From Rabbi Josh
Dear {{first_name}}
I want to start this week by saying thank you.
Thank you to everyone who joined us online over the last few days. It is wonderful to know that we can still gather together, sometimes tearfully, in different ways over these challenging weeks. The sight of members waving to one another over Zoom after the Friday night service had ended was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Thank you to the 200 Alyth members who have already volunteered their help to provide practical and emotional support within the community. Over the next few days we will begin to call all of our members over the age of 80 to offer care and support.
Thank you to the amazing Alyth staff team and volunteers who have begun to transform the operations of our synagogue, facing challenges that none of us ever dreamt of.
Thank you to the many members and friends who have sent notes of appreciation, which make a huge difference to all of us.
Tefillah and technology
On both Erev Shabbat and Shabbat morning, many more members than were able tried to join via Zoom. We are committed to ensuring that this does not happen again. To this end, we will be upgrading our Zoom capacity this week so that everyone can join our services in this way, connecting not only to the synagogue but also to one another. Zoom allows us to also see each other, and we know how important this will be in the coming weeks. We are also working on solutions to ensure that the sound quality on Zoom is improved. For as long as we are still able to use the Beit Tefillah, the livestream will still also be available for Shabbat services, and we will also use Facebook Live whenever we can.
As we are beginning to use this new technology for our services, study and other community activity, our Community Director, Adam Martin, has prepared these guidelines to help us to use Zoom in the best way for ourselves and for our fellow community members.
Alyth Online
I wanted to also share our broader strategy for the next few months. Alyth is one of the largest and busiest synagogues in the world and we pride ourselves on the breadth of our provision. We are working to ensure that much of this is available online, as well as developing new offerings. We also know that this is going to be a long journey. We need to ensure that what we can offer is sustainable, and that we can create new opportunities for learning and gathering to introduce over time as we move further into this difficult period.
Over the last week we have prioritised enabling all of our staff to work from home, setting up online and communication facilities, and ensuring that Shabbat services and Youth and Education Hub Programmes were accessible. From this week, we are ensuring that many of our regular weekly offerings are available online, including the Essentials and Pardes study classes, and offerings for younger families. Every Shabbat from this week we hope to offer a learning session and a session from our Jewish Mindfulness Meditation group. These will alternate on Friday evening and Saturday morning for the hour before our services.
We are also introducing a couple of new offerings this week, about which you can find more below. Our intention is not to launch a wave of new programmes immediately that we might then struggle to sustain, but every week or two we will be introducing new ways of bring Alyth into your homes. Please do read our regular Monday and Thursday emails to see what is happening and how to join. We will also be preparing Jewish resources to support you through this period, which you will be able to access through the emails and our website starting next week.
Caring for one another
Our other main priority is our care for one another. Our care programme, ‘From darkness to light’ is beginning to take shape, with over 200 volunteers so far, and we will begin to phone all of our 368 members over the age of 80 through this week. Our main focus will then be on members who cannot access our online programmes, and those of our members who do not have any other support network. Again, our goal is to make sure that we can offer realistic support in a sustainable way over weeks, not just for the next few days, while keeping all of our members and volunteers safe. While we are not able to provide the level of practical response that, we hope, government hubs will begin to offer, we are here to do what we can.
As I said on Erev Shabbat, one of the most important things will be to reach out if you need to speak to someone. Please click here or phone 020 8457 8794 to be in touch. You can also click here to volunteer to be part of our calling teams. Please remember that we also have two special numbers in addition to the main synagogue number:
New Alyth Careline – 020 8457 8798
This will be answered between 08:00 and 21:00 by a member of the community for anyone who needs someone to speak to.
Emergency Careline – 07726 631808
Please use this number if you need urgent pastoral support. The hard reality of this pandemic is that we as a community will support an increased proportion of our members and families through hospitalization and bereavement. This number is there for these cases and will be answered by a member of the Alyth professional team.
On Friday night in my D’var Torah I said that we are all blessed to be part of an amazing community. I really believe that to be true. I have already witnessed and felt the love and care that Alyth members can offer to one another, and the very special nature of community that we have sometimes taken for granted. We will face these extraordinary, new challenges together, accompanying one another through this difficult journey.
L'shalom
Rabbi Josh
