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.” 

