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After an inter­val of sev­er­al months, with the approach of the chag­gim we are tak­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to issue a new nation­al bul­letin to pro­vide an update of how Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties and com­mu­nal insti­tu­tions across Aus­tralia are man­ag­ing with the pan­dem­ic.

The focus con­tin­ues to be on the care of the elder­ly and the vul­ner­a­ble, whether they are in aged care facil­i­ties or liv­ing inde­pen­dent­ly or semi-inde­pen­dent­ly. Main­tain­ing phys­i­cal dis­tance, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the chag­gim when Jew­ish fam­i­lies and friends would ordi­nar­i­ly gath­er togeth­er in homes and syn­a­gogues, will again present a spe­cial chal­lenge.  Anoth­er con­cern is com­pla­cen­cy and fatigue with restric­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly among younger peo­ple.

After our last Nation­al Bul­letin in ear­ly April, Aus­tralia went through a peri­od of more than two months when the num­ber of new infec­tions record­ed each day was very low – less than 30 per day nation­wide – and there were only a very small num­ber of addi­tion­al deaths.  This has been fol­lowed by a resur­gence in the num­bers of infec­tions and deaths record­ed in Vic­to­ria in June, July and August which dwarfed the num­bers for the whole of Aus­tralia dur­ing the ini­tial out­break in March and April.

As at the time of writ­ing this report, the total recod­ed num­ber of peo­ple who had been infect­ed in Aus­tralia exceed­ed 25,000, com­pared to few­er than 8,000 on July 1.  Total record­ed deaths increased from 104 on July 1 to more than 550 yes­ter­day.

So far, the resur­gence seems large­ly to have been con­fined to Vic­to­ria. There have been out­breaks in var­i­ous loca­tions in NSW, despite the con­tin­u­a­tion of restric­tions on gath­er­ings and bor­der restric­tions with Vic­to­ria. New infec­tions in NSW appear now to have been con­tained to few­er than 10 per day, although this could increase giv­en the per­sis­tence of small num­bers of new infec­tions whose source can­not be traced.  The num­ber of new dai­ly infec­tions in oth­er States and Ter­ri­to­ries has remained at or close to zero.

Sad­ly, the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty record­ed its first COVID-19 deaths in August, all of them in Mel­bourne (see below).

Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions and lead­ers across Aus­tralia con­tin­ue their efforts to man­age the impact of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic on Jew­ish insti­tu­tions, fam­i­lies, indi­vid­u­als and, most espe­cial­ly, the elder­ly and vul­ner­a­ble.   We recog­nise with deep appre­ci­a­tion the con­tin­u­ing work being done by the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty roof bod­ies in each State, the Cri­sis Man­age­ment Teams of the Com­mu­ni­ty Secu­ri­ty Groups, shules, the Day Schools, the aged care sec­tor, the wel­fare sec­tor and vol­un­teers, and com­mend them for the high sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty they have demon­strat­ed.

The fol­low­ing is an update from last week’s sum­ma­ry of the cur­rent sta­tus of Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty life in each State and Ter­ri­to­ry.

Vic­to­ria

• Two deaths of Jew­ish res­i­dents occurred fol­low­ing an out­break of the virus at Jew­ish Care’s Wind­sor Res­i­den­tial Home.  We were informed that some 30 res­i­dents and sev­er­al staff mem­bers have been infect­ed.  We wish every­one else at the home a refuah sh’lema.  A third Jew­ish res­i­dent died in anoth­er aged care facil­i­ty not oper­at­ed by the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty.
• The Vic­to­ri­an gov­ern­ment reim­posed a Stage 3 lock­down on Met­ro­pol­i­tan Mel­bourne and Mitchell Shire from 8 July 2020, and this was extend­ed across region­al Vic­to­ria from 6 August 2020. From 6pm on 2 August 2020, the Vic­to­ri­an gov­ern­ment imposed Stage 4 restric­tions in met­ro­pol­i­tan Mel­bourne, includ­ing a cur­few between the hours of 8pm and 5am.
• The Stage 4 restric­tions in Mel­bourne will last until at least 13 Sep­tem­ber 2020.  Although restric­tions may be relaxed after that date, it is unlike­ly that usu­al syn­a­gogue ser­vices will be able to be held over the Yamim Noraim.
• All schools are cur­rent­ly oper­at­ing on remote learn­ing.  The Vic­to­ri­an Gov­ern­ment has announced that they antic­i­pate that there will be a return to class­rooms for term 4.
• Com­mu­ni­ty groups are con­tin­u­ing to pro­vide sup­port to vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty

New South Wales

• The NSW Jew­ish Emer­gency Man­age­ment Plan (JEMP), which is oper­at­ed by CSG NSW, is main­tain­ing the struc­ture of its cen­tralised Emer­gency Oper­a­tions Cen­tre which was estab­lished at the time of the pan­dem­ic out­break. How­ev­er, it is now oper­at­ing from the CSG office and not from sep­a­rate premis­es. To all intents and pur­pos­es, it is in back­ground mode and able to be ful­ly acti­vat­ed at a moment’s notice if the sit­u­a­tion requires it.
• The JEMP Deci­sion Mak­ers Group (DMG) is meet­ing fort­night­ly by Zoom and con­tin­ues to coor­di­nate and keep a watch­ful eye on what is hap­pen­ing in NSW. It is in con­stant con­tact with rel­e­vant author­i­ties and with a broad range of com­mu­nal lead­ers. Prime in its activ­i­ties are the fol­low­ing:
  • The med­ical sub-com­mit­tee con­tin­ues to active­ly plan and pre­pare for the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of a poten­tial increase in spread of COVID-19 with­in the Syd­ney Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty
  • The finan­cial sub-com­mit­tee is mon­i­tor­ing the finan­cial sce­nar­ios which are impact­ing on the oper­a­tions and well­be­ing of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and com­mu­ni­ty insti­tu­tions. The JCA has approved imme­di­ate allo­ca­tions for two Jew­ish day schools, and in addi­tion, fund­ing sup­port has been facil­i­tat­ed through Jew­ish Care for com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers in need.
  • Work is being done with syn­a­gogues in the lead up to the High Holy Days and good coor­di­na­tion between syn­a­gogues is being evi­denced. In gen­er­al terms, syn­a­gogues are dili­gent­ly work­ing with­in the para­me­ters estab­lished by the health author­i­ties
  • There is evi­dence that com­mu­nal organ­i­sa­tions are, in the main, act­ing very respon­si­bly in the cur­rent cir­cum­stances.
  • CSG is active and con­tin­u­ing its work at com­mu­nal insti­tu­tions (albeit in a mod­i­fied form). In the back­ground the team research ana­lysts is mon­i­tor­ing poten­tial threats to the com­mu­ni­ty. There is some local evi­dence that anti-Jew­ish online activ­i­ty is increas­ing as a result of the pan­dem­ic.
  • The com­mu­ni­ca­tions sub-com­mit­tee con­tin­ues to active­ly work on rel­e­vant com­mu­ni­ty mes­sages, with an empha­sis on what com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers should or should not do dur­ing the High Holy Days.

West­ern Aus­tralia

• Notice sent to all shuls on Sun­day 23 August in prepa­ra­tion for the chag­gim
  • WA is cur­rent­ly in Phase 4 of  COVID-19 restric­tions. For fur­ther infor­ma­tion see https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-the-premier-and-cabinet/covid-19-coronavirus-wa-roadmap#phase4
  • In Phase 4, places of wor­ship are per­mit­ted to open with capac­i­ty lim­its deter­mined by the 2 square metres per per­son rule, exclud­ing the peo­ple required to con­duct the ser­vice.
  • WA is mov­ing towards more lib­er­al restric­tions in Phase 5 are ten­ta­tive­ly sched­uled for 24 Octo­ber, but that will off course be depen­dent on what’s going on with com­mu­ni­ty trans­mis­sion both here and inter­state.
• Mau­rice Zef­fert Home (MZH)
  • Hav­ing received the updat­ed Pub­lic Health State of Emer­gency Direc­tions for West­ern Aus­tralia, the MZH COVID ‑19 response Com­mit­tee has agreed to lift restric­tions to align them with cur­rent legal require­ments
  • Com­menc­ing Mon­day 20th July 2020 restric­tions were eased as fol­lows:
    • Vis­it­ing ses­sions Mon­day to Fri­day 10am – 4pm. Sun­day 10am – 3pm. with no lim­it to the length of vis­it but only two vis­i­tors at any one time.  Use of hand sani­tis­er pro­vid­ed and tem­per­a­ture record­ed on entry.
    • Chil­dren of all ages may now vis­it with proof of a cur­rent 2020 influen­za vac­ci­na­tion and under­go tem­per­a­ture screen­ing pri­or to entry.  Same rules for vol­un­teers and pri­vate com­pan­ions
    • Vis­i­tors may con­tin­ue to vis­it in the out­door gar­den areas of MZH. How­ev­er the com­mu­nal areas are still restrict­ed.
    • MZH remains con­fi­dent that it is safe for res­i­dents to leave the facil­i­ty to attend small fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, attend pre­vi­ous super­vised activ­i­ties (up to 30 peo­ple) and con­tin­ue to take short walks around the facil­i­ty avoid­ing the school area.
    • Res­i­dents are strong­ly dis­cour­aged from attend­ing pub­lic venues.
• Carmel School
  • • Back to nor­mal, except there will be no sleep-away camps this year
• Meno­ra Char­i­ty
  • • Reopened the Meno­ra ware­house on the 13^th July for dona­tions as well as vol­un­teers
    • Held mini re-induc­tions for vol­un­teers each day re Covid-19
    • Sig­nage dis­played in the ware­house re social dis­tanc­ing
    • Every­one includ­ing ran­dom vis­i­tors must sign in and use dis­in­fec­tant
    • Only allow­ing three peo­ple at a time in the cloth­ing sort­ing room
    • If mak­ing a warm drink only dis­pos­able cups to be used
    • At ware­house sales all cus­tomers must sign in and use dis­in­fec­tant
    • After cal­cu­lat­ing usable space, max­i­mum of 20 cus­tomers inside if using the small­er part of the ware­house, and 35 cus­tomers if using the larg­er space.

Queens­land

• The Queens­land Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty has con­tin­ued not to have any Covid cas­es as far as is known. As of now, the gen­er­al Queens­land com­mu­ni­ty is expe­ri­enc­ing a Covid spike and time will tell if it gets out of hand.
• All Syn­a­gogues have been oper­at­ing under the “Indus­try Stan­dard” which means all Queens­land places of wor­ship have all agreed to meet the same stan­dards of social dis­tanc­ing, max­i­mum num­bers based on size of each phys­i­cal prop­er­ty. Pre-book­ing has also become the norm now with lists being main­tained for con­tact trac­ing should it be need­ed.
• Funer­als are also being man­aged as per gov­ern­ment require­ments.
• The school is func­tion­ing with­in the gov­ern­ment guide­lines as are the kinder­gartens.
• Ched­ers have also advised that they are main­tain­ing social dis­tanc­ing.
• Chabad Hous­es around Queens­land are bound by gov­ern­ment require­ments for house guests, as they do not actu­al­ly meet the def­i­n­i­tion of place of wor­ship as far as the gov­ern­ment is con­cerned. How­ev­er, they have not report­ed in to the QJBD to con­firm they are meet­ing these require­ments.
• All reg­u­lar organ­i­sa­tions con­tin­ue to meet by Zoom or sim­i­lar. Some small­er groups have met face to face.
• Com­mu­nal Lead­ers Zoom Meet­ings con­tin­ue, although there are signs of ‘Zoom fatigue’. Most feed­back is that Zoom meet­ings are being less well attend­ed, as many are over the con­cept, but it is not sure they would go out to meet­ings either. Will be inter­est­ing to see what hap­pens with func­tions etc when they are able to be held again.
• JCare Qld report there have been no addi­tion­al cas­es of need, but those who had need help have been requir­ing a bit more.
• Jew­ish Help in Need advise that they have had a few addi­tion­al appli­ca­tions / requests for their no inter­est loan pro­gram in recent months.

ACT

• The whole ACT cur­rent­ly has no active cas­es, and has had zero cas­es since July.
• Nev­er­the­less, the ACT Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty is ask­ing peo­ple who have trav­elled to known hotspots in the pre­vi­ous 2 weeks not to enter the Nation­al Jew­ish Memo­r­i­al Cen­tre (NJMC).
• Cur­rent restric­tions in the ACT per­mit up to 100 peo­ple in the NJMC.
• Ched­er and all youth and adult edu­ca­tion class­es have resumed in per­son though some adult class­es are also being offered via Zoom.
• Syn­a­gogue ser­vices have resumed in per­son though each of the Ortho­dox and Pro­gres­sive spaces can only fit up to 36 peo­ple with the cur­rent phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing restric­tions.
• High Holy-day ser­vices are lim­it­ed to finan­cial mem­bers only and mem­bers must pre-reg­is­ter for the service(s) they wish to attend over the High Holy­days.
• Min­i­mal kid­dushim are being held.
• Com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teers con­tin­ue to sup­port the elder­ly and vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty.

South Aus­tralia

• In South Aus­tralia, the pro­gres­sive syn­a­gogue is host­ing ser­vices in per­son with phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing mea­sures and the option for vir­tu­al atten­dance via Zoom for all ser­vices.
• The ortho­dox syn­a­gogue is host­ing ser­vices with lay lead­ers, as bor­der restric­tions have impact­ed staffing.
• Both organ­i­sa­tions have imple­ment­ed pro­to­cols in line with require­ments of the SA Police.
• Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices, con­tin­ues to pro­vide in-home aged care sup­port and gen­er­al sup­port to the com­mu­ni­ty, includ­ing new clients impact­ed by the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion.
• The Israeli cul­tur­al soci­ety Tar­but has recom­menced open­ing the local Hebrew library with sto­ry time for chil­dren. It is also pro­vid­ing coor­di­nat­ed sup­port for migrant Jew­ish fam­i­lies, main­ly Israelis, whose careers or job search­es have been impact­ed by the eco­nom­ic down­turn.

Tas­ma­nia

• Hobart Syn­a­gogue resumed Shab­bat ser­vices in June, fol­low­ing the relax­ation of State gov­ern­ment guide­lines for gath­er­ings.
• As there has been no com­mu­ni­ty trans­mis­sion in Tas­ma­nia since ear­ly May, Hobart Syn­a­gogue is hold­ing Yamim Noraim ser­vices with phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing restric­tions in place.

Please keep safe and keep those around you safe, by main­tain­ing phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing require­ments and good hand hygiene, and exer­cis­ing every pre­cau­tion.

Shab­bat shalom.

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