A9A| Friday, March 6, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
The Maccabees huddled around Ryan Turell, No. 11, before a game last month in New York. Mr. Turell chose the school because he wanted to remain religiousin college.JESSIE WARDARSKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
had the same goals and it took
off from there,” Mr. Steinmetz
said.
The Maccabees notched
their first conference champi-
onship in 2018. On Sunday,
they won their 27th game in a
row, beating Purchase College
to again take the Skyline Con-
ference championship. And on
Friday, they will face Worces-
ter Polytechnic University in
Baltimore in a first-round
game of the NCAA Division III
tournament.
The team spent this week at
the Washington Heights cam-
pus, practicing each night for
Friday’s game. Yeshiva Univer-
sity on Wednesday canceled
classes at the campus and a
Midtown Manhattan location
until March 10 because a stu-
dent tested positive for the
novel coronavirus. However,
NCAA officials said the gamewould still take place.
Ryan Turell, a sophomore,
said he chose to come to Ye-
shiva because he wanted to re-
main religious in college. He
said he weighed offers to play
at a number of competitive
schools, but for him, Yeshivaprovided the best of both
worlds.
The team has a saying:
“spirituality before physical-
ity.” It doesn’t play on the
Sabbath. Many players wear
their yarmulkes during gamesand regularly participate in
fasts. Some go into the locker
room a couple minutes early
before a game to hear one of
their teammates, a rabbinical
student, give a pep talk.
“I want to strive to be the
best,” said Mr. Turrell. “I also
want to set an example for the
rest of the Jewish nation
watching. Like, look, we can
play basketball, too.”
Originally from California,
Mr. Turrell averages about 23
points a game. His parents
make the trip to the East
Coast frequently to support
him at his games. His mom
has become known for leading
fans in cheers.
Nachum Segal, a Yeshiva
University alum and a host of
Jewish radio show “JM in the
AM,” said that since the
team’s win on Sunday, he has
devoted much of his show todiscussing the team.
“The energy has not always
been there, but now it’s almost
impossible to get a seat,” said
Mr. Segal, who has been a fan
of Yeshiva basketball since he
was a child.
The team’s fans know ev-
erything about the team, Mr.
Turrell said. Some bring up
stats he doesn’t even know, he
said. Children stop him and his
teammates on the way back to
the locker room for auto-
graphs and pictures.
Rabbi Elchanan Poupko, a
teacher at Park East Day
School on Manhattan’s Upper
East Side, follows all of the
games on Twitter and watches
countless clips. He said the
team’s success has exhilarated
his students.
“It gives kids the ability to
have good role models,” said
Mr. Poupko.A few years ago, when Ye-
shiva University’s Maccabees
basketball team played a
game, it barely drew 30 spec-
tators.
Now, the school’s athletic
center in Manhattan’s Wash-
ington Heights is jam-packed
with hundreds of faithful fans
and the deafening chant of
“When I say go, you say Mac!”
Much has changed since El-
liot Steinmetz took over as
head coach of the men’s team
in 2014 and began a nation-
wide recruitment campaign.
The school has long been
known as a leading Jewish ed-
ucational institution, but now
its basketball program wins
accolades.
“We dealt with the laughter
for a couple of years and then
we got the guys in here whoBYAMBERBURTONYeshiva University Team Racks Up Faithful Fans
The Maccabees won
their 27th game in a
row Sunday, taking
a championship.GREATER NEW YORK
New York Police Depart-
ment officials said Thursday
that overall crime in New York
City rose by 22.5% in Febru-
ary, attributing the increase to
a new law that eliminates bail
for defendants accused of low-
level and nonviolent offenses.
The biggest increase in
crime involved stolen vehicles.
In February, 493 were stolen, a
61.6% rise from the 305 during
the same time a year earlier,
according to newly released
NYPD data.
The city also recorded 1,
assaults in February, a 9.2%
rise from 1,294 during the
same time last year, NYPD
data showed. There were 45
shootings last month, a 7.1%
increase from 42 in February- Murders were down 20%
in February, and rapes de-
creased by 6% last month, ac-
cording to NYPD data.
A state bail law that went
into effect on Jan. 1 requires
judges to free defendants ac-
cused of misdemeanors or
nonviolent felonies. In a state-
ment Thursday, the NYPD said
that “criminal justice reforms
serve as a significant reason
New York City has seen this
uptick in crime.”
NYPD officials said since
the beginning of 2020, 483
people who had already been
arrested for a felony crime
were rearrested for commit-
ting 846 additional crimes.
To address the crime in-
crease, the NYPD is redeploying
officers and moving some peo-
ple from administrative roles.
“Victims are who this is all
about—finding justice for any-
one who’s already been victim-
ized, trying our hardest to
prevent future crimes and fu-
ture victims,” NYPD Commis-
sioner Dermot Shea said at a
news conference Thursday.
The Legal Aid Society, which
supports the bail law and rep-
resents criminal defendants,
said the police department was
manipulating its data.
BYKATIEHONANPolice Tie
Crime Rise
To N e w
Bail Law
Religious schools have been
shut.
Some festivities for the
Jewish holiday of Purim are
up in the air.
And officials in Westchester
County, N.Y., estimate 1,
people are quarantined at
home after a well-attended bat
mitzvah and funeral.
The case of a seriously ill
father with deep roots in a
modern Orthodox community
shows how quickly coronavi-
rus can spread in circles that
live, go to school and attend
services together. As of Thurs-
day, officials said 18 people in
Westchester had been diag-
nosed with Covid-19, including
the man to whom these cases
are connected.
Rabbis said the connected-
ness of their community is a
great strength, but when a
contagious illness strikes, the
vast network of links among
families can make it especially
hard to control infection.
“When you’re in a tightknit
kind of society, there’s lots of
opportunities for interaction,”
said Rabbi Yonah Berman at
YCT Rabbinical School, in the
Bronx’s Riverdale section,
which has been affected.
“When people are told to step
back from that interaction,
that’s harder than it would be
in communities where individ-
uals keep more to themselves.”
Rabbis throughout the New
York City area are adjusting
the customs of a traditional
Jewish culture as they tried to
halt the escalation of illness.
They sent congregations a
range of warnings: Please
don’t kiss the Torah or mezu-
zah, a small scroll in a case at-
tached to the doorway of
many homes. Please don’t
come to services or ritual
baths if you feel any symp-
toms. And please don’t reach
out to shake hands lest some-
one feel obliged to reciprocate.
A Westchester attorney be-
came the second person in
New York to test positive forthe novel coronavirus on Tues-
day. His wife, son and daugh-
ter were diagnosed with it as
well, state officials said. Only
the attorney is hospitalized in
serious condition. His family is
in quarantine at home in New
Rochelle. A neighbor and
friends—five people in a local
family—also tested positive
for the virus, officials said.
After the attorney was di-
agnosed, his synagogue, Young
Israel of New Rochelle, said it
was halting services through
Sunday because of potential
exposure tied to him. Further,
county health officials said
people who attended services
there on Feb. 22, and a funeral
and a bat mitzvah on Feb. 23,
must self-quarantine until atleast Sunday.
Samuel Heilman, a Queens
College professor of sociology
quarantined after going to the
Feb. 23 funeral, said hundreds
of mourners attended the fu-
neral because it was for a
founder of the synagogue.
Many congregants “are
neighbors and friends, and live
within walking distance,” he
said, and after weekly religious
services they have a reception.
“Everyone is eating at the
same time, talking and touch-
ing each other,” he said. “All of
those things can increase the
likelihood of transfer.”
Westchester County officials
alerted residents about quaran-
tine rules quickly through email
blasts, social media, rabbis andschool leaders.
State and county officials
said they were working to-
gether to identify the universe
of people who might have
been exposed to individuals
known to have coronavirus.
This is the first instance of
community spread in New
York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said
such a case could have hap-
pened anywhere—“and it will.”
The governor called the
case “one of the more compli-
cated situations that we’ve
come across because of the
number of interconnections
that this family has presented.”
Each infected person is be-
ing investigated in an attempt
to limit the number of addi-
tional infections. The governorsaid people in self-isolation
are being contacted by the
county, state, schools or other
private organizations.
The school attended by the
daughter of the attorney, SAR
High School, said it would re-
main closed until Wednesday,
and its lower school, SAR
Academy, will reopen Monday.
Some classes were held online.
Yeshiva University, where
the attorney’s son is a student,
has canceled classes and
events until after March 10.
Rabbi Reuven Fink of Young
Israel of New Rochelle said in
an email to his congregation
that obeying the quarantine
order is a “sacred obligation.”
The rabbi explained prac-
tices that could shift. For ex-ample, he said people who
need to say Kaddish, a
mourner’s prayer by a quorum
of 10 men, could do it after the
quarantine is lifted.
Hundreds of thousands of
Orthodox Jews live in New
York City, Westchester and
Long Island’s Suffolk and Nas-
sau counties, according to ex-
perts. Many travel for events.
The Jewish Educational Cen-
ter in Elizabeth, N.J., alerted
families Wednesday night that
some members of the Elizabeth
Jewish community who at-
tended the New Rochelle bat
mitzvah last month were in
self-quarantine, and none had
shown signs of illness.
—Lee Hawkins
contributed to this article.BYLESLIEBRODY
ANDMELANIEGRAYCEWESTVirus Spread Quickly From One Patient
5 miles
5kmQUEENSBROOKLYNMANHATTANBRONXPatient’smovementsSecondaryeffectsThepatientwastransferredto
aManhattanhospitalMarch2.4OneNewRochelleresident
wenttoabatmitzvahinWhite
PlainsonMarch1,andlatertested
positiveforthevirus.Threesisters
whoalsoattendedweresenthome
fromtheirBaltimoreschoolMarch
4andarenowinquarantine.5SARHighSchoolintheBronx,
wherethepatient’s14-year-old
daughterattends,closedMarch3.6Officialsannouncedthe
patient’sManhattanlawfirm
colleaguesarebeingtested.7Gov.AndrewCuomo
announcedonMarch4the
patient’swifeandchildrentested
positiveandarequarantinedat
home.YeshivaUniversity,where
thepatient’s20-year-oldson
attends,cancelledclasses.8Patientattendedservicesat
YoungIsraelofNewRochelleFeb.
22and23.Attendeesarenow
requiredtoself-quarantineuntilat
leastMarch8.2Patientreturnedtohishomein
NewRochelle,N.Y.,afteratripto
MiamitheweekendofFeb.15.1Aneighbordrovethepatientto
aBronxvillehospitalFeb.27.The
neighborlatertestedpositive,and
hischildrenarebeingtested.3Sources: state and school officials (case details); ESRI (roads); Google (locations) Lindsay Huth/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL4875New RochelleWhite Plains3 2 16SinceaNewRochelle,N.Y.,man
fellillFeb.22,residentsacross
theregionarebeingquarantined.TrackinghowaquarantinespreadsNEW JERSEYNumber of Cases
In New York RisesNew York City officials said
Thursday that 2,773 residents
are under quarantine and are
being monitored for symptoms
of the novel coronavirus, as the
number of infected people
statewide rose to 22.
Two New York City resi-
dents who have tested positive
for the virus were in critical
condition at hospitals, according
to the officials.
The two patients, who don’t
have a known connection to
any of the previous cases, were
confirmed to have the virus late
Wednesday night, the officials
said. One is a Manhattan man
in his 40s, and the other is a
Brooklyn woman in her 80s, the
officials said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said
the man had an underlying re-
spiratory issue from smoking
and vaping and the woman
had age-related health issues.
Meanwhile, a city teacher
who had recently traveled to
Italy and had shown symp-
toms of the virus tested nega-
tive, Mr. de Blasio said.
The teacher was part of a
group of 44 students and sixadults from James Madison
High School who traveled to
northern Italy—where there
has been an outbreak—in Feb-
ruary. None of the students
have shown any symptoms of
the virus, the mayor said.
In New Jersey, two people
have tested positive, acting
Gov. Sheila Oliver said Thurs-
day. Both results are being
sent to the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention
for confirmation, she said. The
first patient to test positive
was a man who started feeling
sick Sunday, said New Jersey
Department of Health Commis-
sioner Judith Persichilli. The
man went to work Monday in
New York, then went to his
apartment in Fort Lee, N.J.
then to urgent care late Mon-
day evening. He then went to
Hackensack University Medical
Center, where he is in stable
condition in an isolation room.
“From the time he became
symptomatic, the patient had
limited close contact with
other New Jersey residents
outside of the health-care set-
ting,” Ms. Persichilli said.
The largest cluster of New
York state cases remained in
Westchester County.
—Katie Honan
and Jimmy VielkindNYwsj_ 20200306 _a 009 _p 2 jw 066000 _ 4 _a 009 a 0 _ 1 ________ns 2020 .crop.pdf 1 06 - Mar- 20 07 : 08 : 09