When I wrote to you in mid-July about our plans for the High Holidays, I noted that we would continue to monitor the status of COVID-19 and reevaluate as necessary in order to ensure that our plans considered the safety of our community.  While we are excited to offer a variety of in person options, based on the recent increase in infections in our area and updated information on the spread of the virus, the Board of Trustees has implemented several policy changes.

We will have both indoor and outdoor options as well as streaming. Indoor services will have a further reduced capacity than originally anticipated.

Dear Shomrei Friends,
It is with great joy and gratitude that I write to you, announcing that this year’s High Holy Days will be back in person for those who wish and are able to attend. We understand that our community’s needs vary as we start to emerge from COVID, and some continue to prefer to view services from home. That option will be available to you as all the indoor services will be livestreamed. But for those that are ready to be in person, we are planning a variety of ways to worship together.

To the Shomrei community,

It’s almost May in Montclair and Shomrei has a lot of plans for Shabbat services sprouting and about to come to life!  A few weeks ago, I wrote to you that we were reviewing the responses from the Shabbat Services Survey and working on various options. I am really excited to tell you about our plans for May.  We will be gathering in person outside each week and will continue to Zoom and stream so that those that are unable or uncomfortable with in person gatherings can still be part of our services.  We are also working on our plans for June when we expect to begin some indoor services.  As we come back into the building, I want to remind you that this past year we installed new air conditioning with upgraded filters and improved air flow. We will also continuously review safety protocols to ensure that we are following required guidelines.

To the Shomrei community,

I wanted to send a note about the recent Shabbat Survey results and our next steps.  First a huge thank you to Sarita Eisenberg for doing the heavy lifting regarding the survey and collaborating with the Ritual Committee to develop the questions and to tally and summarize the results.

We received 93 responses across a wide range of age groups including families with preschool, elementary school and older children as well as adults across all the age ranges listed in the survey.  I am very pleased with the cross section of responses.

Overwhelmingly, respondents were comfortable with outdoor services.  We did have several respondents who would also be interested in indoor services.