High Holiday Family Service Update

Dear WJC Families,

We were so excited to look at our registrations and see how many families had signed up for Family Services over the High Holidays! It quickly became clear that we were going to have a full tent. As we planned our service, we consulted with the COVID-19 Task Force about appropriate guidelines, safety measures, and distancing requirements, and realized that we had a (very good) problem – we had more people than space would safely allow.

In order for us to accommodate all registrants, make sure that everyone who registered could attend every day of services on the days that they had requested, and to follow health and safety guidelines, we had to do some reimagining of what our service would look like. A team of parents and clergy worked and reworked the service, figuring out logistics that would cause the fewest disruptions possible to families and to existing High Holiday offerings at WJC. As a result of these meetings and consultations, we made
the decision to split the Family Service into two, and will have two services each day of Yom Tov. All assigned pods in each service will
be distanced six feet apart.

The first service each day will be from 9:00am-9:40am, and the second service each day will be from 9:50am-10:30am. Each service
will be identical, will have an equal number of participants, and will last 40 minutes. For families who will attend the 9:00am Family Service, have registered for either the indoor or outdoor service and expect to have your children attend the youth services starting at 10:30 am, we welcome you to use the available childcare from 9:40am-10:30am.

More information will be forthcoming this week about which Family Service your family will be assigned, where you will be seated, and where childcare will be located.

We are so looking forward to welcoming you and your families back to WJC for the High Holidays. We appreciate your patience and understanding over these past several weeks. We can’t wait to sing, celebrate, and pray together. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to be together, and we can’t wait to welcome in a sweet and healthy new year with you.

Shana Tovah,
Rabbi Dalton