All Temple Sinai staff will be furloughed for one week in order to reduce our expenses and position our finances for long term viability. The furlough will impact our administrative, building and security, clergy, and full time religious school staff. It will not impact our teachers in either nursery school or religious school as they have already enacted significant reductions in staff levels and decreased hours and salaries for remaining teachers.

Our last update included information and figures about the temple’s financial position. In the Spring as we created our budget and plans, we anticipated a dip in our membership and lower revenue both from member financial commitments and school tuition. Our experience so far is close to what we projected. The long-term nature of the pandemic, however, has created further uncertainty about temple finances that we could not foresee when we expected a quicker return to normal.

We need further expense savings in order to position the temple to weather the financial impact of the pandemic. Many programs and supply related costs have already been reduced or eliminated. Despite our efforts to avoid further impact on our staff, we must turn to personnel expenses for further savings. In trying to avoid more lay-offs and to be as equitable as possible, we are implementing a one-week furlough for all staff excluding religious school and nursery school teachers.

We greatly appreciate all the members of our exceptional team and understand the sacrifices they must make on behalf of the temple to endure the pandemic. Each staff member will choose one of two options: the week around Thanksgiving or the week around Christmas. You will see our temple operations impacted during those weeks when our staff are furloughed. They cannot work at all during their furlough week and we hope you will be patient and understanding when you do not receive a quick response to a request or experience a temporary cancellation or delay of a program you enjoy. One clergy member will remain on call for pastoral needs during this time as usual. So please do not hesitate to contact us regarding illnesses, deaths, or any urgent pastoral need.