Shelby Chapper knew her daughter, Gabbi Wickeri, was feeling down at the start of May after spending a month and a half studying at home, so she seized on a fun idea.
“I said, ‘Let’s go put up pictures for the rabbi,’” Chapper said.
Chapper and her daughter, a Beverly middle school seventh grader, scoured Temple Emanu-El’s extensive photograph collection showing congregation members at events hosted by the Marblehead temple.
Instead of staring at empty seats while conducting services alone to comply with coronavirus restrictions, Rabbi David Meyer looked out at the pictures of 100 congregation members placed on the temple seating.
The virtual congregation is growing with congregation members sending in photographs and Rabbi Meyer said pictures of all 575 Emanu-El families might fill the seats.
“It made me feel good,” Wickeri said.