_________ Oceanside/island park ________
HERALD $1.00
LOOK INSIDE
holiday Wrapping paper Contest drawn by our young readers
JCC helps those with Alzheimer’s
librarian retires after 50 years
o’side native to tie the knot
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Vol. 56 No. 50
DECEMBER 9 - 15, 2021
Parents mixed over schools’ Covid response uptick in the number of positive cases. I made a commitment to notify parents if the numbers kdaniel@liherald.com & tcarrozza@liherald.com did spike, but the purpose of that A letter from the Oceanside letter was a reminder of the School District was sent to fami- things that we still expect of lies in the district about the ris- everybody and we’re not changing Covid-19 cases in Nassau ing our course of action because County. Sixty-seven cases were our course of action has reported in the disworked.” trict following the Harrington conThanksgiving holitinued, “We’ve had e’re not day week. The letter everybody in school was sent as a changing since day one. The reminder to parents letter was just an to continue to be our course of FYI and a reminder mindful of the virus that Covid has not and to keep students action because gone away and to home if they are our course of remember to follow experiencing Covidall of the protocols action has worked. that I delineated in 19 symptons. In a phone call, the letter. Nothing Schools Superinten- phyllis has changed, and dent Dr. Phyllis Harthere’s absolutely no rington clarified the hARRiNGToN talk of doing anyreasoning for the let- Superintendent thing dif ferently ter and made it clear than what we’ve that there are no curb e e n d o i n g . We rent plans to switch believe it’s been very, very sucto a hybrid or remote model. “We cessful. saw the same uptick that every“That letter was a polite body else had heard about in the reminder to parents: Please, county on Long Island,” she said. don’t send your kids to school if “We put the numbers on our they’re sick,” Harrington added. website daily and from right “Even if you suspect there might before Thanksgiving to right be someone you were in contact after Thanksgiving, approximately one week. We did have an Continued on page 13
By KEphERD DANiEl and ToM CARRozzA
Courtesy MSSN via the Associated Press
DR. AARoN GlATT, second from left, Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital’s chief of infectious diseases, was an honored guest at the White House last week when he helped light the White House menorah with, from left, Jewish community activist Susan Stern, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, and the second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff.
Mount Sinai doctor lights White House menorah By ToM CARRozzA tcarrozza@liherald.com
On Dec. 1, Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital in Oceanside, helped light the fourth candle of the Hanukkah menorah at the White House as thanks and recognition for his work during the coronavirus pandemic. Glatt got the call from President Biden’s liaison to the Jewish People, Chanan Weiss-
man, extending the invitation on Thanksgiving. During a private meeting with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses, Glatt blessed Biden, who put his arm around the doctor, who is also a rabbi, and thanked him for the honor. During the ceremony, Biden lauded Glatt as a “champion of encouraging his congregants in his community to get vaccinated.” Glatt serves as an associate rabbi at Young Israel of
Woodmere and lives in the community with his wife of 41 years. “The torah tells us that we’re obligated to try and protect all people and keep ourselves, as well as our society, healthy,” Glatt said. “This is why the message to try and do proper public health actions is such an important message from a religious point of view.” Despite the personal praise from the president, Glatt said Continued on page 12
W