September 9, 2020

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America, held by conference call, on Wed., Sept. 9, 2020, President Daniel Korobkin in the chair, and Reuven Tradburks acting on behalf of the secretary, the following items were decided:

President’s Report.
Daniel Korobkin reported on the efforts in response to COVID-19 directed by Rabbi Dratch that have been an enormous service to our members, including the manuals for the tefillot of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and what may be omitted, as well as a manual for tefilla for those unable to attend a minyan for Yamim Noraim. In addition, progress is being made on the website for officiating rabbis available to perform marriages for non affiliated Jews. Tradition has been enhancing its online presence. Rav Schachter’s availability has been invaluable and he will be responding to questions again this week for Yamim Noraim and for Sukkot and in particular Simchat Torah.

We have distributed committee solicitation to all the Executive Committee members to volunteer for our various committees.

Motion to accept Rabbi Shalom Ber Bloom and Rabbi Shalom Shuchat as masmichim for individual, qualified Chabad rabbonim on a case by case basis passed unanimously.

Motion to accept the following new members passed unanimously: Jared Anstandig, Eliezer Buechler, Shimshon Jacob, Tuvya Tom Kasimov, Mitchell Kurtz, Saul Paves, David Rimmer, Isaiah Rothstein, Daniel Sherman, Guy Tal.

Discussion to require that all new members names be distributed to the membership in a timely fashion. Rabbi Dratch undertook to distribute the names of the new member applicants 2 weeks prior to the Executive Committee meetings.

A presentation was made by MikvaTech (https://en.mikvatech.com/): Cleaner and Healthier Mikva Water by Zevi Reinitz and Jonathan Heller, an innovative water purification mechanism that enhances the safety of mikvaot.