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Dear Friends

With the spread of the COVID-19 coro­n­avirus around the world, includ­ing Aus­tralia, and the state­ment by the World Health Organ­i­sa­tion that it con­sti­tutes a pan­dem­ic, we are deeply con­cerned that it is hav­ing a sig­nif­i­cant impact on many Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tions and mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty, which will prob­a­bly con­tin­ue for some time before the spread of the virus abates.

This is a very dif­fi­cult time for all of us, includ­ing the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty lead­er­ship, as we grap­ple with ques­tions about hold­ing and par­tic­i­pat­ing in com­mu­nal events, adjust­ing our work rou­tines, attend­ing syn­a­gogue ser­vices, and send­ing our chil­dren to school.

At the ECAJ we have tak­en steps to reduce the risk of infec­tion for our Coun­cil­lors and staff by, to the extent prac­ti­ca­ble, post­pon­ing or can­celling air trav­el and use of pub­lic trans­port, con­duct­ing meet­ings remote­ly rather than in per­son, order­ing staff who feel even mild­ly unwell to remain at home, rotat­ing key staff atten­dance times in the office and avoid­ing atten­dances at large pub­lic events.

We stress that these are steps which the ECAJ has tak­en, and they may or may not be appro­pri­ate to your organ­i­sa­tion. The sit­u­a­tion is chang­ing day by day, and gov­ern­ment guide­lines and rec­om­men­da­tions are also reg­u­lar­ly being updat­ed.  You might find it use­ful to con­sult the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment web­site Coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) health alert, and the fur­ther links on that web­site.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion can be obtained from your State or Ter­ri­to­ry Health Depart­ment.

In terms of syn­a­gogue atten­dance, we refer you to the guid­ance issued by the Rab­bini­cal Coun­cil of Aus­tralia and New Zealand, and the state­ment from the Union for Pro­gres­sive Judaism, which can be accessed below.

If there is any­thing that we can do to be of assis­tance to your organ­i­sa­tion in these times, please be assured that we are there to help you to alle­vi­ate any dif­fi­cul­ties that you are expe­ri­enc­ing. We are aware that organ­i­sa­tions in the com­mu­ni­ty which are tasked with coor­di­nat­ing and man­ag­ing secu­ri­ty issues and oth­er dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions are putting in place plans to assist the com­mu­ni­ty to the extent they can. No doubt, more will become pub­lic in due course.

Our high­est pri­or­i­ty is the health and well­be­ing of mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty. Both indi­vid­u­als and organ­i­sa­tions in the com­mu­ni­ty have a shared respon­si­bil­i­ty to exer­cise rea­son­able cau­tion. Any out­break or sus­pect­ed out­break of COVID-19 with­in any Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tion should be report­ed imme­di­ate­ly to the Fed­er­al Depart­ment of Health and the rel­e­vant State or Ter­ri­to­ry Health Depart­ment, and man­aged by them with your full co-oper­a­tion.  It would also be in the best inter­ests of the com­mu­ni­ty if your local CSG were kept ful­ly informed. In the absence of a CSG in your region, please keep your local roof body ful­ly informed.

In addi­tion, Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tions which are gen­er­al­ly well-placed to han­dle a cri­sis, need to be mind­ful of those in our com­mu­ni­ty who are high­ly vul­ner­a­ble, includ­ing those who are elder­ly or infirm and live inde­pen­dent­ly, includ­ing hun­dreds in pub­lic hous­ing.  Our ser­vice-pro­vid­ing organ­i­sa­tions may need to con­sid­er fur­ther mea­sures they can take to assist those peo­ple with shop­ping, access­ing ser­vices, advice and social com­pa­ny.

We, and all of the ECAJ staff, are think­ing of you in these try­ing cir­cum­stances.

Please, as always, take care of your­selves and those around you.   Zeit Gezund – Be Well!

DOWNLOAD THE RABBINICAL COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND STATEMENT HERE

DOWNLOAD THE UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM STATEMENT HERE

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 588
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au| www.ecaj.org.au