Dear HEA Community,
Please read this important message and pass along the information to anyone you know who might not be on email.
HEA is updating our response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in light of evolving guidance from public health officials. HEA will suspend all programs and gatherings, including all worship services on Shabbat, effective immediately, and continuing through at least the next two weeks. Morning minyan has also been canceled for the safety of our congregants.
Please read on for more on how we are managing the cantorial search and how we are planning to continue providing programming, worship services, and support to our members in this time of great distress.
Cantorial Search
The last of our three cantorial candidates, Cantor Jacob Greenberg, arrived in Denver on Thursday. We will be moving forward with his interview weekend in the best way we can under these extraordinary circumstances. Only members of the HEA Board of Directors and the cantorial search committee (on a volunteer basis) will attend special Friday night and Shabbat morning services with Cantor Greenberg. These worship services will not be open to the rest of the congregation, but will be live-streamed on Facebook
View Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat at 6 pm
and Shabbat morning services starting at 9 am
visit https://www.facebook.com/HEADenver/
Given the circumstances, and balancing the need to safeguard our community while also accomplishing our goal of completing our cantorial search, Rabbi Dollin has approved this limited use of technology on Shabbat. While we have not made a determination about streaming future Shabbat services, we are relying on guidance provided by the Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly (https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/halakhic-guidance-cjls-about-coronavirus).
The cantorial search committee will meet on Sunday, as planned, to take the next steps toward a successful hire. More information on the cantorial search will be forthcoming.
Social Distancing – the practice of minimizing contact with others, especially in large gatherings – can be very effective in slowing the spread of an infectious disease, if there is broad coordination and cooperation in the community. Civic organizations like synagogues and other houses of worship play an important role in supporting this effort. The Talmud, commenting on the laws of Leviticus, states:
Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: “You shall keep My statutes and My Ordinances, which a person shall do and live by them.” (Lev. 18:5). [This teaches us that “one should live by them” and not that a person should die by them. Which is to say one should take care not to put their life at risk to fulfill the mitzvot (Yoma 85b).
Pikuah nefesh, protecting human life, overrides almost every other Jewish value. Furthermore, our tradition emphasizes that health and safety is not only an individual responsibility, it is a shared communal obligation.
Programs and Classes
Preschool and Religious School will be cancelled for at least the next two weeks. Further details will be shared with school families. All gatherings and events in the next two weeks are also cancelled, with the exception of morning minyan. HEA – its rabbis, staff, and volunteers – will continue to serve the needs of our community, especially as so many will experience isolation, anxiety, and potential danger. In the coming days we will share with you further plans for providing distance learning for children and adults. We will also explore ways that we can connect as a community and support one another. This outbreak of coronavirus is like nothing we have seen in generations. Yet we should rise to this occasion and come together as a community rooted in our highest values – tzedakah and hesed.
The rabbis are here for you and available to talk by phone, on line, or in person if possible. You are welcome to call the rabbis and our CEO on their mobile phones:
Rabbi Dollin: (303) 246-3411, rabbi@headenver.org
Rabbi Gruenwald: (303) 999-5250 rabbig@headenver.org
Laura Intfen (816) 516-6050 laura@headenver.org
As this healthcare crisis unfolds, there may be further changes to our protocols. Please watch your email and our website for more information.
May the One who blessed our ancestors, bring healing to all who are ill, strength to those who tend to them and courage to all of us in the days ahead.
Rabbi Bruce Dollin
Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald
Laura Intfen, CEO
Seth Davis, Board President
