Dear Bet Torah Community,
Much news is coming out on a daily basis in our communities regarding COVID-19. We will continue to keep our Bet Torah community up to date through these community-wide emails.
First and foremost, Bet Torah remains open, with no known infections or regulated quarantines as of this morning, March 9. Please see below for additional information.
Purim Celebrations -- Hag Samaech as we enter our Purim holiday, beginning tonight with our Megillah reading at 7 pm.
- Our special Purim dinner, 6 pm tonight, will be served by gloved volunteers. Thank you for your patience with our servers.
- Our Men’s Club Wine Tasting offers an opportunity to taste wines available for purchase for Passover. Wine will be served in disposable cups and served by our gloved Men’s Club volunteers. You can also visit our website or click here to see a complete list of available wines to order. Final day for orders is next Monday, March 16.; pick up will be on Sunday, March 29.
- Please consider participating in our Purim food collection project to benefit the Mt. Kisco Food Pantry. As is customary on Purim, we are collecting food for matanot l’evyonim (gifts for the poor). Rather than sharing groggers, bring boxes of mac ‘n cheese to use for your noisemakers and leave them as a donation.
- Tonight’s Megillah reading can be viewed via Livestream. Our weekly email blasts (click here for email blast) include a password and “stream service” information. You can also click here for (Live Streaming FAQ).
- As noted previously and considering the rapidly changing health recommendations, we we are planning a new Family Fun Purim Celebration this Sunday, March 15, 11 am for our families and children to enjoy. Please save the date and watch for emails for any further developments. We are not running our Carnival for Special Needs Guests from WJCS this Sunday. Our guests are a particularly at-risk population. Our Youth Program plans to host guests from WJCS Havorah at a new event this spring.
Kulanu – All Kulanu classes and programs are continuing as scheduled, including tonight’s classes, dinner and Megillah reading. Please check your email for updates as they occur.
- We continue to reiterate safe health guidelines with our teachers and students to prevent the spread of respiratory illness: Washing hands when arriving, before eating food and after using the bathroom. Hand Sanitizers are available in each classroom. Social greetings that do not involve touch will be encouraged - such as “elbow-five” and waving. If anyone is feeling sick, we encourage you to stay home.
- We are in constant communication with our teachers who teach and live in different communities to be aware of their situations.
- We are serving individual packaged snacks and are using gloves when handling food.
- We are preparing for on-line learning programs if needed for the future.
- We are monitoring local school and synagogue closures in our area to determine how best to proceed.
Gina Fass, our Director of Education, has a child who attends SAR High School in Riverdale whose students and staff are under quarantine until March 17. All of her family members are currently healthy. Gina was cleared to return to work by the recommendations of the NYS Health Department. As a precautionary measure and considering that recommendations are rapidly becoming more restrictive, Gina will work from home for the time being.
Nursery School -- All Nursery School classes and programs are continuing as schedule
- Nursery School staff have switched to a medical grade surface cleaner for classrooms and continue to sanitize surfaces and common toys. Thank you to those parents who (as is our protocol always) wash their hands and their children's hands before entering classrooms.
- All dishes, cups and plates are washed nightly in dishwasher hot cycles in our kitchen. Disposable cups are also in use.
- Teachers (as is our protocol) distribute snacks with food service disposable gloves. We thank those parents who help us be vigilant at drop off when teachers do daily health checks (as is our protocol).
- Children must be fever free without the use of medication to return to class after an illness.
We continue to follow guidance from health officials regarding upcoming meetings and events and to stress the need for common sense preventative measures to do our part to reduce the spread of this virus. As a reminder, we all should be
washing our hands regularly
with warm water and soap; also,
it is imperative that we all stay home if we are sick
. Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and shortness of breath.
As always, thank you for your support during this challenging time. We continue to work collectively to keep Bet Torah healthy, safe and welcoming. Please continue to follow personal and public health preventative actions recommended by the
CDC
. If you have travelled to any
CDC COVID-19 transmission countries
, please follow the 14-day self-quarantine recommendation. If you self-quarantine or are directed to do so by health officials, please contact Seth, Carol or Rabbi Brusso as soon as possible.
Carol Siege
President
Seth Young
Executive Director
