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With COVID’s resurgence ahead of the High Holidays, some synagogues are bringing pandemic guidelines back. But for most, it’s ‘business as usual.’
(JTA) — For synagogues across the country, it’s becoming a standard part of preparing for the High Holidays: Set up extra seating in the sanctuary. Make sure the shofars are in order. Take out the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayer books.
And figure out what, if anything, to do about COVID-19.
As Jews worldwide approach their fourth High Holiday season following the emergence of COVID, a resurgence of infections has forced the illness back into headlines and congregational planning meetings. But by now, rabbis say, they’re used to it — and several told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that rising case rates are not upending their plans for Rosh Hashanah, which begins Friday night and promises crowded synagogues nationwide.
“We’re trying to keep ourselves healthy, but it’s business as usual,” said Mara Nathan, the senior rabbi at Temple Beth-El, a Reform synagogue in San Antonio, Texas. Daniel Weiner, rabbi of Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle, said of his Reform congregation, “We’re just trying to move on with our lives.”
The latest concerns about COVID have been driven by a new variant, known by the name Pirola, which has caused an uptick in cases and hospitalizations across the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that the variant “may be more capable of causing infection” among people who have had COVID or been vaccinated, though the risk of serious illness remains low. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new booster shot that will soon be available.
But for many communities, the recent wave of cases is merely a sign that COVID-19 has become endemic and will transition into a seasonal illness like the flu, which has its anticipated but manageable spikes.
As it did last year, Temple De Hirsch Sinai will offer an online streaming option for those who wish to stay home, but otherwise will not be instituting any COVID guidelines. Weiner said he has encouraged his community to use common sense and respect in deciding whether to attend services in person.
And at Kehillat Etz Chayim, a Modern Orthodox congregation in suburban Detroit, masks will be available and the community has been told to test if they are not feeling well. Rabbi Asher Lopatin, who leads the synagogue, said this year’s COVID surge “surprised us a little bit,” and that if it had hit Michigan sooner there may have been more precautions in place.
“I think if we had a few more weeks of it, we’d be stricter than last year,” he said.
At the Chicago Loop Synagogue in that city’s downtown, president Lee Zoldan said the building’s architecture lends itself to the “podding” and social distancing that were recommended during the pandemic’s most severe stages. The synagogue features a 535-seat, three-story-tall sanctuary, and the synagogue has a longstanding custom of having attendees sit in small groups by family.
Zoldan said that the synagogue is considering limiting the number of people allowed on the bimah, the stage from which services are led. She added that masks and hand sanitizer will also be available for optional use.
“We really feel pretty safe,” Zoldan told JTA, adding that she has not heard much anxiety from community members about COVID.
Some synagogues, such as Congregation Beth Sholom, a Conservative synagogue in Teaneck, New Jersey, and Congregation Beit Tikvah, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Baltimore, are providing mask-only sections for congregants. Beth Sholom regularly has masked sections at its services, and offered an outdoor service during High Holidays last year.
IKAR, Los Angeles’ progressive nondenominational congregation, will be conducting services both inside and outside this year as well, weather permitting. IKAR’s outdoor service will have a mask-only section.
One community that continues to abide by stricter health guidelines is Shir Hamaalot, a volunteer-led congregation in Brooklyn that describes itself as “traditional-egalitarian.” At its Rosh Hashanah service on Friday, Shir Hamaalot is requiring masks. Any service leader who is unmasked will have to test negative that day.
Russ Agdern, a member of the community’s organizing team, told JTA that the congregation has been one of the few that has maintained masking and other pandemic precautions since it reintroduced in-person services. Shir Hamaalot’s Rosh Hashanah registration form references “the dearth of in-person COVID-cautious High Holidays options in NYC” as a reason for its decision to maintain the protocols.
“We have community members that are high risk for COVID, immunocompromised, have long COVID, or have family members or loved ones who fit those descriptions,” he said. Using the Yiddish word for praying, he added, “Being an inclusive community that provides folks a safe place to daven is important to us.”
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The post With COVID’s resurgence ahead of the High Holidays, some synagogues are bringing pandemic guidelines back. But for most, it’s ‘business as usual.’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.