Intimacy is the new gold standard of community building for 2021. This was true long before the COVID-19 pandemic placed these e-dvars and emails among the most important engagement tools my synagogue and favorite organizations had available in a virtual world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, in some ways, made Jewish community more broadly accessible than ever. In 2020, nonprofits and synagogues quickly began offering Jewish content in virtual spaces to compensate for the lack of in-person gatherings.