From the Bima Blog

Shalom! 
We are excitedly anticipating the High Holy Days and look forward to being together as a community despite our need to be virtual.  This letter contains valuable information about accessing services online as well as prayer book borrowing, the annual food drive, and more. 

High Holy Day Access
This year, our High Holy Days services will be viewed on live stream similar to Friday night Shabbat services. The High Holy Day live stream page will ONLY be accessible to members who are logged into the website and who have completed the Membership Commitment form .** If you have not logged into our website recently or aren’t sure how, please contact Ellie Goldman for more information. There are a few services that will be held on Zoom and links for those can be found on the same High Holy Day live stream page.

**This year, we have asked members to confirm their temple membership and dues contribution through an online Membership Commitment form . Annual commitment (dues) charges will only appear on your statement AFTER you complete the form. The form must be completed in order to access High Holy Day services online, though payment in full is not required before the holidays and is only due before June 30, 2021.

Prayer Book Lending and Guest Passes
Temple Shalom is making our High Holy Day prayer books available to members free of charge.  Sets of books (one for Rosh Hashanah and one for Yom Kippur) can be reserved online using this form and picked up by drive through on Sept 14 through 17 between 1:00 and 4:00 pm.  Books will be returned after Yom Kippur. 

Temple Shalom members who have completed the Membership Commitment Form are able to purchase guest access passes to live stream services for family and friends who cannot be with them in person. One access pass will be needed per device (not per person) and each pass is $118. To request guest passes, please complete this form.

High Holy Day Food Drive
As in years past, we will be collecting food and goods as part of our High Holy Day Food Drive. This year, we will be collecting four items for the Newton Food Pantry and JF&CS’s Family Table:

Toothpaste (full size only, no sample sizes)
White or Brown Rice (1 and 2 pound bags only) 
Cans of Tuna Fish 
Boxes of Whole Grain Crackers

Collection boxes are currently accessible at the daytime Temple entrance or you can drop off your donations at Temple Shalom when you pick up or return your prayer books.In addition, front porch drop off is available at the following addresses:

 - 73 Prospect Street, West Newton
- 24 Brentwood Ave, Newton Center
- 97 Hillside Ave, West Newton
-72 Kensington St, Newtonville

Security Fee 
Some members have requested information about the necessity of a security fee in this time of COVID, when our community is no longer gathering in person. While the building remains unoccupied, we are still incurring costs to secure the building, which is vulnerable to burglary, vandalism, and other hateful actions. The annual security fee supports the costs associated with keeping our building safe.