“I loved the village I left on Thursday March 12, 2020, and I love the virtual village that we are all creating now. “
– a teacher in our ECC and Religious School
Fellow Congregants and Friends:
Since we last gathered as a community for Purim on March 9th, every aspect of our lives has been turned upside down. The current crisis is impacting many of us in different ways, some financial, some emotional, some physical. We are especially concerned with our congregants who are suffering from the COVID-19 virus. While many have recovered, our thoughts turn to those who are still battling the disease.
At Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, we are infusing Jewish values in all we do. We are taking care of the sick, feeding the hungry, calling our members to check up on them and creating a virtual village. Some examples of our programming in response to the crisis are:
- Live streaming weekday, Kabbalat Shabbat, Saturday morning and Pesach services
- Virtual Seder with Rabbi and Lori Cooper; and a talent show with the entire community
- Phone calls to all congregants, including Cantor Rosner chanting a personal memorial prayer for those observing a Yahrzeit
- Volunteers shopping for congregants and delivering Pesach meals to those who are ill from the virus
- Celebrating Bar and Bat Mitzvot using technology to connect our clergy with each family; we will be planning a congregational celebration of all of these special B’nai Mitzvot in the future
We have enhanced our educational opportunities, transforming our adult education classes into virtual offerings and adding new opportunities as well. Our ECC and Religious School teachers are doing phenomenal work as they maintain and foster connections with their students online. The teachers are very appreciative that we have committed to full salaries for the foreseeable future. We have also offered all of our ECC families a 33% reduction in tuition while the school is closed. Many families have opted to continue paying full tuition to show their support for our school and our teachers; while some received further reductions due to personal hardship created by the crisis.
We are also committed to taking care of our staff. As a synagogue, over the past few years, we have been focusing on how to improve our staff benefits by raising minimum salaries and adding disability benefits. We believe the right thing to do is to continue paying our staff during this time, even as this presents a financial hardship to the synagogue. To assist us, we have applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, which, should we receive it, will help bridge our cash flow for the next few months.
To do all of this, we need your help and support. While we know this crisis has created financial difficulties for many of us, we ask those who are able to help us get through this together. The synagogue has set up an emergency campaign to enable the community to support our congregants and provide the resources so we can continue to pay our staff. Please consider donating to the campaign. Donations will:
- Replace our traditional Spring Gala with the funds normally raised to support our synagogue
- Assist congregants with dues adjustments as they deal with hardships
- Offset the tuition adjustments we are making for our preschool families
Your gift, of any size can and will make a difference for our shul.
Please click here to make a donation.
Amidst all of this, we have some good news to share. For the first time in our synagogue's history, we have hired a Rabbinic intern to join our community. Noam Korsgold, a Rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, will be with us one weekend a month, beginning in September. He comes with a long list of programmatic success in attracting and helping to sustain large numbers of young families, singles and teens in his current internship in a smaller congregation in Northern New Jersey. Even in our current situation, we are planning for the future, a future in which we return to a new normal, stronger as a community.
Times like this challenge us to determine how we want to live and support one another. We are so proud of our community and for the way that our clergy, staff and our congregants have stepped up to take care of one another. A special thank you to Rabbi Cooper, Hazzan Rosner, Ken Krivitzky, Judith Scarani, Lisa Richman and Hallie Chandler, for working tirelessly to ensure our virtual village stays connected, safe, and spiritually supported. And thank you for being a part of our special community.
Joel Freedman, President
