Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

On Sunday evening, well over a hundred people from Adath Israel and Beth Emeth observed and participated in a "virtual fireside chat" with me and Rabbi Adam Cutler.

The two rabbis have known each other since 1999 when the USY age Cutler interviewed a younger Rabbi Morrison as part of Beth Emeth's interview process. We have been friends and now colleagues for over twenty years.

We spoke personally and rabbinically on how we are doing, what's going well, what's challenging, the challenges and opportunities of technology, lifecycle commemorations during the pandemic, our vision of the next two years, and more.

The overall goal of our two synagogues and most others is to maintain and grow an authentic, engaging, personal, and meaningful Jewish experience. Despite the many similarities between these two synagogues, our strategies and methodologies have differed. For example, Beth Emeth had its clergy start right away with conducting on line prayer weekdays, morning and night. Adath Israel had its clergy start right away with calling its membership.

We noted how easy it is to shul hop these days on social media and to marvel at the similarities and differences in the styles of prayer and outeach.

Both Rabbi Cutler and I struggled but came to the same conclusion that come the High Holy Days and Shabbat, it becomes imperative to halakhically livestream our services until the pandemic is completely over. We recognized that even when the pandemic is over, some of what we have discovered over the past few months will continue as we integrate the old and new normal.

Check out our conversation on YouTube below.

Rabbi Howard Morrison