Synagogue Updates

Good morning,

One of the things I love about Judaism is that you can find Jewish conversations and sources about almost any topic. Not surprisingly, I have been thinking a lot about risk management recently – how does someone mitigate risk, what is an acceptable risk? Cognitive bias experts will tell you that individuals are awful at judging risk, that many of us are more afraid of sharks than cars and so we have been listening closely to our experts.

I have been a “professional” Jew for over 20 years now. Over that time, I have seen our community wrestle with risk with regards to trips to Israel, to securing our facilities, and now with regards to COVID-19 (and so many other issues in between). Dealing with risk is not new to our community. Our Jewish texts have something to say on this. Deuteronomy 22:8 tells us that we must build a small fence for our roof so that someone doesn’t fall. In the Talmud (Kiddushin 29a), we learn that some sages say that a parent is supposed to teach a child how to swim. Both standing on a roof and swimming are activities that come with potential risk. Our sources don’t tell us not to participate in these activities, they tell us to manage them; to strive to lower, but not eliminate the risk. There is an important lesson here about how we interact with the world - of course each of us need to make our own decisions based on our personal situations. Please send me your favorite Jewish sources on risk management as well - I would love to read them. 

Reducing and managing risk is a major goal that the synagogue has and will continue to try to do with COVID-19. We want our community to have the opportunity to come together safely, we know that there is great strength in our connections. We also know that while there are ways to reduce risk, such as our mask wearing policy that the CDC has recommended for us or eating our meals outside, we can not eliminate all of the risk of our being together. Everyone has different risk factors and risk tolerances and we are creating options and opportunities to include our entire community. 

A number of our congregants and families have been quarantining and being diagnosed with COVID-19 recently. If someone in your family has covid, please let us know. Hallie Chandler, our Director of Community Engagement, is developing activities that we can send home to children, and starting this week, we are going to work with our Challah bakers/deliverers to deliver a challah to our families on quarantine each week. (Reminder to sign up to bake or receive a challah. We are in need of more bakers if you are available) Of course, if you need someone to shop for you or need help with running errands, we have congregants that have volunteered to do this and we are happy to reactivate that group.

Many have been asking about our High Holiday and Guest Ticket plans. There will be an email coming out at the end of this week, following our Board meeting on Wednesday. This email should include our service schedules, guest ticket policies, covid protocols and a survey about which service options you plan on attending.

On a much more fun note - we need your help for a special Sukkot youth program – who have you used to rent limos from in the past? If you have a Sukkah that you are not using, consider donating it to our Sukkah Village or to a family that does not currently have a Sukkah. Please let me know. 

Wishing you a great week! Good luck to our softball teams that are in the playoffs this morning,

Ken
513 503 9559

p.s. Off to the baby naming of one of our congregants, so forgive me if the letter is a little disjointed at times. Lots of tweaks and I have run out of time.