From the Synagogue Administrator

Dear PSJC Community,

First, I am truly thinking of everyone in our community during this time. At this point, there are few of us who haven’t been affected by this virus through someone we know, near or far, who is fighting COVID-19 as a patient or a caregiver. May we collectively send healing energy and strength to the world while doing our part to stay safe.

OFFICE NEWS

The remote PSJC Office will be closed for Pesach I, II, VIII, and VIII (April 9, 10, 16, and 17). We are open on normal hours on the weekday Intermediate days.

Pesach aside, Laura and I are keeping regular remote office hours:

9-5 Monday - Thursday

9-3PM on Friday

Our office phones forward to our cell phones. If you go to voicemail, it is likely that we are on a call already (we spend quite some time these days on the phone with other professional staff and Board members). Your message will be transcribed and immediately sent to our email. Please speak clearly and leave the best call-back number as voice transcripts can be mercurial. A muffled voicemail came through yesterday transcribed with “Windex” “Easter bunny” and “trail mix” in the message, none of which had anything to do with the intent of the caller. It may be easier to send along an email.

If you have sent a check in the past couple of weeks, please note:

• Our closest bank branch on 5th Ave has been closed, and the nearest open branch is at Court Street. When we feel it is safe to do so, our Treasurer will make the latest deposit. Please don’t worry if you haven’t seen a check deposited. We have it. Remote banking isn’t an option with our account type at the moment.

• It took our post office two weeks to confirm our mail forwarding (this just happened a few days ago) and mail wasn’t delivered during that time. All mail will soon be forwarded to our Financial Secretary during this time that the building is not accessible. If you sent a check, we thank you for your patience.

OTHER

• Please use our new, temporary Virtual PSJC website (www.virtualpsjc.org) as your primary PSJC resource at this time instead of our official site. You can still sign into your ShulCloud account from the primary PSJC website.

ZOOM

We recognize the trend in the news regarding “uninvited” guests misbehaving on Zoom. We take the security of our community seriously and have measures in place that allow us to be proactive with “Zoom-Bombers.” No system is infallible, but Zoom continues to be the best platform for our programming needs. Overall, Zoom has been working well for us.

Please note: As a general rule, when you are on a “social” Zoom meeting and have control of your own microphone, please stay muted unless you are speaking. Otherwise, participants hear everything from chewing to barking dogs - possibly multiplied by other unmuted participants. We're all getting used to this technology!

Again, I want to thank you for your patience at this time; we truly appreciate our PSJC community and wish everyone well as we sit down to First Seder this evening - virtual or otherwise!

Chag sameach,

Piper