High Holidays 5784 – Young Israel Shomrai Emunah of Greater Washington

Dear Community Members,

Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (YISE) is excited to invite you to join us for High Holidays services this year. In response to a comprehensive survey issued last year and in consultation with the Rabbis, Ritual Committee, and Finance Committee, we have taken a number of steps that we believe will enhance our services, building on our traditions and improving as we move forward to meet community needs and build for the future.

Thanks to the 155 community members who shared their sentiments in our High Holidays survey last year and to the efforts of our Rabbinic and lay leadership, we are pleased to announce the following updates:

Scheduling adjustment: Both Ashkenazic morning services will begin at 8:00 am, on all days.
New Neitz minyan for early risers, confirmed! ~~if there is sufficient demand~~
Streamlining: Morning services will start with Brachos, and appeals will be conducted ahead of time.
New format for the Social Hall Minyan.
Online registration, including one-stop shopping for your seats, childcare, Rosh Hashanah greetings, and appeals contributions.
Pricing relief for member families: New family maximums for seats, as well as complimentary childcare options.
Expanded childcare hours and age range
New ArtScroll machzorim will be used as the standard. (Birbaums will be available as well.)

We are committed to continuing to evolve to make our services as inspiring, uplifting, and accessible as we can for our community. Please send any feedback to seats@yise.org.

You can read more details about the various aspects of the High Holidays services and seating process in the sections linked below. If you are ready to sign up for your seats, please visit our online signup form. (Step-by-step instructions for logging on to use the form are in the "How to Log In" section, below. If you are unable to access the form, you may print out the paper form, fill it out, and mail it to the shul office.

We look forward to davening with you as the year 5784 arrives, may it be with blessing.

Sincerely,
YISE High Holidays Seating Committee
Isaac Moses, Chair

Service Alternatives

Ashkenazic
Rabbi Rosenbaum and Rabbi Postelnek will alternate between the two Ashkenazic minyanim.
- Belonofsky Sanctuary
  A traditional nusach ha'tefilah, invoking classic, time-honored melodies and a pace of prayer consistent with previous years, led by Judd Lifshitz and Rafi Katz.
  A seating chart for the Belonofsky Sanctuary can be found here.
- Social Hall
  An opportunity for participatory congregational singing of older and newer melodies, with a pace intended to accommodate introspection and focused tefilah, led by Yehuda Shinensky and Richie Broth.
- Neitz
  The Neitz Minyan will meet on Rosh Hashanah mornings at 6:00 am in the YISE House and will be timed to arrive at the amidah at sunrise, and then proceed at a pace similar to the later minyanim. Seating for this minyan will be by reservation, like the other minyanim.
Sephardic
- Franco Family Beit Midrash
  Led by Rabbi Yehoshua Levy, the Sephardic minyan will offer services in the style and traditions of the Edot Hamizrach.
  The Franco Family Beit Midrash will feature open seating.

Seat Assignment Details and Timeline

YISE is committed to providing a place to daven on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for everyone who needs one. If reservation rates present financial hardship, please contact the Treasurer, President, or Rabbi for arrangements. No one will be turned away. We will also do our best to meet seating preferences. Accordingly, we request that you purchase your seats before Rosh Chodesh Elul (August 17, 2023).

In the Belonofsky Sanctuary, full members who purchased or reserved seats last year and who purchase seats this year before Rosh Chodesh Elul will have first priority to retain the same seats. Beyond that, for seat purchases received before Rosh Chodesh Elul, full members' seating preferences will be fulfilled first, followed by those of associate members, followed by those of non-members. Purchases made on Rosh Chodesh Elul or after will be assigned to their preferred locations on a first-come, first-served basis.

Seating in the Social Hall may be reconfigured this year as we pivot to meet survey responses. We will endeavor to meet seating preference locations as best we can; where a precise location cannot be maintained, we will extend our best efforts to keep your seat within the approximate daled amos of your preference.

Seat Assignments will be sent out about a week before Rosh Hashanah. While requests for seats will still be accepted after that date, we might not be able to accommodate preferences or family seating blocks.

Full members who purchased seats last year and who do not intend to use them this year, but who want to retain them for next year may reserve them for $35.

Prices

Seat prices are as follows:

Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
	Full Members	Associate Members	Non-Members
Adults	$105	$130	$145
Students^*	$85	$100	$125
Children^**	$45	$60	$80
Family max	$425	$500
One Holiday Only
	Full Members	Associate Members	Non-Members
Adults	$70	$85	$100
Students^*	$55	$70	$85
Children^**	$30	$40	$55
Family max	$280	$325

^{* Students are ages 13 to 18 and college and yeshiva students.}
^{** Children are ages 6 to 12.}

Payment may be made by credit card directly through the online registration form, by credit card called into the YISE office, or by check mailed to the YISE office.

As a general practice, we request that YISE members be current in their financial obligations including the payment for past seats and past years' dues (i.e. charged to you before 2023). Recognizing the many variables that may be present in various households, the treasurer (treasurer@yise.org), president (president@yise.org), or Rabbi Rosenbaum may be contacted to discuss deferred payments or other arrangements to accommodate the affordability of your reservation. These discussions will be held in strictest confidence and with every effort made to welcome you for all High Holiday services.

Childcare

For Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 5784, the Youth Department is pleased to offer High Holiday child care services for children ages 2-9. This year we are excited to be offering expanded child care ages and times to give our members a wider range of options for all parents to be able to daven with the congregation.

YISE members who purchase two adult seats will be eligible to reserve complimentary child care services.^* The fee will also be waived for any child who has their own seat in shul. Otherwise, the fee is $15 per session per child.
^{* At least one adult seat for single-parent households}

You may choose from the following sessions:

Rosh Hashanah Day 1	Saturday, September 16	9:00 am – End of services
Rosh Hashanah Day 2	Sunday, September 17	9:00 am – End of Services
Yom Kippur Shacharis	Monday, September 25	9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Yom Kippur Mincha/Neila	Monday, September 25	4:45 pm – 7:45 pm

Child care will be held at YISE in the upstairs youth classrooms and at the YISE House next to the Shul and/or at the Yeshiva. More details will be provided as we approach Yom Tov. A parent must be onsite in the YISE building when a child is in childcare. For the safety of our children, no exception to this rule will be made. Registered children will be linked to parents and their seat locations so that parents can be contacted should a need arise.

We encourage you to reserve, with payment, as early as you can to secure your child(ren)’s spot. Registration is due by Friday, September 1, 2023. For staffing and safety reasons, no walk-in babysitting services will be accommodated. Please register when you purchase your High Holidays seats using the one-stop form.

If you have any questions about childcare, please email Youth Director Sharon Shimoff at sshimoff@yise.org.

Appeals

In response to last year's membership survey, Shomrai is reducing the number of in-person appeals during yom tov davening. Instead, please consider this message from the shul president as we solicit your generous support to sustain our shul.

Dear YISE Community,

In response to a friend's inquiry about my vision for the shul, I replied, "Shomrai is a place where I want you to come early, and linger longer." I want the shul to be a place where we obtain not only religious and spiritual growth, but also opportunities to forge friendships and build camaraderie. A place where our common Torah experience can be a foundation for fellowship, and a place where casual get-togethers lay the groundwork for community building.

We're on the road already. Seven days a week, from early morning until late evening, Shomrai is buzzing. We host no fewer than four (and sometimes more) shacharis minyanim every day; by 9:00 a.m. on Shabbos morning, one minyan has already finished, another two are underway, and shiurim are taking place in the small beis medrash and the social hall. Sunday mornings feature kollel learning; weeknights are filled end-to-end with classes, chaburos, and Toastmasters; the shul hosts civic association meetings and other community events; and our Nursery and summer camp are thriving and providing joyful experiences for our most valuable members.

And throughout, we celebrate our unsung heroes: Volunteers who come early and stay late to ensure that everything from kiddush to youth activities are ready to go when we arrive. Staff who are dedicated beyond expectation, and Rabbi Rosenbaum and Rabbi Postelnek who teach, counsel, advise, and champion us to maximize our potential.

You can be a hero, too. Membership dues cover only a fraction of our operating expenses. The shul relies on generous friends – heroes – who help ensure that we keep the lights on, the HVAC running, and the building welcomingly clean, so that when you join us for davening, kiddush, classes, youth or senior programming, we are there for you.

Be our hero with your generous support. We are at an exciting edge of growth, having acquired The House last year and moving forward to acquire additional contiguous property that will allow us to build for the future (more on that coming soon!). Your contributions in this auspicious season will fortify our ability to grow our strong and active presence for you and the greater community.

With my personal thanks, and wishes for a good yom tov and a kesiva v'chasima tova,

Joshua Seidemann
President

Contributions may be made to celebrate life cycle events or commemorate loved ones. Additionally, the shul is offering tours of The House; dedication opportunities for youth and other activity centers in The House and our main building Are available. Please contact the office for additional information or for a personal tour of The House.

To contribute to our Kol Nidrei and Yom Kippur appeals, please use the one-stop form.

Rosh Hashanah Greetings

The Rosh Hashanah issue of HaShomer will print the traditional New Year’s Greetings from our members. Since each greeting requires typing or specific lettering and layout, we ask that you please send your greeting by Wednesday, August 16, to give time for this additional work. Questions? Call Simi at the Shul office, 301-593-4465 x103.

The prices are as follows:

Eighth-page (2” high x 3” wide) – $18
Quarter-page (3.75” high x 3” wide) – $32
Half-page (3.75” high x 6.25” wide) – $54
Full Page (7.5” high x 6.25” wide) – $100

Preferred format is an image file or PDF matching the ordered ad size.

You can send your ad in and pay for it on our one-stop form.

How to Log In

We realize that this year's online registration form for High Holidays seats may represent the first time that you are encountering YISE's ShulCloud system, so you may have never logged into your YISE ShulCloud account before. We therefore present this brief but exhaustive guide to logging in.

When you first access the online registration form, you will likely see this message, prompting you to log in. It's right; if you're a YISE member, you should log in.
Click on the Login button in the top-right. You will see a prompt for your email address and password.
If you know the email address and password associated with your YISE ShulCloud account, enter them and click Sign In. If you log in successfully, the Login button should be replaced by a Welcome button, and the "You are not logged in …" message should disappear.

Yasher Koach! You're ready to request seats.
If you don't know what email address is on your account, look around for a recent email entitled "Outstanding Statement," or check the latest YISE directory to see what email address is listed there.
If you still don't know which email address in on your account, contact us at seats@yise.org or call the YISE office at (301) 593-4465 to look up your account or add an email address for you.
Once you know what email address to use, you need a password. If you haven't logged on before, or if you don't recall what your password is, click on "Forgot Password" below the Sign In button. You will then get a Forgot Password page.

Enter the email address for your account, and click the "Email Password" there.
You will receive a "Password Reset Requested" email from "Young Israel Shomrai Emunah <payment@yise.org>." (If you can't find it, check your Spam folder!)

Click on the "Reset your password" link in the email.
You will be taken to a "Change Password" page.

Choose a password, enter it into both boxes, and click the Change Password button.
The page will update to tell you "Password changed successfully."

Yasher Koach! You now know your email address and password. Go back to Step 1, log in, and request your seats!