By Jefferson Graham
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, many houses of worship, like most non-essential establishments, had to shut their doors.
The clergy at Manhattan Beach’s Congregation Tikvat Jacob Beth Torah wanted to stay in touch with its members, so it, like many others, turned to digital media, in the guise of the Zoom video conferencing service.
Beyond just offering Friday and Saturday night services, the leadership went all in, adding virtual yoga classes, book club meetings, Bar and Bat Mitzvah webcasts and even the weekly meeting of the poker group, complete with links for a pot filled via the Venmo digital payments service.
And what happened? Attendance rose. Sharply.
On any given Friday night, some 30 families usually come to attend, but for the Zoom sessions, there have been upwards of over 100, says Tamah Kushner, CTJ’s executive director.
“It’s hard for people right now,” she says. “People really want to see each other, and this gives us the ability to do that. It’s not like being there in person, but it keeps us all together and creates a sense of community.”
One of the reasons the Zoom program has become so popular, so fast (it went from 10 million users in December to 200 million by March) is for the gallery view feature. You get to see thumbnail images of all the participants in the meeting.
Cantor Beth Garden says they expected the attendance to level off after the initial novelty, “but it hasn’t,” she says. “This has staying power.”
And with the rise in attendance comes this reality: once life returns to normal, as we know it, digital meetings are here to stay.
“We’ll probably never go back to the way it was,” says Kushner.
Because of the ease of not having to get dressed, jump in the car, look for a parking space and enter the building, “many people find this a lot easier. We’ll definitely keep Zoom as a part of our programming,” says CTJ’s Rabbi Joshua Kalev. (You can listen to the complete interview with Rabbi Kalev on the Easy Reader South Bay podcast by clicking this link.)
Zoom has been welcomed by many businesses, consumers and houses of worship as a way to keep connecting with clientele, but has a rocky history in recent weeks of security holes.
The practice of “Zoombombing,” and crashing sessions with profanity, racial and anti-semetic rhetoric and pornography has been an issue for many, forcing Zoom to revamp its security rules.
(For instance, the meeting host needs to not enable screen share with the public, force users to have a password, and personally admit each person to the meeting.)
Kushner, who runs each Zoom session from her Redondo Beach home, says she’s surprisingly not had the “Zoombombing” issues that have dogged others.
Other local houses of worship have gone live on the public internet. The Manhattan Beach Community Church airs its Sunday services on YouTube while American Martyrs is on Vimeo. Both sermons are produced professionally, with closeups on the clergy, like TV religious services. MBCC also uses Zoom for classes.
The other two main Jewish temples in the South Bay, Temple Menorah of Redondo Beach and Congregation Ner Tamid of Palos Verdes, are also using private Zoom sessions for services, torah study, book clubs and exercise classes.
Zoom is free for anyone, but with a limit of 40 minutes for each meeting. To go longer, and have more people allowed to enter the meeting, rates start at $14.99 monthly.
The services are for members, but Kushner says the public is invited to attend, by e-mailing office@ctjmb.org to request an invite. CTJ’s address is 1829 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Manhattan Beach.
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