01/11/2022
**NEW COVID-19 GUIDELINES AT ROSH PINA**
The rapid surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant requires every organization to evaluate its approach to mitigating COVID-19 transmission to keep its attendees as safe as possible.
While we know that prayers services at this time do pose an increased risk of transmission (like all activities), we also know that services provide a meaningful and necessary outlet to connect to God and each other during these difficult
times. To make sure we carry out services as safely as possible we are instituting a number of new policies.
1. All who are eligible must be vaccinated and boosted by January 14th.
2. Whenever possible services will be held outdoors. This applies for the upcoming morning services on January 15th and January 29th.
3. When services are held indoors, we require that you use a N95, KF94 or KN95 level mask If you are unable to get or wear such masks, 2-layer, surgical face masks are allowed. If you are unable to obtain such masks, Rosh Pina has ~ 60 KN95 masks that we will make available at our indoor services, so that all who want to can attend Rosh Pina services while following these guidelines.
4. If the weather does force us to move indoors for the services on the 15th and 29th, we will be capping attendees at 30 total people – 15 men and 15 women.
5. Anyone who has feeling ill or shows any symptoms related to COVID-19 may not attend services.
6. Anyone who is a close contact of someone who tested positive
COVID-19 cannot attend services unless they have a negative PCR-test 3-5 days out from the close contact or 2 negative antigen tests over the course of the week following their exposure.
7. We will not be serving food indoors in any situation. This means that our scheduled lunch and learn event on January 29th is postponed.
8. We also want to re-stress the need to register for services, so that we can easily contact all attendees to properly perform contact tracing if the need arises. Register here for outdoor (Be”H) services on January 15th with the link below.
If you have any questions about these guidelines (especially if you are the parent of a child not yet eligible to be vaccinated and would like to attend services) please reach out to us: [email protected]. Also please contact us if even with these policies you will still be uncomfortable attending services this month, as that will also help us determine whether to continue on with services in January.
Given the rapidly changing nature of the pandemic we know that we will have to re-evaluate these measures, and we very much hope that we are able to relax some of them soon, so please bear with us as we try to best navigate through this difficult situation.
May it be a peaceful week,
Shlomit Chelst, Elliot Dine and Hannah Seymour
Join Rosh Pina for outdoor Shabbat services on Saturday, January 15th at the lot behind Jewish War Veterans Museum (corner of 18th and R St NW) starting at 9:15am. If weather does not permit services outdoors; we will hold services in our usual the setting of the basement of the museum. Please compl...
