Jerusalem's Great Synagogue to be closed for Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur for first time

 

Jerusalem's Great Synagogue will not be opening its doors to worshipers on the High Holy Days, due to the worsening coronavirus outbreak, according to a statement shared on Twitter by journalist Sivan Rahav Meir on Sunday morning.

The synagogue stressed that, while there many considerations for them to lean towards opening for the High Holy Days "in this format or another. Nevertheless, the deciding consideration was the personal safety of every one of you," in the statement on Sunday.

"A deciding factor in this consideration is the lack of information, confusion and debate between experts and the changes in regulations," added the synagogue. "The Great Synagogue is not like other places of worship. It is spread out, requires health checks at the door, and commits to forbid the entry of worshipers who didn't sign up ahead of time and, of course, commits to limit the number of worshipers. And even if we stand by these [rules], there's still a risk. One person makes a mistake, one person is positive [for the virus] and didn't know, one person who can infect another. The Great Synagogue asks to prevent this risk [from affecting] everyone of you.

The Great Synagogue will be closed for the first time since prayers began there in 1958.

"We will all pray for a better year, and if God wills, we will pray in the Great Synagogue soon "in a multitude of people with the King's glory" healthy and whole," added the statement by the synagogue.

The government will convene on Sunday to vote on locking down the country for at least two weeks beginning on Friday.

Since Thursday’s coronavirus cabinet meeting, the outline for prayer has shifted as well, becoming quite complicated.
 

In red zones worshipers will be allowed to gather in open spaces in groups of up to 20 people. As for prayers inside a closed building – where the level of morbidity is high, they will be held in groups of up to 10 people, and the number of groups allowed will be calculated according to the number of entrances to the place. All this while maintaining a person’s ratio per four square meters of space.

In other zones, the number per capsule will increase so that as many as 1,000 worshipers could potentially attend prayer services in a synagogue.

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