SHALHEVET HIGH SCHOOL Los Angeles, CA October 2020 • Tishrei 5781 Vol. 21 • Issue 1 shalhevetboilingpoint.com
Covid 2.0
BP Photo by Ellie Orlanski OUTSIDE: Students and some parents gathered with rabbis for Shacharit September 21. Officials have set up permanent tents on the rooftop turf to provide shade during prayer and “Camp Shalhevet” optional after-school activities.
Online classes, after-school “camp”and rooftop davening welcome new school year By Benjamin Gamson, News Editor With endless trips, Shabbatons, pep rallies and spontaneous kumzitzes in the hallways, Shalhevet always feels a little like camp. This year, for parts of the day, it actually is. A week after regularly scheduled academic classes started on Zoom Aug. 26, Shalhevet started an after-school program on campus called “Camp Firehawks.” It’s
optional, socially distanced, and fully masked. “We want to have an opportunity to engage with our students,” said Associate Head of School Rabbi David Block. “And right now school learning is only online, and we wanted to create an opportunity that was obviously within the [Covid] guidelines.” But the building “campers” are returning to looks quite different from the one they left when Covid first hit in
March. Under the guidance of Shalhevet’s Medical Task Force, desks have been placed six feet apart, and most are fitted with plexiglass semi-enclosures to shield students’ breath from one another. Hand sanitizers and wipes are on desks. Distanced davening is held some mornings on the outdoor third-floor turf, which is canopied by room-sized white tents. Chairs are spaced six feet apart, and there is very little singing. In-person attendance is strongly encouraged but not continued on page 3
For COVID-19 nurses on opposite sides of the world, keeping families away is the hardest part By Juliet Wiener, Staff Writer Shalhevet alumna Sydney Miller ‘13 is a nurse at the NYU Langone Hospital in New York. Typically, she finds enjoyment in sitting next to an anxious patient and comforting him or her through conversation. However, due to COVID-19, she now mainly communicates with patients on the screen of an iPad, or through the glass doors of the ICU. Halfway around the world, Chava Gardner, 44, is a nurse at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. She stands and watches as
one more elderly COVID-19 patient passes away without family by the bedside. Her N95 mask once again becomes stained with tears. Sydney Miller and Chava Gardner are on opposite sides of the planet — and yet, in the very same place. Both women’s professional lives as frontline healthcare workers were upended this spring by the novel coronavirus and the disease that it causes, COVID-19. Chava, with 17 years of experience as a surgical nurse, normally heads a Hadassah pre-op unit but now has been working in the corona ward. Sydney is barely continued on page 9
szad Elya Sam hot o by
When school started on Aug. 26, Shalhevet’s art students grabbed brand-new plastic mesh packages they’d picked up from school, opened their sketchbooks, and set themselves up for art class online. Zoom screen and blank page in front of them, they would soon touch pen to paper and bring some beauty to the seemingly dark, Covid-infested world of 2020.
This year, Shalhevet’s art students were given basic supplies to use at home to create art together over Zoom. It’s a big improvement from last spring, teachers say, when the Visual Arts department was faced with a paper-and-paintbrush curriculum that suddenly had to migrate online. “No one had art supplies [last year],” said art teacher Ms. Samantha Garelick in
BP P
By Elliot Serure, 10th grade
eh
This year, art kits for every student taking Art
continued on page 8
Israeli consul says Gulf treaties may signal new era By Molly Litvak, Editor-in-Chief New treaties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain -- only the third and fourth Arab countries to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in its 72-year history -- will be economically beneficial and shift mindsets in the Middle East towards Israel, according to Dr. Hillel Newman, Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles. Called the Abraham Accords -- in honor of Abraham, held as the ancestor of both Jews and Muslims -- documents formalizing the treaties were signed at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15. The countries agreed to establish normal relations, including direct airline flights, economic and scientific cooperation, and tourism. “The first thing is that it’s going to be a warm peace,” Consul-General Hillel Newman said in an interview with the Boiling Point. As part of the treaties, Israel agreed to temporarily retract their plans to annex parts of the West Bank. According to Dr. Newman, Israel and the UAE have already drafted 170 agreements, some involving science and Covid-19. Equally important, he said, is that the peace was agreed to for the sake of friendship, not in exchange for land or other concessions -- although the agreements were only enacted once Israel agreed to suspend annexation of the West Bank, which was supposed to begin on July 1 of this year. “It’s the first time it’s a peace for peace, legitimacy given to the state of Israel without any price paid,” said Consul General Newman. “Now we’re coming to a reality where they understand that Israel is an ally and not an enemy, and they understand that they can benefit from Israel.” The consul general said the new peace agreements changed the nature of Israeli-Arab negotiations by removing the resolution of Palestinian claims as a precondition. “The third aspect” of progress shown by these agreements, he said, “is that they’re turning the tables on the peace process. There was this acceptance that we have to resolve the Palestinian issue first before we normalize relations with the Arab countries. At last this has been broken.” The agreement between Israel and the UAE was initially continued on page 5