Jewish congregations turn to livestreams, outdoor services for high holy days
CHICAGO — When safety mitigations around the coronavirus pandemic began to ease earlier this year, many Jewish congregations hoped for a return to traditional services during the high holiday season.
In many cases, those hopes were dashed as the surging delta variant and rising COVID-19 case counts have lead to continued unease around large indoor gatherings.
“We were looking forward to liberalizing from last year, but as the saying goes, ‘Men plan and God laughs,’” said Dr. Daniel Gutstein, president of Orthodox Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation A.G. Beth Israel.
With the first night of Rosh Hashana — the beginning of the Jewish new year — on Sept. 6, and Yom Kippur, or the day of atonement, starting the night of Sept. 15, Chicago-area congregations are planning for a second straight year of untraditional formats, outdoor gatherings and plenty of livestreaming.
“As a human being I am feeling the same sense of frustration as everyone else,” said Rabbi Debra Newman Kamin of Am Yisrael, a conservative synagogue in Northfield. “At the beginning of the summer we thought COVID was in the rear view mirror, and my sermon for Rosh Hashana was to be ‘Isn’t this amazing?’ I had to scrap that and do something else.”
“A lot of people are still hesitant to come in person because they are concerned about the uptick in the number of COVID cases, or they don’t want to sit in a service masked for an hour or two,” said Rabbi Andrea London of Evanston’s Beth Emet The Free Synagogue, a reform congregation.
The Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago recently conducted a survey of local congregations, with 36 responding with their plans for the high holidays. Twenty-seven reported they would offer a hybrid approach to services, eight would only be in person and one will conduct services exclusively online.
Among the many opting to use the hybrid format was Congregation Beth Shalom, a conservative synagogue in Northbrook.
“Some may have been disappointed that we weren’t planning for a normal holiday, but we knew that no matter what we still wanted to err on the side of safety,” noted synagogue spokeswoman Deanne Friedman. “We have gone along for 18 months knowing that safety and comfort for everyone was our number one (goal) and we couldn’t change that now. This is still a year of transition and we had to continue with that through the holidays.”
That some people are set to observe the holidays in person — often adhering to capacity limits — is a change from last year, when in pre-vaccine times many congregations were strictly remote.
“In many ways last year was easier than this year because we knew right from the start that we would be remote and no one would be in the room. This year is so much harder because everything is changing every day,” said Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein of Glencoe’s Am Shalom, a reform synagogue.
For those who are coming to synagogues, there will be mask mandates and many congregations are asking attendees to be vaccinated. Once inside, there will be social distancing and less congregant participation. Activities like carrying the Torah around will be limited.
“The service is going to be much more stationary than usual,” said Charles Shapera, executive director of Temple Har Zion, a conservative synagogue in River Forest.
For the second straight year, the pandemic is resulting in other changes in traditional high holiday formats. Many congregations are offering shorter services, aware that those attending in person may tire of a wearing a mask and those watching online may be limited in how long they want to look at a computer screen.
There are some exceptions to the hybrid approach, as orthodox congregations do not allow livestreams and therefore are opting to continue exclusively in person.
In the case of orthodox Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation A.G. Beth Israel, the congregation does not have an outdoor site large enough for a service.
There would be social distancing but Gutstein, the congregation’s president, did not think too many people would opt to come, thereby avoiding capacity issues.
“I think we are going to be more limited in terms of how many people want to come as opposed to how many we have (space) for,” he said.
On the reverse side is Highland Park’s Makom Solel Lakeside, a reform synagogue that will offer their main holiday services online. Other smaller services, including the memorial service on Yom Kippur and some children services will be held outdoors.
“Due to the rise in COVID cases, plus we have many small children who cannot be vaccinated yet and many senior citizens who are vulnerable to COVID, that is why we decided to go virtual for most of our services,” said Leah Neiman, Lakeside’s director of communications and engagement.
As part of the shorter services, musical components will be different as many congregations will either reduce or remove choirs, sometimes substituting prerecorded pieces.
“We realize public singing and things like playing with instruments put more particles into the air than any other activity,” said London of Evanston’s Beth Emet The Free Synagogue. “In order to reduce the possible spread of infection, we decided to take the things that could spread infection the most and either record them or do them outside.”
The holidays will be the first time some outdoor services will be held at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park. The main services will continue to be held indoors.
“With challenges come opportunities and we are excited to do an outdoor service which we have never done before,” said Rabbi Alex Freedman. “We really think we have a program and lineup to connect with people at this important time. It is easy to be down but our synagogue has responded quite nimbly to these challenges by meeting different groups’ needs in different ways.”
With all the changes in place for a second consecutive year, it has lead to clergy leaders thinking through new approaches, in what is already a reflective time of year for Jews.
“I think our tradition has a lot to draw from to focus on resilience and dealing with disappointment. Just like my congregants, I also need to remind myself to draw on those sources and that strength because it is easy to be disappointed,” Kamin said about the Northfield synagogue.
Shapera, whose congregants in River Forest are eagerly anticipating the holidays, said this month’s significance echoes a theme that can be useful during an ongoing pandemic.
“People are excited and they are looking forward to continued improvements over time and the high holiday season being the start of the Jewish calendar year and the resetting of everything from a religious perspective, this is a time of hope and optimism,” he said. “The pandemic has its place in our thinking but this is definitely a time of looking forward.”