High Holy Days

2021 High Holy Days:

Dear Friends,

The High Holy Days are upon us!  Suburban Temple-Kol Ami is proud to be your spiritual community and to have you join us at this special time of the year.  We’re committed to creating a safe, meaningful, uplifting High Holy Day experience for our congregational family.

For well over a year now, we have operated with a set of five guiding principles that have guided our decision making during COVID.  Pikuach Nefesh, saving a life, is one of those principles.  The pandemic continues to deeply affect our lives, and this summer has continued to be a challenging one due to the Delta variant. We have been carefully monitoring the situation and its complex implications.

With a heavy heart, and after significant consultation with the ST-KA Board of Directors, our Re-opening Task Force, local and national medical professionals, and, together with congregations across Cleveland, we have made the decision to not host indoor, in person worship for this High Holy Day season. We will worship online. We recognize the continued loss of physical community and the sadness that comes with this decision even as many of us will acknowledge relief as being online is the safer decision for our health and welfare.

With this in mind, as we did last year, we will be distributing a High Holy Day gift to every member of the congregation. We hope that the contents will spiritually connect us to our sacred community. The gifts will be delivered to your front door by volunteers the week before Rosh Hashanah. Additionally, we have created many smaller outdoor opportunities to gather throughout the holidays, and given this late change, we will continue to create more of these opportunities.

To access services, please register here. We will then email all those who are registered a link the week of August 30^th.  Please pay attention to your email for that link.  We will be on a new platform which we believe will provide a wonderful experience for everyone online. You can also register for our special outdoor children’s programming at this link.

You’ll find these important attachments. Please read them carefully!  They contain important and new information for High Holy Days for 2021:

1.             Our updated guide to the High Holy Days. It provides a schedule of services and events through Simchat Torah. 

2.             A Policies and Procedures document.

3.             A number of Cleveland congregations have also chosen to worship online for the High Holy Days this year. Attached is a letter to the Cleveland Jewish Community from area rabbis.

Your patience and understanding during these complex times has been extraordinary.  We are so grateful for your continued generosity of spirit.

Please note: there will be regular updates to our High Holy Day information. Please pay attention to these updates.  If you have any questions about the High Holidays, please contact us at (216) 991-0700.  We look forward to connecting with you in any way we can during High Holy Days and throughout the year.  On behalf of your board of trustees and staff, we wish you and your family a healthy and fulfilling new year.

Shana tova.

Always meaningful.

The High Holy Days are eternal, central to our faith, and beautiful markers on the path from one year to the next. The High Holy Day season is rooted in community practices and individual traditions.

COVID-19 impacted the High Holy Days in 2020 just as it’s changed everyday life. Different, however, didn't mean that the moments to stand in awe were less profound or the opportunities to come together any less inspirational. 

The sections and links below show that our 2020 High Holy Days were just as thoughtful, joyful, and creative as what you’ve come to expect from Suburban Temple – Kol Ami. 

For great overviews and deeper explorations, explore these sites and downloadable resources - 

https://www.tabletmag.com/holidays

https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays

If you would like overview and deeper explorations with filtered through a distinctly Jewish sense of humor, head here:

https://www.jewbelong.com/holidays/

And if you want kid-specific readings and activities, click below:

https://pjlibrary.org/holidays