March 10, 2021 / 26 Adar 5781
 
Dear Mount Zion Community,

Our last communication regarding Covid-19 was last November when we wrote that all worship services and core activities, including Religious School, would be online through the end of March. Despite the mostly online format, we have continued to find meaning and connection in daily and Shabbat services, in our adult classes and activities including a winter “travel” series and MZ Small Group gatherings, in Religious School, and in an uproarious Purim.

We are writing now to inform you that our Opening Task Force has determined that we will continue with our current status at least through June 1, 2021, unless circumstances change.

Even with the rollout of the vaccine, which is so hopeful, and the drop in Covid-19 infections in recent months, the rates of Covid-19 still are higher than last summer. We had written in November that we would not begin to consider entering a Phase II of opening until there are at least four weeks of under 4% positive testing rate in Ramsey, Hennepin, and Dakota Counties. 

We are still in a “Phase I” stage where we are holding most services and activities online. In this stage we may hold outdoor gatherings with limited numbers, allow for staff to be in the building periodically including the catering company Spirit of Asia which rents our kitchen, invite B’nei Mitzvah families to be in the sanctuary for a Shabbat morning service while clergy are remote via Zoom, and allow for special controlled in-building activities.

We pray that Phase II will come soon and speedily, which will allow for some increased numbers and in-person activity. We will share more when we are closer. Phase III will begin once vaccines are available to all adults in our community and our task force deems other variables are consistent with moving forward. In Phase III – perhaps as early as this summer – we expect to hold limited in-person, indoor or outdoor services. We will of course have plans for dialing back opening if weekly case positivity rates go above 4% in any of our surrounding counties.
We want to remind everyone of our values for navigating our practices. We first shared these last June:

  1. Pikuach Nefesh “Safeguarding Life” is a bedrock Jewish principle and supersedes most other obligations / mitzvot. Any steps toward restoring physical proximity will place preserving life first and foremost.
  2. A corollary value is avoiding Sakanat Nefeshot “Endangering Life,” We will not put congregants, staff, and clergy in positions where they will be unduly endangering their own lives or the lives of their families due to pressure to restore activities.
  3. Al Tifrosh Min Ha Tzibbur “Do not separate oneself from the community” means that we value inclusion and recognize that some people will not be able to return to our building because of health concerns, and some will choose not to, until Covid-19 vaccines are widely available. This value will help us move slowly toward reopening and assure that all plans continue to have online ways to connect.
  4. Chesed “Profound Love and Kindness”: Decisions around our operations and the risks involved create uncertainty, grief, and anxiety. Each of us will have different comfort levels. We will act with tremendous love and kindness toward each other.

We also want to share that we are busy working on ways to continue including online engagement on an ongoing basis. We are also working on enhancing live streaming capabilities for sharing in-person services and programs.
As we have said previously, we continue to demonstrate that our community can support each other while remaining physically distanced. We can worship, study, celebrate, and mourn remarkably well through computer and phone. We continue to work on making these opportunities for connection and prayer more fully accessible to all. We miss embracing, but how fortunate are we to live in a technological age of such social connections!

Please be in touch with Larry Solomon with questions (lsolomon@mzion.org / 651-698-3881) and let any of us know if we can be helpful to you during this time.
L’shalom,
 
Michael Kuhne, President
Phil Goldman, Chair, Opening Task Force
Sue Summit, Religious School Director
Larry Solomon, Executive Director
Adam Stock Spilker, Rabbi 

The Opening Task Force members (with their expertise): Phil Goldman, Chair (legal, OSHA/industrial hygiene); Ian Ellis (corporate facilities manager); David Knapp (safety and security); Dr. Gary Kravitz (public health, infectious disease practitioner); Julie Ostrowsky (epidemiology); Joan Ostrove (inclusion and accessibility); Neil Segal (operations, Ames Center performance venue); Michael Wall (president-elect), Larry Solomon, Sue Summit, and Rabbi Spilker.