18 | SEPTEMBER 3 • 2020
Jews in the D
Farber Delays
Start of School
Two teachers have tested positive
for COVID-19.
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
he scheduled Aug.
24 start of school at
Farber Hebrew Day
School – Yeshivat Akiva came
and went after
parents were
notified that the
first day of class-
es would be both
postponed and
include major
modifications.
In a duo of emails, sent
Aug. 20 and 21, a new plan
was outlined to replace the
previously slated hybrid
in-school and virtual curric-
ulum. Instead, school began
Monday, Aug. 31, with ECC,
kindergarten and first grade
students attending in-person
classes — as originally set
— and grades two through
12 moving into a virtual
schedule. Reassessment of the
situation will be ongoing but
is expected to continue until
after Sukkot, which ends the
evening of Friday, Oct. 9.
The determination was
made by the school’
s exec-
utive committee, headed by
Farber parent and president
Dr. Ora Singer, who signed
the letters to parents along
with head of school Dr.
Joshua Levisohn.
A Farber teacher tested
positive for COVID-19 last
week, after faculty and staff
testing was done on Monday,
Aug. 17, three days before
the announcement of school
opening changes was made.
The spouse of the teach-
er who tested positive for
COVID also tested positive
— and is also a Farber teach-
er. The family has been in
quarantine since the original
positive test and has not been
in the Farber building.
Following the positive
COVID-19 case, Farber said
it followed state and medical
guidance. “The health depart-
ment was promptly notified,
the building was properly
cleaned, and contact tracing
was conducted in accordance
with current best practices,
”
they said in an email.
Farber executives said the
positive tests did not prompt
the delay of the school’
s open-
ing or the addition of virtual
learning.
Rather, the delay
announcement followed a
three-day teacher-orientation,
attended by 80 faculty and
staff members.
According to Levisohn,
“Unlike office buildings or
other places of work, schools
are large, interactive, buzzing
organisms. Seeing faculty
and staff interact inside of
the building made it clear it
will take time to adjust to our
new reality and to the new
protocols.
“To ensure everyone’
s safe-
ty, we felt it was necessary
to conduct a staged opening
rather than a single introduc-
tion of most of the children
to school, and with that in
mind, we made the extremely
difficult, even heart-wrench-
ing decision to change plans
even at the very late date,
” he
added.
According to an email sent
to parents, the school plans
to offer some virtual, small
group learning for the lower
grades as well as “regular
opportunities for these stu-
dents to coalesce in safe envi-
ronments, primarily outdoors
to build relationships and
provide social stimulus.
”
Levisohn added, “The pan-
demic has caused all of us to
remain as flexible as possible,
as the reality, the medical
guidance, the state guide-
lines and the data all seem to
change on a daily basis. We
are committed to providing
the very best education pos-
sible to our children while
remaining steadfast in our
attempts to keep students,
faculty and their families
safe.
”
An Aug. 24 town hall
Zoom meeting to address
concerns and questions was
attended by more than 100
Farber parents, staff members
and students.
Dr. Joshua
Levisohn
Yeshivas Darchai
Torah Provides
In-Person
Instruction
SHARI S. COHEN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Yeshivas Darchei Torah,
an Orthodox day school in
Southfield, is holding in-person
classes for its 496 students.
Classes for boys in first through
eighth grade began on Aug. 27.
Girls classes and all preschool
started Sept. 2.
According to Rabbi Yehudah
Amsel, the school’
s director of
community relations, Yeshivas
Darchai Torah is prepared to offer
virtual instruction but no fami-
lies have requested that option.
He said that the school used
sophisticated teleconferencing to
provide remote learning when all
schools closed in March. Amsel
added that Darchei Torah is work-
ing with the governor’
s guidelines
for schools to avoid transmission
of COVID-19.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in Oak
Park, the largest private Orthodox
Jewish day school in the state, has
also finalized its instruction plans
for the fall semester, but school
officials told the JN they “have
decided not to release the docu-
ment for public consumption.”