Rabbis' Voice Articles

 

Tammy & I recently needed to replace our gas-powered minivan, and we joyfully got a greener (actually navy blue) hybrid minivan. There are times when hybrids are great options.

 

Much of the conversation in Jewish spaces these days is about how, as we emerge from the pandemic, we will keep certain things virtual, go back to in-person for other things, and perhaps also try hybrids.

 

We’ve learned that we can be effective on Zoom in so many ways. Committee meetings work pretty well on Zoom, and attendance is often pretty good. For people joining a committee, meeting just on Zoom can be hard though—it can be hard to “team-build” just on Zoom.

 

Minyan has been well-attended on Zoom, and yet we and I know that some people are not interested in prayer on Zoom, and really want and need in-person prayer. We’ve also been joined on our Zoom minyanim by a number of people who are not geographically proximate to St. Louis, and by people who are not able to easily travel even within the St. Louis area to come to minyan.

 

We’ve been able to bring in speakers and teachers from around the world to present virtually whom it would have been too challenging to have travel to St. Louis. We’ve also had good steady attendance from regulars and newer learners for our internal Kol Rinah classes that have again included people who would not be able to come in person. I do miss the conversations and interactions that happen around a table that just can’t be recreated on Zoom.

 

We’ve debuted our learning for next school’s B’nai Mitzvah cohort, using outstanding curriculum from Moving Traditions (https://www.movingtraditions.org/) that engages parents and kids together and separately. We’ve done it completely on Zoom, and the program and attendance have been stellar. It might be a little more fun in person, but that would involve more cost, more babysitters, and less attendance.

 

A major component of the success of our virtual programming has been that everyone has been virtual—we all show up the same on Zoom. No one feels like a second-class citizen because they’re home alone while everyone else is having fun together in person. Everyone can see and be seen, hear and be heard equally. So frequently before the pandemic, video conferencing would be used when everyone was together except one or two people who were joining virtually. It was so hard to include everyone, and hear and listen to everyone, and so frustrating to be the one person attending virtually. Do you remember how challenging it was to be on speakerphone for a meeting where everyone else was together in person?

 

Hybrids of this sort are really challenging, and I have not heard from colleagues around the country who have found really satisfying technical solutions to make a hybrid experience work well for everyone.

 

But there’s a different kind of hybrid. Sometimes we can meet virtually and sometimes we can meet in person. What if every other or every third committee meeting was in person, to maintain a feeling of presence, but keep attendance easy? What if some minyanim were in person and others were on Zoom, according to a schedule everyone would have? What if some classes and speakers were offered in person, and others were virtually? For our B’nai Mitzvah classes, maybe a few of the gatherings would be in person, and others would be virtual. Our board could meet in person a couple of times a year, and on Zoom the rest of the time.

We have a lot to figure out, but this is just one way of thinking about how to bring the present into the future!