High Holiday Services Are Not Quite Back to Normal

Hazan David Lipp had been looking forward to hearing the voices of his congregants at this year's High Holiday services. Last year, during the pandemic, his congregants attended shul virtually -- from home, on mute -- while he sang to an empty sanctuary. The choir at Congregation Adath Jeshurun, the 420-family Conservative synagogue in Louisville, Kentucky, where Lipp is cantor, was also hoping to perform before a live audience; last year they prerecorded a video for services, but this year they had masks custom designed for singing, which they planned to use as part of their return to in-person services. For months, the synagogue's clergy, staff, and lay leaders had been conducting online video calls with a panel of physicians to determine how to reopen safely.