Hybrid In-Person and Zoom Shabbat Services

Our Shabbat evening service will be Hybrid (in person and on Zoom) starting in November 2021. You will be able to attend all services via Zoom. Please note our schedule (of course, subject to change):

• December 3 (Chanukah Shabbat!) in person and Zoom
• December 10 Zoom only
• December 17 in person and Zoom
• December 24 Zoom only
• December 31 Zoom only

Let us tell you about the preparations we’ve been taking to make this possible and what we need from you.

• Our sanctuary is limited at this time to sixty people. RSVPs are required by 11am the day of the service and we’ll keep a waitlist. This will aid both our health concerns and lower our security risks, while making greeting/check-in much easier for our volunteers. This means, at least for a while, no walk-ins whatsoever and unregistered people will sadly be turned away. So please plan ahead!
  Members will have priority in registration. At 11 am on Thursday, the registration for Friday night services will be open to non-members.
  You can register here. Please arrive early to ease the process of check-in and be patient.
• Proof of vaccination is required for gatherings in the building. If you haven’t already sent in vaccination verification, please click here to find out more information on our vaccination policy. Although we are requiring vaccinations, as a community we pledge to not shame anyone who isn’t vaccinated, for any reason. We are committed to not speaking lashon hara (negative speech) about anyone in our community.
• If you haven’t yet signed our Brit/Sacred Covenant, click here to do so prior to attending.
• Chairs will be spaced out, with couples or pods being together. And we won’t be swaying arm in arm just yet.
• There will be no eating/oneg. We’ll hope to get there soon.
• We require properly fitting masks at all times indoors.
• For all in-person events, we observe our fragrance-free policy.
• Zooming: Yes, we are still offering our services online. You can register as always through this link.

Other SZ activities:

In addition to Shabbat evening services, our Shabbat morning minyan will resume in-person services on November 13. Committees and groups are also permitted to meet in person in the coming months, so we encourage leaders to start talking with groups about how they wish to proceed. We are upgrading the technology in our building to make a hybrid/multi-access experience possible.

If you’re curious about the values that undergird our decision making processes, please refer to the documents on our website:

• our brit/sacred covenant
• our vaccination guidelines and explanation

Many thanks,

Rabbi Mychal Copeland

Marc A. Lipschutz, President

Susie Idzik, Director of Administration