Newsletter Submissions

Hello!

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS PAGE BEFORE SENDING NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS.

The Temple Emanu-El Newsletter is sent twice per week to all of our members plus approximately 200 additional families who have requested to receive it. In order to keep the newsletter manageable for our readers, we have some constraints on what we can publish and the format it can take.

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What Gets Published?

People don't read newsletters that are too long or too repetitive. Therefore, we have to be careful about what we publish, how often we include it, and how relevant it is to our synagogue. Generally, we include information about our own programs and a very limited number of other programs in the community that we would like to support - and that we have the space to include. Unfortunately, we cannot publish information about every outside program that is submitted to us.

Publication Timelines • UPDATED Nov 8 2022

With very few exceptions, we send two newsletters per week:

Shabbat Newsletter
This is a short format newsletter, exclusively for programs and services happening from Friday afternoon through Saturday night. It includes a short description of the parasha, etc. It doesn't include general news, fundraising appeals, etc.
Approved* submissions, announcements,  schedule changes, etc. must be received by Monday at noon (ie for the coming Shabbat newsletter).
Usually created on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning and circulated for feedback Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sent to our mailing list on Friday

Sunday Newsletter
This is our main newsletter which includes short descriptions of programs and activities for the coming week. Additional room is given for long-term planning, etc.
Approved* submissions, announcements,  schedule changes, etc. must be received by Tuesday at noon (ie for the coming Sunday newsletter).
Usually created on Tuesday and Wednesday and circulated for feedback Thursday and Friday.
Sent to our mailing list Sunday morning (or the next day if Sunday is Yom Tov)

*What do we mean by 'approved submissions'? Temple Emanu-El programs and activities can be submitted for inclusion up until the deadline. But if you are submitting an outside program, activity, fundraiser, etc, it generally needs to be approved by our program staff, administration, or clergy before it is considered for publication in our newsletter. The more lead time you can give us, the better. Generally, at least one full week is needed PRIOR to the newsletter submission deadline. Staff contact emails and info are HERE.

Submission Format

Our newsletters are intended to be an accessible 'jump-off point' to find out more about programming, services and important information. The newsletter is not intended to be a newspaper with long articles, full-page ads, etc. While we do sometimes include slightly longer feature articles at the top of the newsletter, these are generally about high-priority internal Temple Emanu-El communications priorities.

With very few exceptions, graphics in the newsletters are 200x200 pixels. Some examples:

These images should have very little or even no text. No text is fine! Every image is accompanied by a text headline so there is no need to have the same headline in the image if you don't want it. The graphics are only meant to grab attention, to get someone to read the short text that accompanies the picture and, where applicable, to click for more information. For internal Temple Emanu-El programs, our communications department will create these graphics. For outside programs, we prefer to be supplied with appropriate graphics; however, we will create them or adapt them as needed and as resources allow.

Flyers, Large Ads, Large PDFs

Sorry, our format does not include flyers, large ads, large pdfs, etc. If you submit a larger format image or flyer with lots of information on it, we will do our best to create a small 200x200 pixel image for inclusion in our newsletter. If we can, we will place your flyer on our website and link to the flyer from our newsletter.

Embedded Links

The embedded link in your pdf will not work in our newsletter. Every pdf we receive must be converted to an image file that does not have embedded links. That said, we can make your entire graphic, itself, a link and/or include a link in the text that accompanies it.

Text

With very few exceptions, the text that accompanies an entry in our newsletter is no longer than about 50 words. All text is subject to our editing and longer submissions will be shortened. If your submission is of particular importance or significance to our Temple Emanu-El community and it needs us to communicate a substantial amount of information, that will more likely be done on a page of our website, with a link provided from our newsletter.

B'Nei Mitzvah Blurbs

In the Shabbat newsletter immediately preceding a member's bar / bat / b'nei mitzvah, we like to include a short blurb, introducing them to the congregation. These should be submitted approximately two weeks in advance to our CJLL Director and our Communications Director by clicking HERE. Submissions should include at least one, but preferably 2-3 photographs that we can choose from. Don't worry about cropping or sizing the photo – we'll take care of that! Generally, the larger format you send us, the better. The blurb should be approximately 60-80 words and may be edited by our team.

Here are some examples as they appeared in our newsletters:

Annie Grunwald will be called to Torah as a Bat Mitzvah and will chant Shirat HaYam, the Song of the Sea. The daughter of Alice Malach and Alex Grunwald and big sister to Jackie, Annie attends Claude Watson School for the Arts. She keeps herself very happy and busy with ballet dancing, swimming, piano studies and musical theatre. Annie is excited to be joining the cast of A Little Night Music this spring at Koerner Hall. Mazal tov!

Casy Miller, son of Jaci Richman and Stu Miller and brother of Quincy and Dusty, will be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah. Casy is in grade seven at Bayview Glen Independent school. He loves playing soccer, watching hockey and hanging out with his friends, family and his dogs Indigo and Poppy. Thank you to Jaci and Stu for sponsoring our kiddush lunch and a hearty mazal tov to Casy and his whole family!

If you have more questions or an approved submission, please email communications @templeemanuel.ca

To contact our staff about an outside submission, please see this page.