Winner of Vol. 72, No. 10
What’s inside?
Thursday, April 15, 2021
n Assemblyman’s son will fill remainder of Andrew Cohen’s final council term estarkmiller@riverdalepress.com
A new club at DeWitt Clinton not only turns students into broadcasters, but creates a way to share story of COVID-19. Page A3
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It’s finally over: Dinowitz heads to City Hall By ETHAN STARK-MILLER
Making it history
the Pulitzer Prize
After nearly three years of running, former teacher Eric Dinowitz will succeed Andrew Cohen on the city council. At least until the end of this year. Dinowitz won the March 23 special election with 58 percent of the vote once all of the ranked-choice counting and elimination was completed Tuesday. Spuyten Duyvil non-profit executive Mino Lora finished second with 33 percent.
Dinowitz takes office immediately, serving out the remainder of the term for Cohen, who was elected to the Bronx Supreme Court last year. Soon after the final results were revealed, the Bronx’s newest councilman says he’s feeling good about the erIC election results. DInOWItZ “We ran a very positive, future-facing campaign,” Dinowitz said. “We talked about the recovery of the Bronx and (the) needs of the people of our community, and I think that spoke to people.” U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres — one of Dinowitz’s most prominent backers —
Mazel tov ... from home
By ETHAN STARK-MILLER estarkmiller@riverdalepress.com
Courtesy of hedvAnDan Photography
Maddie Dickstein’s parents held a family heirloom Jewish prayer shawl — called a tallit — over her during her virtual bat mitzvah. this was one of many virtual ceremonies called ‘beit mitzvahs’ held by the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of riverdale during the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID creates new rite of passage n Bar and bat mitzvahs continued on through pandemic — just online By ETHAN STARK-MILLER estarkmiller@riverdalepress.com
Making it a day It’s not just about food anymore. Y’s Sunday Market now offers new activities, and fresh ways to buy something quite tasty. Page A8
State budget aims to tax rich n Governor had far less to say than he has in past as scandal catches up to him
Out & about Pandemic has introduced the world to Zoom, but when is it just too much for politicians? Page A10
Lora was the only candidate with any real chance of overcoming Dinowitz’s seemingly insurmountable lead after live and early ballots were counted March 23. But even then, that chance was fleeting, as she would have to rank higher on a significantly large percentage of the remaining votes from candidates who were ultimately eliminated from the tally. But any chance of Lora going to City Hall became all but impossible once absentee votes were counted Sunday. Dinowitz picked up 1,400 — or 57 percent — of the 2,500 absentee ballots. Meanwhile, Lora only added 350 votes to her tally, giving her 22 percent of first round votes, which pales in comparison to Dinowitz’s 46 percent. At that point, the only way Lora could’ve CITY HALL, page A4
congratulated the new councilman on Twitter Monday night after The Riverdale Press called the election in his favor. “Congratulations,” tweeted Torres, whose elevation to Congress opened up a special election for his own city counMInO cil seat on the eastern lOrA side of the Bronx. “Looking forward to working with you in your new role.” Dinowitz crossed the 50 percent threshold while there were still three candidates in the race that included himself, Lora and Fieldston environmental activist Jessica Haller, the last to be eliminated.
T
he coronavirus pandemic has forced many to quickly figure out how long-planned life events like weddings could work in a time of forced social distancing. Many simply postponed these events indefinitely, but not everything can be pushed back. The show must go on for bar and bat mitzvahs, the rite of passage tied to when a Jewish boy or girl turns 13 and reaches religious maturity. Although ceremonies can happen months from a young teenager’s actual birthday, there’s only so long one can delay.
But as COVID-19 shut down any chance of bringing even the smallest groups together, Rabbi Barry Dov Katz took on a grim task of telling families at Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale these milestone events weren’t going to go as planned. “People spend their whole lives — over 13 years — thinking about these events,” Katz said. “Thinking about who’s going to be there and planning every little detail of the synagogue service, and the party, and all of that. And, I had to call people and tell them, ‘Sorry, this weekend isn’t going to look like what you wanted it to look like.’” But Katz and his team quickly came up with a solution: Move these ceremonies onto the Zoom online videoconferencing app. There was some skepticism at first, but early on in the pandemic, CSAIR hosted the first of these virtual
ceremonies, which Katz called “beit mitzvahs.” “Beit” is the Hebrew word for “house,” which made sense since these ceremonies would indeed take place in the family home.
Finding a way to bring it together
Many of these beit mitzvah events were Saturday night affairs, Katz said, open virtually to invited family and congregation members. They also sometimes took place on Sunday and Thursday mornings. None of these could be full religious services, Katz said, because that would require a minyan — a quorum of 10 Jewish men in a room to lead the prayers. Instead, a typical beit mitzvah focused on the teen reading from the Torah — the Jewish prayer scroll — MAZEL TOV, page A4
It may have come in a week late, but the $212 billion state budget is packed to the gills. And some state lawmakers say the extra deliberation was worth it. This budget is geared toward raising revenue and spending massively to help people across the state recover from the coronavirus pandemic. In previous years, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi said she felt disheartened by the budget process. Gov. Andrew Cuomo almost completely controlled the process, according to law, and rarely would he yield to some of the more liberal big-ticket items she and other newer lawmakers craved. But this year felt entirely different. “I think this is a historic budget that’s going to provide relief for communities that are progressive wins in a way that we have really not seen,” Biaggi said. “We didn’t get everything we fought for, but we got a lot.” Those wins include a tax increase on wealthy individuals, $2.4 billion in rent relief, and a spending package the senator says fully funds public schools statewide. The budget deal also legalized mobile sports betting, which proponents claim will raise hundreds of millions in revenue. Also included in the deal was a bill pushed by Biaggi and Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim repealing Cuomo’s blanket BUDGET, page A4
Relaxed coronavirus rules could mean fewer closures n Four positive cases now required to shutter buildings instead of just two in past By ROSE BRENNAN rbrennan@riverdalepress.com
At one time, neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor hail could halt the nation’s postal service — or the operation of its largest public school system. But last year, something beyond inclement weather upended the educational system’s reputation for never closing. And unlike snowstorms, the coronavirus pandemic didn’t have a forecasted end. When school campuses physically reopened last fall, the criteria to reverse course and shut down again at either the classroom or school building level remained fairly consistent. If there were one or two confirmed coronavirus cases confined to a specific classroom, that classroom would need to switch to fully remote learning for 14 days. The building itself would close for 24 hours if two or more “unrelated” coronavirus cases were found in the school. If contact tracing created more worries
HIrAM AleJAnDrO DUrÁn
Under the city’s new guidelines, classrooms will still need to quarantine if even one person tests positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. However, the building itself will now only close if there are four or more confirmed cases. of further community spread, the school would close up to 14 days, although that eventually relaxed to just 10 days. But as millions of vaccine doses are in-
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jected into arms — especially the arms of teachers — the time came for the criteria to close down a school building to change again. And that’s exactly what Mayor Bill
de Blasio did again last week. de Blasio did away with the so-called “two-case rule,” later unveiling a new program that appears to be less stringent. The guidelines for classroom closures are the same — even one confirmed case means the class will go fully remote for 10 days. But if there are multiple cases that are not confined to one classroom, the guidelines change. If there are two to three cases in a school building, its mandatory coronavirus testing procedures will expand to test more people. As of right now, mandatory weekly testing occurs randomly among 20 percent of the school population. If more testing is deemed necessary, that testing capacity can temporarily increase to 40 percent to gauge community spread. Finally, a school building will temporarily close if four or more people test positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. And even then, this will only occur if the cases aren’t isolated to a single classroom or family. These rules will allow schools to be more consistent in terms of keeping the doors open, de Blasio said. Schools closing less frequently means students will have more time in the classroom. But the city CLOSURES, page A4