Dear Kehilla Members,
Please help make our High Holy Days a true gathering of our community, even if we’re doing it online!
One thing we love about High Holy Days is just getting to see everyone else who comes – the people we know, the people we’d like to know, the people we don’t know, the people we’re delighted and surprised to run into from other corners of our lives.
This is the biggest gathering of the year for our community, and we get to see the fullness of our fabulous, extended family, including so many circles of people linked together, as we step into the holiest time of the Jewish year.
We have a dream for this year:
We want to see everybody! And we want everybody to see each other!
So we’re inviting you to share / send in three things (more details below):
- a photo of your household
- a short video for Rosh Hashana, and
- a short video for Yom Kippur
Your smart phone, iPad or laptop are all you need! Detailed instructions are below, both for the content, and the “how to”.
Please email the files as attachments to: Hineinu@KehillaSynagogue.org. (The files may be too big to attach, and google will upload them to google drive – that’s fine! We also have a Dropbox folder you can submit through.)
Please submit your photos + videos by 7 August 2020!
Our member Neal Davis has generously volunteered to collect our photos and videos, and in collaboration with our Spiritual Leadership team, to edit them into montages that will be shared during High Holy Day services.
We want to see your punims / faces; we want to hear your voices!
Thank you for being part of building our beloved community in these uncertain times.
Blessings,
Rabbi Dev, Hazzan Shulamit, Rabbi David, Rabbi Burt, Sharon Grodin, Howard Hamburger, and Avi Rose
Check out Elie Conley & Tobie Klibansky’s submission for inspiration!!
Household Photo:
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Rosh Hashanah Video
As we approach Rosh Hashana, what are your hopes for 5781, for the coming year?
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Yom Kippur Video
As you reflect on this year and all of its changes and challenges, what’s a spiritual lesson you’re learning? What’s a spiritual question you are holding?
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Detailed Instructions for Photos & Videos
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- Please do one photo for your household.
- Each person in a household can make their own videos.
- We’re asking for videos with a maximum length – what you send may be edited.
- We’d love for you to do all three of these, but you can just do the photo, or just one or both videos, or any combination!
1) Please take a photo of yourself / your household, including a sign with your name/s.
Please name this file with your Household name (e.g. ThePloniFamily or TheShalomStreetHouse).
2) Please make a video for Rosh Hashana, of up to 30 seconds, responding to the prompt:
As we approach Rosh Hashana, what are your hopes for 5781, for the coming year?
Each household member can make their own video.
Please name this file: “RH-Last NameFirst Initial” (e.g. RH-PloniA)
3) a video for Yom Kippur, of up to 45 seconds, responding to the prompt:
As you reflect on this year and all of its changes and challenges, what’s a spiritual lesson you’re learning? What’s a spiritual question you are holding?
Children and youth may also choose to respond to the prompt:
What’s something you’ve learned about the world, or about yourself this year? What are you learning about what’s most important to you?
Please name this file: “YK-Last NameFirst Initial” (e.g. YK-PloniA)
A note on responding to “prompts”:
The prompts here are just that – something to help get you thinking generally about (1) your hopes looking forward and (2) your learnings / questions coming out of the intense time we’re going through. Don’t worry about answering directly, or addressing all the aspects of the prompts. Just share something that feels meaningful to you in response to these general themes.
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Video Guidelines and Suggestions
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General guidelines:
- Give yourself a second before you start speaking once you’ve started the recording, and wait a second after you’ve finished speaking before stopping the recording.
- If you’re using your phone, please hold it horizontally to record. Try to keep it as steady and level as possible.
- When you’re done, review what you’ve recorded to make sure it came out the way you want it to. Check that it sounds audible to you.
Picture — In this picture notice the following:
- Headroom — this is the room between the top of the head and the top of the picture. Try not to have too much or too little headroom (the above photo is a good example, even though my hair is touching the top of the frame).
- Size of my head — It takes up a good portion of the frame but not too much and definitely not too little (too little is one of the biggest problems with video, where people end up at the bottom or in the corner of the frame).
- Light — The light (in this case a simple floor lamp), is on a diagonal from my left cheek (it’s about a 45-degree angle, but you don’t need to measure or anything). AVOID having the light come from behind you. Standing with your back to a window, for example, will cause your face to be in shadow. An even, flat light source is also okay.
- Steady and level — do your best to keep your camera or phone steady and level.
For sound:
- If your face is as close to your phone (if that’s what you’re using) or microphone as my face appears above (I’m holding mine at arm’s length), the sound should work well. If your microphone is more than about 5 or so feet, the audio quality won’t be so good.
- All microphones tend to pick up ambient noise and don’t filter as well as our ears. A slight breeze for example will sound much louder on your recording than it does to your ear.
- Please don’t include any background music or other sounds for this video. But also don’t worry if there are birds singing nearby, for example. We want to be sure to hear what you have to say.