President's Blog

I was going to write about why we've decided to make our High Holy Days observance a virtual event. About how a socially distanced sanctuary is downright depressing (to me)... About the sense that seeing every one spaced in clusters six feet apart seems like the opposite of community. But you don't need me to reiterate that. We are all living it every day.

Instead, allow me to kvell (beam with pride) about our awesome staff. Our team is undertaking a difficult task: creating a High Holy Day program that will be unlike anything we've done before. They have neither any example upon which to draw nor any past experience to learn from. And they need to get it done in about half the time normally allotted to planning and creating our service experience for the Days of Awe.

Each one of our staff members is helping out in some way towards making our observance happen. They are leveraging not only their specific job skills but their numerous abilities as well.  We are fortunate to have such deep bench of talent to draw from.

Let me give you an example: our Education Coordinator Asher Schulman's hobbies include playing and developing video games as well as tinkering with electronics projects. This background enabled him to step up to become the 'producer' of our Erev Shabbat services as well as the go-to advisor on nearly any technical problem the staff encounters.

Another example is how Marissa Wright our clergy assistant has become the de-facto scheduling coordinator for the numerous micro-activities required to pull together the myriad video segments necessary to assemble the service.  And yet she continues to always have a 'smile in her voice'.

I'll admit I'm doing a disservice to the tremendous effort every member of our staff is expending in pulling off this experience. The next time you encounter Marissa, Asher, Jordan Magidson, Kelly Finkel, Jennifer Braham, Sara Kaye, Jennifer Kramer, Sheri Lippman or Noreen Long, please express thanks for the effort they are investing for our community's benefit.  Each one is going above and beyond their job descriptions to ensure our journey into this new world is as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

While it appears the die for Rosh Hashanah 5781 is cast, let's all hope and pray 5782 will allow as to celebrate together once again.

B'shalom,
Steve Fintel