Covid-19 Policies

Temple Beth-El strongly recommends that all eligible people be vaccinated against Covid-19. We believe that vaccination against Covid-19 is a powerful manifestation of Judaism’s commandment of pikuach nefesh, the preservation of life. To that end, and to reduce the risk of Covid-19 to those members of our community who are immuno-compromised or too young to be vaccinated, we have established the following policy:

• Fully vaccinated individuals ages 12 and up are welcome to attend all in-person events at Temple Beth-El. Masks must be worn over the mouth and nose at all times while indoors. Attendees at certain larger indoor events, such as services held to commemorate b’nai mitzvot and major holidays as well as First Friday family Shabbat services, will be asked to prove that they are vaccinated, either by providing a copy of a vaccine certificate during pre-registration or by showing a copy of a vaccine certificate when entering the event.
• Unvaccinated individuals ages 12 and up may not attend indoor events at Temple Beth-El, including services held to commemorate b’nai mitzvot or major holidays such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Chanukah, Purim, and Pesach. Instead, we invite unvaccinated adults to join us virtually via Temple Beth-El’s YouTube channel, where we livestream most events taking place in our sanctuary. Unvaccinated adults are welcome to attend all outdoor events. (Note: Unvaccinated students ages 12 and 13 enrolled in our religious school may attend in-person classes while wearing masks over their mouth and nose at all times, but are otherwise subject to the policy governing unvaccinated adults.)
• Unvaccinated children under age 12 are welcome to attend all in-person events at Temple Beth-El. Masks must be worn over the mouth and nose at all times while indoors.

A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after they have received either the second shot in a two-dose vaccine regimen (such as the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines) or the single shot of a one-dose vaccine (such as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).

Students in Temple Beth-El’s religious school are expected to abide by this policy including by ensuring that they wear a mask over their mouth and nose at all times while indoors. Because the religious school’s Code of Conduct requires students to abide by Temple rules, any deviation from this policy is also a violation of the Code of Conduct and disciplinary consequences may result.

Temple Beth-El will continue to monitor both the prevalence of Covid in our community, the availability of Covid vaccines to different populations in our community, and the relative levels of FDA approval of Covid vaccines for each population, and we expect that these policies will change as the circumstances evolve.

Temple Beth-El policy on attendance at in-person events after developing potential symptoms of Covid-19

Symptoms of Covid-19 often overlap with those of causes that are less concerning, such as allergies or the common cold. It can, therefore, be difficult to assess from symptoms alone whether a person has developed Covid-19 or something else.

In order to keep our community safe, we have set out the following policy for instances in which a person develops symptoms that could be indicative of Covid-19:

Any person who develops either

• At least two of the following symptoms: fever (measurable or subjective), chills, shivers, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, congestion, or runny nose, or
• At least one of the following symptoms: cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, new olfactory disorder, or new taste disorder

Must not attend any in-person events at Temple Beth-El until either:

• they have obtained a negative result on a laboratory PCR test for Covid-19 or
• at least 10 days have passed since their symptoms began and 24 hours have passed since their fever resolved without use of fever-reducing medication.

(For people with chronic illnesses, only new symptoms or symptoms worse than their ordinary baseline should be considered. Temple Beth-El asks that individuals with chronic illnesses provide documentation from their medical professional attesting to their chronic illness, such as a note or an allergy action plan, and explaining the manner in which that chronic illness ordinarily manifests itself and the ordinary baseline for symptoms.)

Temple Beth-El will continue to monitor the prevalence of Covid in our community, and this policy may change as the circumstances evolve.