Americans adjust Jewish High Holidays observances

NEW YORK — Jewish communities across the U.S. are celebrating the holiest day on their calendar within the limitations of the coronavirus, with virtual services and in-person worship with restrictions.

Chabad-lubavitch organized a worldwide pre-yom Kippur Yizkor event to allow lost family members to be remembered, including a memorial for 1,200 Jewish victims of COVID-19.

Temple Emanu-el, a reform congregation in New York City, planned a wide range of virtual services for Sunday and Monday. Rabbi Joshua

M. Davidson said in a statement that the congregation is providing online services to remind the community “that we can connect to our faith and protect each other and our health at the same time.”

“No one should feel alone on Yom Kippur,” he said.

In addition to virtual services, the temple planned to host limited in-person services for Kol Nidre, a Jewish prayer that signals the start of Yom Kippur. That service was open to members who are frontline workers and those who lost a family member in the past year.

In other developments:

Florida now has more than 700,000 confirmed infections of the new coronavirus, according to statistics released Sunday by the state Department of Health.

The state reported 1,882 new confirmed cases and 10 new deaths caused by the virus.

■ The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported that two prisoners had died at hospitals of coronavirus-related complications.

One prisoner was at the California Institution for Men in Chino. He was the 22nd inmate at the prison to die of coronavirus complications.

The second prisoner was at Avenal State Prison in Avenal. He was the sixth inmate at the facility to die of complications from the virus.