Two brothers, two schools, one mission: Rabbi Baruch And Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Rothman steer their yeshivos through the storm

Photos: Naftoli Goldgrab

On the last day of camp at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway this past August, Rabbis Jeff and Baruch Rothman were on hand as boys in shorts were massed on the front steps waiting for pickup. Slowly they disappeared, a few candy wrappers and the occasional abandoned N-95 mask the only evidence of their presence. But Darchei parents Rabbi Baruch Rothman, Darchei Torah’s director of institutional advancement, and his brother Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Rothman, executive director of Yeshivah of Flatbush, had other things on their minds besides camp. In a few days, both schools would be opening under COVID restrictions, and they needed to figure out how to make it work.

A month later, after months of preparation, an unexpected rise in COVID cases turned both Far Rockaway and Flatbush into red zones and forced schools to close. It took a mighty effort for both Rothman brothers to deal with parents and students, adapt to the changes, and work with city and state government and Jewish askanim to get the yeshivos back up and running any way they could.

Both Yeshivah of Flatbush and Darchei Torah are now open again for the second time. They had opened before the Yamim Tovim, hoping to conduct education in as normal a fashion as possible given the requirements of social distancing and masks. But right after Rosh Hashanah, a few cases of COVID at Darchei led to an order to shut the school for two weeks despite the yeshivah’s extra-mile efforts to meet and even exceed the guidelines. Then, during Chol Hamoed Succos, both Far Rockaway and Flatbush became red zones, and all schools were shuttered.

“When they first closed Darchei, we didn’t understand, since we only had a few cases,” Rabbi Baruch Rothman says. “We were told they’d investigate, but they never did. After we became a red zone, though, there was finally clearer government guidance that was in line with what we’d been doing anyway.”

He and others from Darchei worked together with a coalition of every yeshivah in Far Rockaway, representing over 7,000 students, and placed a phone call to the governor’s office to plead for permission to open (arranged by Maury Litwack from Teach NYS, an affiliate of the OU). The governor’s office responded that they wanted more testing to happen, and told them to put together a proposal. The yeshivos sent back a proposal that offered to test students.

“In the end we didn’t need it,” Rabbi Baruch says. “The COVID rates improved, and Far Rockaway became a yellow zone two days before they reviewed our proposal.”

Becoming “yellow” meant that shuls could open at 50 percent capacity, and schools could open if 20 percent of students and staff were tested once a week for COVID (which also means getting consent from all the parents to do nasal swabs). Since Darchei includes about 3,000 people between students and staff, that means testing 600 people each week.

The yeshivah, however, learned back in September about challenging restrictions that don’t make sense.

“The city has shown a willingness to be more open-minded, and not shut us down if two kids are sick, which is a huge win for all yeshivos,” Rabbi Rothman says.

At Yeshivah of Flatbush, his older brother Rabbi Jeffrey Rothman spent June through August preparing for the opening of school, following New York state guidelines that stipulate schools enforce either social distancing (kids six feet apart, not practical for large schools), mask wearing all day (good for some ages, not others), or polycarbonate barriers around desks. Yeshivah of Flatbush installed new air-conditioner filters and created an app for parents to fill out health screenings. But despite all these efforts, the yeshivah soon closed.

“We saw an uptick even before Succos,” Jeffrey says. “We had some individual cases, and had to quarantine some classes. We didn’t have many cases, but those we did have were disruptive for the impacted classes and children.”

Then Flatbush was declared a red zone, and classes continued via Zoom. (The Early Childhood Center was allowed to open, as regulators were stymied trying to figure out what to do for children too young to do Zoom school.)

“The hard part was that the New York City Department of Health kept changing the rules about how to deal with new cases, and they were very strict,” Jeffrey says. “It was harder for us than for schools outside the city. The city and state weren’t always in sync, and we were expected to roll with the changes at a moment’s notice. For smaller schools, it’s a little easier to adapt. But at a big school like Flatbush, with over 2,000 students, it’s very hard to constantly keep changing.”

He worked with a coalition of mostly Sephardic schools, Teach NYS, and local officials to put a workable policy in place so that red zone schools could remain open, even if a few students tested positive. Seven Brooklyn schools wrote a letter to the governor stating this and offering to test students regularly. They finally got the go-ahead at the end of October.

“It was a huge win,” Rabbi Jeffrey says. “Now we can be open if we test 25 percent of our students and staff weekly, and our positivity rate is under 1 percent.”

Jeffrey says one big challenge is doing all that testing without cutting into more learning time — it means testing 600 students every Sunday.

As executive director of the institution, he says communication with parents at this time has been more crucial than ever — especially while some are struggling to pay such high tuition for Zoom schooling. But most parents have been understanding, and they’re thrilled that their children are back in school.