verde Valley. Other holidays can be adapted, but for Purim, Finger got the idea of operating a pizza truck after seeing one “you need that raucous energy in a room looking at each in a park in the Sky Crossing neighborhood. He asked a few other,” she said. Adapting that feeling to the small rectangle questions of the pizza truck operator and learned business was booming. Finger knew his lead soccer instructor at i9, Codey Marina Awerbuch sings Shabbat songs with her daughter, of a computer screen takes some doing. Sophie, to children ages 3 months to 5 years old at Cactus Park “This year it’s about finding the essence of the Purim Stetler, had a background in in Scottsdale, as part of a weekly Friday morning tot Shabbat. celebration and saying what’s really needed here,” Magal said. the culinary world and asked if SEE BUSINESSES, PAGE 3 PHOTO BY REBECCA FEINMAN “Purim’s a little mad; it’s upside down and backwards,” (and in that vein she’ll write her name backwards on her Zoom screen). She’ll encourage her congregants to wear funny hats Celebrating Jewish holidays and unmute themselves at critical moments. There might not be groggers, but people can put beans in a tin can, bang a pot at home has silver linings with a spoon or honk a horn. Magal has a wooden frog with Na’amah Segal Karas lights Shabbat candles on Friday, a bumpy back that she will turn into a percussion instrument Feb. 5, 2021. Since the pandemic started, she has become by gliding a stick over it. more observant. To read more, go to p. 19. She’ll choose sections of the megillah PHOTO BY BRADLEY KARAS to chant, sections when people should SEE PURIM, PAGE 2 KEEP YOUR EYE ON jewishaz.com NATIONAL INTERNATIONAL ISRAEL Dr. Fauci among seven laureates of 2021 UAE swears in its first Israel, Cyprus announce Dan David Prize honoring public health ambassador to Israel ‘green passport’ travel agreement PURIM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 make noise, sections when people should sing. The celebration will be scaled back, but she wants attendees to be fulfilled. Meri Thomason, a congregant, chose Purim backgrounds for the congregation to use, making the Zoom megillah reading more festive. She plans to ask for donations of hamantaschen people make in their Purim baking class to include in a basket she’ll drop off for families. She might not be able to organize a synagogue-wide mishloach manot, but she wants “to do the mitzvah.” Meri Thomason shows off her Purim costume in 2020. PHOTO COURTESY OF MERI THOMASON This year, people will have to look for what’s underneath the carnival of Purim — with its students, a hamantaschen workshop with a chef hidden and revealed elements, said Magal. and the big casino night replete with Purim 2021 Phoenix “Sometimes you have to look and find where shpiels, trivia, poker tables and other games. God is in this place, this encounter when we’re Joshua Rips, one of Hillel at ASU’s Jewish Children play together at the Martin Pear JCC’s Jewish News no longer at the foot of Sinai with its thunder Life interns, is in the midst of planning for the Purim parade a year ago. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARTIN PEAR JCC — but there are whispers of divinity that can virtual casino night, which he hopes will bring Rabbi Tzvi Rimler, organizer of C’Teen, will Print Dates be found at any moment. That is one of the people out who just want to relax. help with the all-school Zoom holiday. Kids will good things about Purim.” He’s realistic about keeping things on Zoom dress up and show off their costumes, maybe Last year’s Purim decorations were still up for now. “I don’t foresee a future where we can learn a new song or two and play games, like January 8 August 6* in the Hillel offices at Arizona State University, go back to our ‘normal’ until the fall,” he said. Rimler’s creation “Jewpardy.” January 22 August 20 when Rabbi Suzy Stone, campus rabbi for “A stay-at-home Passover is going to be what “We’ll try to make it as fun as possible for Hillel at ASU, was finally allowed back in over the doctor ordered.” everyone,” Zappa said. February 5 August 27 “Having a celebration at all,” is what Cory the summer. “It looked like Pompei — a relic At Congregation Beth Tefillah, Rabbi Blumstein, Hillel at ASU’s vice president of February 19 September 3 from before,” she said. Pinchas Allouche is planning multiple services Jewish Life, is looking forward to. He is ready “Purim was the last in-person event last year, throughout the day and evening in order to March 5 September 10 and it’s a huge event for us.” to see all their hard work pay off, and expects accommodate in-person but socially distanced Hillel’s Purim casino night is one of the it to go well simply because they’ve become March 12 September 24 megillah readings. largest flagship events of the year, a time when much better at planning virtual events over Instead of passing out mishloach manot March 19 October 1 Jewish students — religious and secular — the last year. at the synagogue, he and others will take join together for an “amazing experience,” At Desert Jewish Academy, on the campus of March 26 October 15** Stone said. Temple Beth Sholom of the East Vally, Emily hamantaschen, food, costumes and games April 2 November 5 This year’s events will be virtual, but Stone Zappa remembered that Purim was the last to congregants to “bring Purim joy to feels good about the plans for a Purim festival in-person event before the campus became “a their homes.” April 16 November 19 week culminating in a virtual casino night. ghost town.” “Judaism doesn’t have to belong to the May 7 December 3 Even with students’ Zoom fatigue, she believes “It is pretty weird that it’s been a year,” she synagogue,” Allouche said. “It can and it that the social nature of the event will re-create said, “but we’re pretty excited — anything to should be brought home too.” May 21 December 17 a lot of the same feelings students have about add some spice and something different to our Before COVID, people felt that holidays had June 4 Purim in a normal year. kids’ days is fun.” to be celebrated at the synagogue, he said. But “We’re doing a lot more than we have in the Normally, the students would collect items the way COVID has turned the focus inward July 9 *Best of Magazine past,” Stone said. “We have to be more creative for mishloach manot baskets, but this year the forces us to see things differently. **Annual Directory in finding what makes Purim a celebration.” staff is doing it, and they’ll put them in front “There’s something special and intimate The week includes an examination of the of the school for people to pick up without in bringing God home that we did not WWW.JEWISHAZ.COM holiday, a gift basket delivery for about 200 having to enter the building.

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