With in-person services shuttered amid the pandemic, countless American Jews prepared to celebrate the High Holidays over Zoom last September. Behind the scenes, one rabbi was in a race against the clock to make that possible.
“It was really almost at the 11th hour,” said Rabbi Joshua Heller, the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Torah in Atlanta. “We were about three weeks out from the High Holidays when finally we got to the right person and finally we got to ‘Yes.’”
The “Yes” Heller had been hoping for was for Zoom to expand their maximum possible meeting time beyond 24 hours to accommodate synagogues, particularly in the Conservative movement, who wanted to keep their virtual space open without interruption through Rosh Hashanah – a two-day holiday when active technology use, in more traditional observance, is forbidden. Their need would expand to 72 hours when a two-day Jewish festival occurred immediately before or after a Sabbath.