Coronavirus (COVID-19) | Tampa Jewish Federation

A Message from Our CEO

Dear Friends,

I’m guessing that most of you – like me – are tired of hearing the words unprecedented times, but I can’t think of a better term to describe the last several days, especially since we made the very difficult decision to suspend all of our in-person programs and services and commit as wholly and uncompromisingly to the health of our community as possible. The only exception to this policy is, of course, the excellent care we provide to our Weinberg Village residents.

We will continue to follow the guidance from and in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and the State of Florida. At this time, no one can predict with any certainty when we’ll reopen to the public, so I’m not even going to suggest a possible date for that to happen.

As you all know, our two major facilities, the Maureen and Douglas Cohn Jewish Community Campus and the Bryan Glazer Family JCC are both spectacular centers and are typically great hubs of activity serving thousands of people every day, but the most important word in JCC is our middle name, community and, as you’ll see below, we’re planning to offer many social, recreational, cultural, fitness and educational programs online for as long as possible because we need each other more than ever now. We hope you’ll take advantage of some or all of these programs. The ones below are just the beginning.

One of our most important Jewish values states, Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh – we’re all responsible for one another. To help us keep in line with that critical and cherished tradition, we’re in the process of working with Tampa Jewish Family Services, our Jewish Community Relations Council and our Young Adult Division to create a volunteer corps to help serve the most vulnerable and needy in our community and more information on that front will be announced soon.

I anticipate communicating with our different stakeholder groups regularly through Shalom Tampa and other online vehicles during these unprecedented times – there’s that term again – especially since our good friends and trusted partners at the Jewish Press have had to temporarily suspend publication of the paper. In the meantime, I cannot implore you strongly enough to help to ensure our community’s health by practicing the social distancing and quarantine protocols of the CDC, now and throughout the near term. And please, take care of yourselves and your families. We’ll get through this together.

Shabbat Shalom,

Gary

Gary Gould

Florida Department of Health

COVID-19 Call Center available 24/7

1 (866) 779-6121

or email

COVID-19@flhealth.gov