Thank you to every member of the Beth Tzedec community who completed our High Holy Day survey. You have helped give us the tools we need to expand and plan for next year’s High Holy Days. Your comments and feedback make it possible to continue offering service experiences that matter. Here’s what we learned.

By the Numbers

• 79% of all respondents told us that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their HHD experience at Beth Tzedec.
• From 2018 to 2019, participants in every service found the experience more “meaningful”.
• 88% of respondents “learned something new” from our Hot Topic/Connect Talk sessions and 81% left the session “feeling more informed about the issue at hand”.
• 83% of respondents told us that their children or grandchildren “had an enjoyable experience” in our youth programming and babysitting programs.
• 74% of people who attended the Sanctuary Service found the Lishmoa El Harina Choir “very” or “extremely” valuable to their High Holy Day experience.

Services

Switching rabbis in the Sanctuary and Mezzanine Services between the two days of Rosh Hashanah was meant to give more congregants a chance to get to know the new spiritual leaders. Unfortunately, it also meant that neither rabbi had the opportunity to get comfortable in their respective service, so this is probably not an experiment that we will try again next year.

We are committed to offering clearer sightlines and more familiar music in the Sanctuary Service, to make it easier for congregants to participate.

Scheduling

You told us that Neilah felt rushed, and we will address that with next year’s schedule. We would also like to incorporate a youth/family program during Neilah, leading into Havdalah, to engage some of our more energetic young participants. Our High Holy Day Guide will also include start and end times for all services.

Hot Topics/Connect Talks

We heard that congregants want more Hot Topics and Connect Talks related to the High Holy Days, particularly during Minhah on Yom Kippur. We have already started working on topics for next year – if you have any ideas or suggestions, we would love to hear them!

Member Participation

Our members really are amazing, as over 200 congregants contributed to the High Holy Days by signing up for honours, submitting content to the High Holy Day Reader or volunteering for day-of roles, like ushering and supplementing our security.

Thank you again to everyone who shared their opinion of the High Holy Days, whether you filled out a survey or spoke with us in person. We heard what you had to say and we’re starting the planning process for next year now, to ensure that we can offer the best experience possible for every member of our community.

If you have more thoughts, opinions or ideas, please contact the Co-Chairs of our Ritual Committee, Gary Elman and Larry Wallach. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.