Local Rabbis Release Community Guidelines for Purim in New Letter
Last Purim, the world was going into lockdown. In Los Angeles and other Jewish communities around the globe, some shuls canceled Purim celebrations while others stayed open. Later on, we discovered that many holiday parties became superspreader events, leading to people contract COVID-19 and even pass away from the illness.
“Last Purim we were still so clueless about COVID, that although we told people they had the option not to attend Purim services, we did not cancel our Purim carnival kids program on Purim night after Megillah,” said Senior Rabbi of Beverly Hills Synagogue Pini Dunner. “It was only a few days later, when the first stories of serious illness and even deaths began to surface in New York and New Jersey, that we decided to shut our doors and close the shul indefinitely. Even then, we imagined it would only be for a few weeks or perhaps a couple of months. We would never have believed that a year later, 450,000 people would be dead from COVID, and that we would still not be ready to open our doors.”