Members of the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in downtown D.C. can now celebrate the upcoming High Holidays right alongside Jewish celebrities the likes of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Well, sort of.

The synagogue launched its “You In A Pew” fundraiser Wednesday, offering members a chance to have a cardboard cutout of themselves placed in a pew next to a cutout of a famous Jewish figure that has visited Sixth & I over the past 15 years. For a $36 donation, the cutout will be seated in the star-studded congregation and debuted during the live-streams of upcoming High Holiday services. Some of the notable faces slated to appear in the sanctuary include Ginsburg, actress Amy Schumer, and broadway star Idina Menzel.

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Sixth & I communications manager Michelle Eider says that the idea for the cutouts was brainstormed in a recent fundraising meeting, and the staff was “immediately excited.”  The funds from “You In A Pew” will be put towards the synagogue’s production of virtual Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah services next month.

“This is a time of year when people really crave that feeling of being in community with each other, and we’ve just really been missing those face-to-face interactions with our community,” Eider says. “We knew that although we can’t gather physically for the High Holidays, we wanted to create something special to help people find meaning, and connection, and I think also a little bit of levity, too.”

Cutouts and virtual renderings have become the replacement-du-jour for human crowds during the pandemic. Major League Baseball teams have been packing their stadiums with the 2D-prints of fans in lieu of the real thing, while the NBA is filling empty arena seats with live-streamed displays of virtual fans. (And remember when The Inn at Little Washington planned to fill its socially distanced spaces with life-size human dolls?)

Eider says that the fundraiser has already been a hit since its launch at 10 a.m., bringing 25 donations (which totals around $900). She says some people have even submitted photos of their Jewish cats and dogs to fill the pews.

“It’s really great to see the community responding so well, and having a little fun at a time when I think we all need something like this,” Eider says.