Dear Members,<\/p>\n
We know that with Premier Ford\u2019s announcement on Monday, June 8, permitting houses of worship to reopen to 30% capacity, many of us are eager to hear when we can once again have in-person Shabbat services at Darchei Noam. You will likely hear soon that in the coming days a few synagogues in the GTA will be reopening for services. The Security and Emergency Preparedness Committee, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors and our rabbi have reviewed currently available information. We have determined that we are not yet ready at Darchei Noam to resume holding services until such time that current restrictions are reduced further, the steps referred to below are taken and we are completely satisfied that it is safe to do so. We would like to share with you how we arrived to that conclusion.<\/p>\n
We are in agreement with the\u00a0statement issued by the Toronto Board of Rabbis<\/a>and the\u00a0joint statement from Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association<\/a>, both of which urge patience and caution in considering how and when to reopen.\u00a0 In addition, our Security and Emergency Preparedness Committee will take its direction from two sources in determining our own protocols:<\/p>\n This task force steering committee is headed by:<\/p>\n We believe that when it comes to our responsibility towards pikuach\u00a0nefesh, preserving life and not taking irresponsible risks with people’s health, we must exercise the utmost caution.\u00a0 Therefore, when either Toronto Public Health or the Toronto Jewish Community COVID-19 Task Force is stricter than the other, we will follow the stricter guidelines, subject to taking the steps outlined below.<\/p>\n At the end of last week, Toronto Public Health published\u00a0COVID-19 Guidance for Reopening Houses of Worship<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition, the Toronto Jewish Community COVID-19 Task Force published\u00a0Guidance for Safer Minyanim During COVID-19<\/a>.\u00a0 Some of the protocols in these documents include:<\/div>\n We believe that with the restriction of only allowing for 30% capacity, even if we continue to simultaneously stream our services on Zoom, we are creating a divide between those who could attend and those who could not.\u00a0 We believe that excluding certain populations from attending means that we would not be a complete community.\u00a0 Moses, when he pleads with Pharaoh to let our people go, states that \u201cWe will\u00a0all\u00a0go, young and old: we will go with our sons and daughters \u2026 for we must observe the Lord\u2019s festival.\u201d\u00a0(Exodus 10:9). Since the very formation of our people, that has been the foundation of what it means to come together as a community for Shabbat, festivals, and other occasions.\u00a0 We believe it is not in concert with our values to hold services in person while excluding our children, our elders and others.\u00a0 We believe that having a Shabbat service with no congregational singing just would not feel like a Darchei Noam service.<\/p>\n Below this letter you will find information on the process we will follow to determine when we are able to resume holding in-person services again. While we know that many of us yearn for the time when we can gather again and are disappointed that it seems to be some time off in the future yet, we hope that until we can gather in person again, you will join us for our Shabbat services on Zoom.\u00a0 They have been powerful, transformative and inspirational.<\/p>\n We would like to hear from you, with regards to reopening, what is important to you, your concerns and your priorities.\u00a0\u00a0Please share your thoughts with us\u00a0here [link removed].<\/p>\n We look forward to seeing you on Zoom and thank you for your support.<\/p>\n Esther Enkin, Erez Enzel, Rabbi Tina Grimberg<\/p>\n Joanna Sasson, [June 19, 2020]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Members, We know that with Premier Ford\u2019s announcement on Monday, June 8, permitting houses of worship to reopen to 30% capacity, many of us are eager to hear when we can once again have in-person Shabbat services at Darchei Noam. You will likely hear soon that in the coming days a few synagogues in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1764,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[513422,524999,514283,514268,514267],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1724,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions\/1724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nPresident<\/p>\n
\nChair, Security and Emergency Preparedness Committee<\/p>\n
\nExecutive Director<\/p><\/div>\n\n