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At least four cases of coronavirus are linked to Ohev Sholom—The National Synagogue.
By Mitch Ryals At leAst four people associated with Ohev Sholom—The National Synagogue have tested positive for coronavirus, according to emails from the synagogue’s leaders to its members. The Shepherd Park synagogue, which counts more than 350 families as members and is led by the politically active Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, has canceled all services indefinitely, the emails say, and is urging members who gathered at certain events as far back as March 6 to self-quarantine for 14 days. “Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, another positive case of coronavirus among our members was reported to us last night,” a March 16 email from executive director Monica Wolfe says. “That makes a total of four confirmed cases among our members that we know of.
“Given the limited testing to date, the true total is likely higher,” the email continues. “And anyone who has been to synagogue over the past 14 days should assume that he or she has been exposed - and act accordingly. That means staying at home and refraining from social gatherings, including playdates.” There were 31 positive cases in D.C. and more than 100 in the DMV area as of Tuesday, and the global pandemic continues to spread throughout the District metropolitan area, with victims connected to the military, schools, hospitals, the courts, and religious institutions. Leaders of those religious institutions have drawn much attention as their decisions hold sway over hundreds, possibly thousands of people seeking to do the one thing authorities are recommending against: gathering together in large groups. Emails provided to City Paper from March
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12 through March 16 reveal leaders of Ohev Sholom’s initial reluctance to completely close their doors, apparently at the advice of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office, their quick reversal in an effort to keep up with rapidly changing and confusing guidance, and one member’s journey from learning of their potential exposure to living under quarantine. In that five day time frame, for example, the synagogue sent almost daily updates with different guidance, new details of positive cases, and a new schedule for services. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office declined to talk on the record on March 16 beyond pointing to DC Health’s rule against gatherings of 250 people or more. Later that evening, the rules changed again when Bowser issued an emergency order banning all gatherings of more than 50 people. It is unclear when the synagogue’s leaders
first became aware that the virus was spreading among its members, and Herzfeld says the past week has been one big blur. “We shared information as soon as possible,” he says. The emails indicate that the earliest instances of possible exposure to an infected person happened on March 6 and 7 at a gathering to mourn the death of a community member. The synagogue first alerted its community on March 13 and shortly after canceled all services. By March 15, Herzfeld recommended self-quarantine for members who were possibly exposed to the virus. An email from one of the synagogue’s members, sent to its listserv and shared with City Paper, lays out a detailed timeline of their exposure, testing, diagnosis, and quarantine. The community member declined to speak on the record, and City Paper is not identifying them to protect personal medical information. ohev sholom’s story starts on March 1, the same day Rev. Timothy Cole, the rector of Christ Church Georgetown and the first known confirmed coronavirus case in D.C., presided over the Sunday morning service. That evening, the Ohev Sholom community member, who later tested positive for the virus and emailed their fellow congregants about it, had dinner with a friend in town from New Rochelle, New York, for the American Israel Public Affairs Conference. The friend was infected at the time but did not know it, according to the community member’s email to the listserv. In hindsight, the community member believes they probably contracted the virus during this encounter. The community member first learned of their exposure to the virus on the afternoon of March 6, after a follow-up conversation with their friend from New Rochelle. The community member immediately left their workplace, contacted their doctor, and “spent several hours trying to get in touch with DC public health officials,” according to the listserv email. The advice, according to the community member, amounted to the same advice any person who hadn’t been exposed to the virus would get. “The DC public health epidemiologists (I spoke with two of them) told me on March 6 that I was ‘no risk.’ (That’s a quote.),” the community member writes in their email. “They said I did not need to self-quarantine or take any particular steps of any kind. They also said that they saw no reason to test me, nor was there any reason for anyone in my family to be doing things other than regular handwashing, etc. As I said, the guidance clearly has been very much in flux.” The community member writes that they opted to play it safer than D.C. health officials advised and went into self-quarantine at home beginning March 6. That meant distancing themselves from other members of their family but not complete isolation, according to the email. By March 7, the community member was still not showing symptoms but notified their employer and other contacts “with all the details and guidance we had received.”