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Outdoor Minyan Guidelines Updates
(Update 8/20/2020)
As we continue to daven outdoors and adapt to this new reality, we would like to express our gratitude to all our members and friends for their partnership and patience as together we work to ensure we can enjoy Tefilah B’Tzibbur (communal prayer) safely and meaningfully.
As promised, we continue to constantly assess our protocol and operations, and we would like to share with you some changes and enhancements we are making.
(A) Increase In Daily Minyan Spots
Thanks to demand, we have expanded the slots available for weekday daily minyan to 20. Please note that you may have to park in the front of the shul or on adjacent streets. Additionally, for weekday minyan ONLY, only one person per family needs to sign up.
(B) Tent Cover for Shade and Element Protection
Our long-awaited tents have arrived and have been deployed to provide shade and protection for our back rows on Shabbat morning. Additional configurations will be shared next week as they relate to weekday minyan. Please DO NOT touch, try to move or reconfigure our tents.
(C) Timing and Sign Up
In order to accommodate everyone wishing to attend minyan, it is essential that anyone wishing to attend signs up in advance.Especially on Shabbat, showing up without signing up will result insomeone who did sign up not having a spot. Everyone must sign up for minyan or risk being turned away, unfortunately. If there is a problem, please feel free to reach out to Steven Luger or Rabbi Brander.
Conversely, when you do sign up for a slot, please be sure to be at shul promptly and on time. It is critical that we start our minyanim ontime to ensure we can conform to the best COVID-19 safety measures and to and also our general other health and security measures. If you cannot attend, please delete your sign up to enable someone else who might want to attend to have a spot.
(D) Shofar Blowing
As we welcome the month of Elul, we begin to blow shofar. As an added COVID-19 precaution, we will be covering the outward-facing end of the shofar with a mask to prevent the possible spread of the disease. This is being done both in consultation with our Mara D'Atra to meet halakhic needs and with our medical team to address any medical concerns.
(E) Reopening Access to Restrooms
We are happy to share that we are ready to reopen access to our restrooms. We continue to encourage everyone to use the restrooms at home before attending. We will still continue to keep davening short to enable many to not have to need the facilities at shul; however, we recognize that for some having access to the facilities is essential for being able to participate in our outdoor minyanim.
As such, we have constructed the following protocol to facilitate on-site restroom use:
- Only 1 person will be allowed to go down into the building and into the restroom at a time from the rear of the building.
- Hanging on the rear upper door will be a double-sided sign with the words “available” or “occupied”.
- Before descending, please be sure that the sign reads available and turn the sign to show the “occupied” side.
- All doors downstairs (ie. the lower main downstairs door and bathroom door) will be propped open. Please do NOT prop open the upstairs door in order to prevent insects and other critters from getting into the building.
- Once downstairs, access is limited only the ladies’ restroom. Please do NOT go upstairs or into the kitchen, mens’ room or backroom for any reason.
- Within the ladies room, there is a stall designated for men and one for women.
- After completing your business in the bathroom, please be sure to close the cover before flushing.
- Upon exiting from downstairs, please be sure to turn the reverse the sign back to “occupied”.
- A small table with Purell will be available at the top of the steps for your use as well as Lysol wipes available downstairs in the restroom to wipe down surfaces.
Obviously, no measure can eliminate all risks fully, so we continue to advise individuals to avoid using our restrooms as much as possible.
Again, we thank you for your partnership and cooperation. For a complete and updated list of our COVID-19 policies, you can always visit youngisraelwh.org/COVIDMinyan.
Shabbat Shalom,
Young Israel COVID-19 Taskforce |
