Dear JCOGS family,
Tonight, JCOGS reopens under the big tent. This is the moment that many of us have been waiting for. We have a portable aron/ark. Musicians will be joining us to make this a big launch. Yet, as we reopen, we are not moving back in time, but instead moving forward. We begin a new era, as we take the hard-earned lessons learned from the pandemic to heart.
Our members want to reconnect. We want to socialize and see our friends and to meet new community members. There will be time before and after, but also during the service to schmooze and connect. And we have tech support for those joining us on Zoom, after many hours of production preparation. We hope to meaningfully integrate you all joining us digitally into this multi-access service. For in person, with a health screening as part of registration, plenty of circulation in the tent, and masks up, we are confident that this will be a safe event for everyone.
May all feel welcome, whether you are joining us in person or on Zoom. Please make sure that you register in advance.
While the focus of this letter is on our reopening, I cannot leave you without making note, again this week, of what is happening in Israel and Gaza. Though events are changing minute by minute, a tenuous ceasefire has been agreed upon. I expect to share more of my thoughts with you soon, but for now, our hopes and prayers are that the fighting might end, speedily and soon. My heart goes out to those most deeply affected: to Israel and her people plagued by terror who have lost some of our sisters and brothers and her citizens, to a democractic society grappling with its shared existence across religious and ethnic lines, and to those lives in Gaza caught in the crossfire who have also been living in terror and mourning their dead. As the world—and we ourselves—face this conflict in a very public way, and as antisemitism rears its ugly head across the world, including right here in our countries, this is a difficult time to be a Jew. With hopes that the fighting and division may end and a longer term solution may become possible.
Tihiyu bri’im, stay safe, be well. Hope to see you soon and Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David
