Back in Business 

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.”