________________ LONG BEACH _______________
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
City carnival brings the fun
Hundreds march for fallen heroes
Questioning of wind continues
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Vol. 34 No. 23
JUNE 1 - 7, 2023
$1.00
The virus didn’t stop volunteers Long Beach Soup Kitchen adapted, and kept helping those in need By BRENDAN CARpENTER bcarpenter@liherald.com
Tim Baker/Herald
SoUp kITCHEN VolUNTEER Tom O’Brien preparing some meals to go.
The coronavirus pandemic may be over for many people, but the Long Beach Soup Kitchen — a battle station during the long health crises — is busier than ever. The soup kitchen, across from the Recreation Center, at 140 W. Pine St., has a different normal than most other places. When Covid-19 was at its peak, and virtually everything else was closed, kitchen President Robert Blau and volunteers were working and the facility
remained open. Meals were in high demand, and the occupants of vehicles that pulled up often asked for not just one, but sometimes five or six meals, for an entire family. Before March 2020, meals could only be given out and eaten inside the kitchen, at its tables. Once the coronavirus began to spread, that wasn’t possible anymore, but more people than ever needed meals. So an adjustment was made that is still in operation today: meals-to-go. “Once Covid hit, we couldn’t Continued on page 10
The pandemic led this family from Brooklyn to the beach By JAMES BERNSTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
When the coronavirus pandemic struck New York City in March 2020, the Jackowitz-Solomon family, then living in Brooklyn Heights, felt they had to do something fast. The schools, museums and parks were closed. And there was no indication when any of them would reopen. The family decided to take a trip to Tampa, where Beryl Jackowitz-Solomon, 42, was raised. She, her husband, Michael, 47, and their two sons, Abe, now 10, and Jonah, now 8, moved in with her father in Florida for 10 weeks.
They knew they needed to come back to New York — but not to Brooklyn Heights, where the amenities of the city they loved were not available. And the schools remained closed, it turned out, that entire year. Jackowitz-Solomon, who runs an e-commerce business, said that the couple prepared to leave their apartment in the city and began searching for places to live in Long Beach. She and Michael, who is in the real estate business and is also an attorney, spent the summer of 2020 look-
ing at homes while their children attended a day camp that was open in Roslyn. “We were the first couple to be allowed to enter the homes physically,” Jackowitz-Solomon recounted. “We wore masks. It was crazy.” “We had used New York City as our backyard,” she said. “We went to the museums and parks. These weren’t open to us anymore. We couldn’t sit outside. Everything became so difficult.” In Brooklyn Heights, she said, their apartment was too small to
Covid
keep the kids indoors all day long. And Long Beach, she said, had so much appeal for the family. The couple had met on Fire Island, and Long Beach was as close to that beach setting as possible. They could walk to the beach and the Long Island Rail Road station. They were allowed to sit in the parks. The air
seemed fresh and clean. “We wanted a unique place,” Jackowitz-Solomon said. She wanted to be outside, and to ride her bike. But, she said, “we had to act fast.” There was lots of competition from others who also wanted to leave the city, David Kasner, a broker for Coldwell Banker Continued on page 12