Dear Webmasters:
Happy New Year!
It’s hard to believe that the High Holidays are here. As your congregation makes any last minute decisions, make sure you check out these Preparing for the High Holidays resources. We’ve also compiled a list of helpful resources that continues to be updated as additional resources become available.
In anticipation of many congregations live streaming their high holiday services on their websites, we’ve upgraded the servers to be able to handle the extra traffic. Now there is more than enough bandwidth to accommodate the increased traffic for September and October.
Looking to live stream your services through Zoom? We just added a new plugin to make it easier to stream your live services through your website. The Video Conferencing with Zoom plugin gives you the extensive functionality to manage Zoom meetings, webinars, recordings, users and reports from your WordPress dashboard. You can create Posts as meetings directly from your dashboard to show in the frontend as a meeting page and allow users to directly join via that page with a click of a button. Follow these directions to set it up.
Will your congregation offer High Holiday opportunities for non-members and streaming services? Make sure your profile is updated in the ReformJudaism.org congregation directory in Reform Movement Marketplace.
Many of our congregations are offering virtual opportunities (non-High Holiday related) that your members can take advantage of. Browse the Reform Movement calendar for a full list. If your congregation has a virtual gathering or program that's open to the public, submit it for inclusion in the Reform Movement calendar.
A big announcement this week regarding 2021 plans for URJ camps and Israel programs. It’s worth a read and please pass along to your members.
And as always, don’t forget to utilize the Communications group or the RJ Web Builder group in The Tent as a place to share resources, ask questions, and connect with other communities and congregation webmasters.
Please help me congratulate the congregations who have gone live recently on RJ Web Builder 3.0 (a full list is always available on the help site):
Temple Solel, Paradise Valley, AZ
Congregation M’kor Hayim, Tucson, AZ
Congregation Beth Knesset Bamidbar, Lancaster, CA
Temple Beit HaYam, Stuart, FL
Temple Israel, Ottawa, ON
Congregation B’nai Israel, Spartanburg, SC
Joel Emerman
Congregational Websites Manager
212.452.6579 (Central Time)
Quick Tips
How to Turn On or Off Comments On a Single Post
Within WordPress you can disable comments for a single post, instead of disabling them for the entire site.
How to Add a Progress Tracker
Looking to display the progress of an ongoing fundraising project? You can create a progress tracker without any additional plugins.
Did You Know?
Bulletin Tip of the Month
Communications professionals must always choose words carefully. Are you aware that these everyday words and phrases have racist connotations? Read more.
Ideas for High Holiday Planning are Available
In partnership with many bodies of the Reform Movement (ACC, ARJE, CCAR, ECE-RJ, HUC-JIR, NATA, NFTY, RAC, and PEP-RJ), we’re gathering, creating, and distributing a variety of resources to help you prioritize your community’s health, safety, and spiritual wellbeing throughout the High Holiday season.
NFTYx Available for Teens This Fall
NFTYx is the new space where teens can turn their ideas into experiences for others. Make sure your teens and the adults who care about them learn about the opportunities for expansion and innovation that NFTYx presents.
Staying in Touch
We are challenged in reaching current webmasters due to high turnover and changes in email addresses. If you are receiving this email, you are the person who was reported to the URJ to be handling your congregation's website. If there are additional people who need to be on this list or if you need to get off this list, please send corrected information to datamgmt@urj.org.