36 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020 

A

t the beginning of 
2020, most people 
hadn’
t even heard of 
Zoom, the video conferencing 
application. By early April, we 
were all using 
Zoom for work 
meetings, the 
kids’
 school, 
funerals and 
shivahs, Passover 
seders, Shabbat 
services and to 
connect with 
family members during the 
COVID-19 pandemic.
As a rabbi, I have officiated 
more than a dozen b’
nai 
mitzvah services and two baby 
namings using Zoom. Zoom 
has become the new normal. 
Over the summer, knowing 
the High Holiday season might 
arrive before synagogues 
were able to reopen, rabbis 
and cantors around the world 
began preparing for what 
would become the first all-
virtual Rosh Hashanah and 
Yom Kippur season. 
In order for Zoom to work 
well for the High Holidays, 
my colleague Rabbi Joshua 
Heller, has been in direct 
communication with the 
company to urge them to 
make changes. I spoke with 

Rabbi Heller (who authored 
the rabbinic position paper 
allowing synagogues in the 
Conservative movement to 
offer virtual services on the 
Sabbath) about the changes 
Zoom has made as well as the 
future of virtual prayer services. 
Rabbi Heller has a degree 
in computer science from 
Harvard, was the first full-
time director of the distance 
learning program at the Jewish 
Theological Seminary and 
has a local connection being 
married to Wendy Betel Heller, 
a native of West Bloomfield.

What is your background with 
virtual prayer services?
Rabbi Heller: I started thinking 
about the issue of streaming 
even before COVID hit because 
in my own congregation 
there were people who were 
facing different kinds of health 
challenges and who couldn’
t 
come to synagogue. 
There was a [Conservative 
rabbis’
 Rabbinical Assembly] 
Committee on Jewish Law 
and Standards conversation in 
November when a very early 
draft of the paper [on virtual 
prayer on Shabbat] came up, 
and committee members were 
very skeptical about whether we 

should be encouraging people 
to use technology on Shabbat. 
And then once people realized 
what COVID was going to be, 
the conversation really became 
fast-tracked in a lot of ways.

How did the pandemic expedite 
the permissibility of virtual 
minyans?
RJH: The decision to permit a 
minyan virtually was actually 
quite controversial. The first 
time that I proposed it, the 
committee was simply not 
interested. With the closing 
of synagogues around the 
world because of COVID, the 
committee backtracked just a 
few days later.

How have you advocated with 
Zoom officials for updates 
based on the needs of Shabbat 
and holidays?
RJH: I spent a decent amount 
of effort trying to make Zoom 
more Shabbat and Jewish 
holiday-friendly. One of the 
challenges of Zoom is that a 
meeting normally could only 
last for 24 hours, which is a 
problem if you’
re trying to have 
25 hours of Yom Kippur or two 
days of Rosh Hashanah without 
touching your computer. At the 
end of August, I was delighted 

that we were successful in 
getting permission to have 
Zoom meetings/webinars 
extended to up to 72 hours for 
communities where Shabbat 
and Jewish holiday observance 
require that feature.

How did you get in touch with 
the powers that be at Zoom?
RJH:I worked my way up the 
corporate ladder at Zoom until 
I found the right person who 
had the ability to make some 
of these changes. We looked at 
other options, but Zoom has 
the price and features that we 
needed. 

What happens after COVID is 
over? Is this a game changer?
RJH: This is a change that was 
coming anyway. COVID just 
brought it on faster. When 
the Law Committee had the 
conversation in November, they 
asked me, “Do you think all 
congregations will be streaming 
services someday?” I said very 
flippantly, “Well, only the ones 
that are still in business!” 

Rabbi Jason Miller is president 
of Access Technology in West 
Bloomfield. He is a local educator and 
tech entrepreneur, who is a leading 
expert on the impact of technology on 
Jewish life.

Atoning Over Zoom

How video technology will connect Jews during the High Holidays.

Rabbi Jason 
Miller

Jews in the Digital Age
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Rosh Hashanah 5781

