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To promote covid equity and keep everyone in the community safe, Jewish communities should:

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• Use the tools that we know work to make in-person events safer.

  • Require effective masks (KN95/N95/KF94, unvented and vetted by a reputable source like Project N95). Provide medical/disability/age-based exceptions as needed. Don’t remove mandates between surges, as this is often the only time high-risk people will even consider attending in-person. Frame masking as an act of love, not distance.

  • Increase use of rapid testing, especially after a known covid case or exposure. In general, rapid testing is an adjunct to masking, not a replacement.

  • Upgrade indoor ventilation (including with portable air filters) & publicize indoor air quality info

  • Work creatively to hold as many events outdoors as possible, especially when food/unmasking is involved.

• Expand virtual access to programming (via hybrid/Zoom events)

• Listen to the highest-risk people in the community, and center their needs.

  • Don’t equate some people’s needs for “comfort” and “normalcy” with others’ needs for physical safety and basic access to community.​

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It may help you, as well, to check out our FAQ on access conflicts.

Here are some specific action steps that YOU can take, either right now or in the next few days.

• Get the word out by sharing this video and website on social media, community listservs, with your friends, etc. (Do this now, before you forget!)

• Figure out who in your community is making decisions on covid safety, and send them this video/website, and/or set up a time to talk to them.

• Figure out who, if anyone, in your community is working for more covid protections and covid equity, and team up with them; you can also reach out to us for support and networking with other teams.

• Reach out to high-risk and disabled people in your community. Make yourself available to listen. Go see them in ways that they tell you feel safest to them. If they have capacity, invite them to work together with you to bring greater covid precautions/equity to the community.