Dear Members, As you will be doubtless aware, there have been numerous pronouncements which have been made over the course of the last week with regards to the ending of the current period of national lockdown. The Honorary Executive has been following this as well as considering the Synagogue's own position. At the time of writing this message, the Government will sanction the reopening of places of worship to communal prayer as from the 2nd of December. While it is true that the government is allowing places of worship to reopen, we are still in very uncertain times, and caution is called for. The safety, health and wellbeing of anyone attending still remains the responsibility of each individual institution. Based on local facts and considerations, each place of worship will conduct their own risk assessment and plan accordingly. As the Honorary Executive of our Kehillah, we have consistently maintained a careful and cautious approach. Our primary concern and focus has been and continues to be, to take things slow and steady. To maintain a healthy environment in which our members remain safe throughout. And certainly, never to rush into popular decisions hastily. But above all, to keep our members safe. We were vindicated when we reopened in June by the trust that our members placed in the Shul's efforts, and in their confidence to attend. The situation at the time of writing is that trends of infections locally are still very high and are in fact higher than when we closed the Shul last month. Notwithstanding the fact that we have very robust Covid secure policies in place at Shul, we do not feel comfortable, nor do we believe it is correct, for services to restart necessarily immediately when the country comes out of national lockdown next week. We will continue to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis, as we have done since before the original lockdown in March took effect. We will be considering matters as well as the risk ratings and levels in and around our local area over the coming days and weeks and we will then provide further updates to the community. We will be continuing our community's Kabbalat Shabbat service on Zoom on Friday afternoons which has proved exceedingly popular and we would appeal to the community to come together for this. We will also continue with other programming and online events for all our members. It is vital that we ensure the wellbeing of all our members. Although we fully appreciate the fact that communal prayer can help in this regard, we as an Executive are still extremely concerned at the instances of Covid cases and wish to remain both vigilant and protective of our community as a whole. We thank you for your continued support and in the meantime, be well and healthy and stay safe. Best wishes,
Jeremy Harris Chair Jeremy Saideman Warden Richard Konn Financial Representative
Samantha Jacobs ViceChair Laurence Gordon Warden Howard Davis Honorary Executive responsible for Pastoral Care
David Rosen ViceChair Dr Peter Kraus Warden Rabbi Mendel Lew Senior Rabbi