Manhattan rabbi talks observing social
distancing while celebrating the High Holidays
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish
New Year 5781, begins
sundown on Friday, September
18. It is a time for community.
A time for assessment and
renewal. It begins a time to start
fresh.
With most in-person synagogues
closed in the era of COVID
19 and the practice of social
distancing, this is a difficult
time for religious or cultural
observances.
“Social and spiritual interaction
is one of the greatest aspects
of the High Holidays, says Rabbi
Fersko, of Village Temple on East
12th Street. “To be forced to be
distant is acutely painful.”
To help fi ll these needs, Village
Temple will live-stream
services, Friday night at 6:30 pm
and Saturday at 10 am, Rabbi
Fersko explains. “We even have
a zoom social hour before,” she
says. The temple’s website carries
all information and how to access
the on-line platform. Tashlich,
the traditional casting out of sins,
is open for all to participate on
Sunday at 11am, at the Hudson
Pier at 10th Street.
“Much of the world is broken,”
the rabbi refl ects. “This is an
opportunity for the Jewish community
to nourish themselves. I’m
hoping people fi nd comfort and
uplift in our religious services.”
Services at the Orthodox congregation
Tribeca Synagogue will
be held with socially-distanced
seating outdoors in its White
Street entrance plaza. Formerly
Synagogue for the Arts, like many,
this synagogue has creatively
adapted.
Tamid, another lower Manhattan
congregation has pre-recorded
services it will live-stream.
Donation/tickets are available
for purchase to allow for unique
access.
Tamid’s in-person outdoor experiences
to hear the shofar blast,
to observe tashlich, and enjoy a
BYO Kiddush in Battery Park City
at noon on Saturday are open to
members, guests, and friends.
Youthful Rabbi Diana Fersko, self-described as at the edge of
being a millennial, is up for the challenge of joining this new
congregation in the middle of the social- distancing pandemic.
Uniquely, The New Shul is
holding socially distanced inperson
services at Queens County
Farm in an open-air tent with high
quality live-stream —donations
suggested for both platforms.
Beit Simchat Torah (CBST),
known as the gay synagogue,
based on West 30th St. is physically
closed until it can re-open
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
in safety. Annually, up to 4,000
have worshipped at free CBST’s
Javitz Center High Holiday services.
For years the synagogue
also live-streamed services, as it
will this year. Its website reads:
All are welcome to share the Days
of Awe ONLINE, as an international
CBST community, always
free of charge.
Recognizing the diffi cult times,
East End Synagogue is providing
free access for non-members to
attend its on-line services, registration
required.
And, live streaming is nothing
new for pop-up-by-design, artistdriven,
Lab/Shul. Virtual programming
this year offers musical
worship, schmoozing, cultural
programming, or hanging out
with kids. Lab/Shul outgrew the
Varick Street City Winery, where
it fi rst held services and this year
they’re back, broadcasting their
live-stream from City Winery, the
one in the Hudson Valley.
Not an exhaustive list of downtown
Jewish houses of worship, of
course there are more throughout
New York City, adapting High
Holiday worship to these pandemic
times. Staying in touch
and relevant, congregations have
recently been using creative and
virtual platforms for religious and
social outreach and are continuing
during these most important
days.
Marchers on Upper East Side vent at de Blasio over city’s woes
Protesters, led by Queens real estate broker Eric Benaim,
sent a message while marching to Gracie Mansion on Sept.
13, 2020.
BY THE VILLAGER STAFF
A group of New Yorkers
fed up with Mayor Bill de
Blasio marched to Gracie
Mansion earlier this week to call
on hizzoner to step aside.
The Facebook group New
York Voices for a Better NYC
organized the Sept. 13 march,
which began at the plaza at the
corner of East 91st Street and 2nd
PHOTOS BY DENICE FLORES ALMENDARES
Avenue on the Upper East Side.
The group then headed east to
Gracie Mansion, carrying signs
urging the mayor to quit.
The protesters railed against de
Blasio over various woes affl icting
New York City during the
COVID-19 pandemic — from a
rise in murders to the prolonged
prohibition of indoor dining.
(Restaurants will be permitted
to welcome limited numbers of
guests back inside as of Sept. 30,
as Governor Andrew Cuomo’s
previous direction.)
Demonstrators also called for
an investigation into the alleged
misuse of nearly a billion dollars
in funding allocated to Thrive
NYC, a mental health program
headed by de Blasio’s wife, NYC
First Lady Chrilane McCray.
Upon arriving at Gracie Mansion,
the group met some counterprotesters
from the Black Lives
Matter movement and found some
common ground with them in
expressing their displeasure with
de Blasio.
The mayor was in New York
City this weekend, but did not
appear at Gracie Mansion during
the protest.
De Blasio is ineligible to run for
another term in offi ce in 2021 due
to term limits.
Under state law and the City
Charter, only the governor has the
authority to remove an incumbent
mayor from offi ce “upon charges”
before an election; the mayor
cannot be impeached or recalled.
The public advocate would serve
as acting mayor in the event of a
mayoral vacancy.
10 Sept. 17, 2020 Schneps Media