Why my shul will be remaining open
BEFORE BORIS Johnson announced the latest English lockdown on Monday, around 60 per cent of United Synagogues had closed their doors. More have since taken the decision to shut but Hendon has opted to remain open.
Explaining why, minister Rabbi Mordechai Ginsbury cited its spacious Raleigh Close premises. “We’re very blessed. We have a very large campus and large spaces which are very well ventilated.
“Regular attenders commented that you’re more likely to catch a cold than Covid [in shul]. The temperature is not pleasant because we are letting so much fresh air in.”
However, he appreciated the risk of infection in even the most Covidsecure of venues and he and the synagogue’s honorary officers had the situation under constant review. “There is nothing cavalier or complacent in the way we are looking at things.”
Rabbi Ginsbury understood why many would not want to go to shul, and why other synagogues were choosing to shut. But he found it “quite a remarkable thing” that “a secular government in a Western liberal democracy” had concluded that “places of worship are essential for people’s mental and spiritual health”.
His 1,100-plus congregation contained “a core of really committed, sincere people who want to have the possibility of communal prayer — and as long as it is legal and recognised as essential by the government, that this should happen. We want to provide that service for them.”
Attendances had halved for weekday services. And the congregation was under 100 for Shabbat, compared to up to 600 in normal times.
When he spoke to the JC, Rabbi Ginsbury was in the process of producing a message to his congregants to remind them that the synagogue was for prayer only and could not be used as a “quasi-social” space to escape the lockdown.