SHALOM TO THE HIGH HOLY DAYS @ DHJC!
Dear Friends:
Shalom on behalf of your DHJC family. We trust that you and your loved ones are well and continue to be safe and healthy. We are all aware of how challenging the past number of months have been. Our caring and compassion as a community has made a remarkable difference in all our lives. The High Holy Day information that follows in this letter provides you with how we remain connected as a community, although very different than in past years, and is the result of so many of us pulling together to ensure a joyous New Year!
Our High Holy Day Team, including Rabbi, Cantor and Executive Director along with our lay leadership and our Covid Task Force, seeks to assure you that our High Holy Day services will be inspiring and spirited as we gather together both ON-LINE with an upgraded streaming service and, in limited fashion, ON-SITE, to welcome this New Year with hopes and prayers of renewal and resiliency. Our fundamental principal in preparing for the Days of Awe given the most unique reality continues to be the mitzvah of 'Pikuach Nefesh' - of safeguarding our health and wellbeing.
Our programs will include 3 engaging opportunities:
* Traditional Prayer Service - abbreviated but moving service, on-line and with limited participation on-site, with pre-recorded portions and special cameo appearances led by Rabbi Howard Buechler, Cantor Steven Hevenstone, and several of our talented congregants.
* Family Services (aka Garden Room Service) - on-line led by Rabbi Yael Buechler
* ECA Service - innovative and engaging on-line for our families with ECA-aged children led by Amichai Margolis
To provide you with additional opportunities to connect to the spiritual nature of the High Holy Days, we are offering these additional programs:
* Tashlikh and Shofar on the Shore: a series of Tashlikh ceremonies, a symbolically casting bread into the water (a metaphor for deep soulful transformations), including the sounding of the shofar, will take place on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, September 22nd and September 24th at Sunken Meadow State Park. Details, including pre- registration will be forthcoming.
* Note-Worthy Torah Time: every family will have an opportunity before the High Holy Days or the days in between, to spend mindful time in front of the Open Ark in our Main Sanctuary. You will be able to offer your personal prayers with the Torah scrolls and leave a handwritten note in our Western Wall Prayer box. All notes will be brought to Israel and placed in the Kotel by Rabbi Buechler when travel to Israel resumes. Pre-arranged times will be available for you to book to ensure that all Covid19 health protocols are maintained as you enter DHJC and pray before the Open Ark.
Our prayers will be on site for each service of the High Holy Days. The number of attendees will be limited by the then prevailing NY State guidelines which currently includes 12-foot physical distancing between each family/individual cluster when singing. Those who wish to attend on-site will need to make the request. We will reasonably accommodate such requests for at least one service of the eight High Holy Day prayer services. Please see the attached In-Person Protocols.
Each member in good standing will receive a unique coded ID to enter our Live Streaming services and be loaned a High Holy Day Machzor (prayer book). To be a member in good standing you need to satisfy all financial obligations with the office. We will also have a full week of touchless high holy day Machzor/Family Service prayer booklet pick-up. Each Machzor will be numbered and at the time you pick up your books the numbers will be recorded. Please be sure to return all books issued to you within 30 days after Yom Kippur. If you do not return the books assigned to your family, you will be assessed a replacement fee of $50 per book. For those who wish, these items can be delivered to your residence. If you require technical support, we have volunteers to guide you.
We are grateful to each DHJC family for your ongoing support and trust. We continue to care for each other in a myriad of fashions. Together - be it on-site or on-line - we will craft a most meaningful and joyous High Holy Day experience as we strive for excellence in all that we do. With enthusiasm and loyalty, we will celebrate this New Year and forge renewal, resiliency, good health and healing!
This is a New Year that none of us ever could have envisioned. Yet with strength and fidelity to our faith, Torah and inspiring traditions, we move boldly forward into this new year of 5781, truly and richly blessed by the community that is the Dix Hills Jewish Center!
Shalom
Elissa Regenbogen, DHJC President. [email protected]
Rabbi Howard R. Buechler. [email protected]
Cantor Steven Hevenstone [email protected]
Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, High Holy Day Team Leader [email protected]
|
|
High Holiday In-Person Protocols
In order to balance the desire of many of you to attend High Holiday services in-person with the need to promote and protect the health of all of our congregants, we have adopted the following protocols and guidelines for those attending the on-site services during the High Holidays.
Arrival Time - As our services will be live streamed, it is important that you arrive on time. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start time of any service you are attending. Any sounds from the congregation (aside from singing prayers) may be overheard or seen by those participating in our services remotely.
Medical Check - Prior to entry, your temperature will be taken. You will also be requested to acknowledge that you have no COVID-19 type symptoms; have not been in recent contact with anyone, who, to your knowledge, has such symptoms and have not traveled to any of the states or foreign countries that are then on New York State's quarantine watch list within the preceding 14 days. We reserve the right to deny entry to anyone, who, in our discretion, may place others at risk.
Release Form - Before arriving for services, please be sure you have completed and returned The Building Entry Release Form to the office for each member of your family attending in-person. When determining in-person participation, please consider your own health circumstances including age and underlying medical conditions that predispose you to more severe illness.
Face Covering - You will be required to wear a mask or other suitable face covering at all times while on the premises.
Physical Distancing - NYS regulations require physical distancing of 6 feet and 12 feet when singing. It is requested that you abide by these regulations and physically distance yourselves from non-family members at all times while in the building and while entering and exiting the building. After medical check-in, please proceed directly to your assigned seating area. Once seated, you will be required to remain in your assigned seating area during the entire services - except in cases of extreme urgency. Walking around the sanctuary and ballroom or congregating with other worshipers may defeat the physical distancing we are required to maintain. If you are being honored with an Aliyah during the service, you may rise at your seat at the appropriate time as even for an Aliyah to the Torah, social distancing remains in effect and the blessing over the Torah will be recited from one's place. Please continue to wear your face covering.
Bring Your Own - Kippa, tallit and Machzor (prayer book) as these items will not be available. Machzors will be distributed to each family in advance of the High Holy Days.
Restrooms - The restrooms may only be used by one person at a time. Please limit the use of the restrooms to emergencies only. Anyone waiting for entry must maintain appropriate social distancing.
Babysitting - No babysitting is available. We strongly urge you not to bring any children under the age of 10 years old.
Departure - We request that all in-person attendees remain in attendance until the conclusion of services except if there is a medical emergency. In order to maintain social distancing requirements, exiting the building will be completed by each family group.
The DHJC reserves the right to modify, amend, alter or add to these requirements as circumstances may change at any time prior to and during the holidays.
We understand that these requirements are inconvenient and may be burdensome. In order to maintain the dignity of the services and protect the health of all our congregants we ask that everyone act responsibly and diligently follow these rules. Please understand that if these protocols are not observed, you may be asked to leave and subsequently follow our prayers on Livestream.
With our hopes and prayers for a New Year of blessings and renewal. Shalom
|
STAY CONNECTED 
|
|
