Jewish congregants across Greater Boston are gearing up for unprecedented holidays this month amid the coronavirus pandemic — highlighted by Zoom services and socially distant shofar blowings, instead of packed temples with chanting choirs.
As the virus forces synagogues to remain closed for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, area rabbis and temple leaders will be keeping their congregations connected from afar.
“There’s no question that most people would prefer to be in person for the holidays, but the upside is that people can join from anywhere around the world,” said Rabbi Howard Jaffe of Temple Isaiah in Lexington.
This weekend is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, kicking off the holiest time of the year.
Erika Sheinhait, a member of Temple Beth Am in Framingham, has walked to temple every year.
“It’s always nice to have that short walk, but we won’t be doing that this year,” she said.
Instead, Sheinhait will be walking to her living room and watching a Zoom service, which the congregation has been doing for months.
“It’s been a good trial run for what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “We can’t be together in person, but there are still ways to be together virtually.”
Rabbis in their sermons are expected to feature lessons and takeaways from the coronavirus crisis, including the community’s resilience.
“We need to be counting our blessings to recognize how fortunate we are to be able to look forward, even as we acknowledge how much has been lost,” Jaffe said, noting that his temple’s congregation has lost members to the virus.
His wife’s parents are Holocaust survivors, saying: “We’ve lived through much darker times, but we don’t want to minimize the challenges we’re facing now.”
In addition to virtual services this year, another High Holiday tradition that will look different is the customary blowing of the shofar — a ram’s horn — to ring in the Jewish New Year. Jaffe’s temple has recorded the shofar blowing, which will be played during the online service.
While ceremonies won’t be in-person, the virtual services have “opened up unprecedented opportunities to connect with the community,” said Marc Baker, CEO and president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.
“We won’t let this pandemic stand in the way of connecting with one another and finding a meaning in our tradition,” Baker said.
When the pandemic hit here in March, not every synagogue had the financial or technological capacity to hold services online. To help close the gap, Combined Jewish Philanthropies stepped in to provide grants between $1,000 and $2,500 to local synagogues for technology improvements.
CJP has distributed $170,000 — raised from $100,000 due to overwhelming demand — to the 75 synagogues that have applied for grants.
