A Marseille synagogue runs its first paperless High Holy Days season
A 480-family Sephardic shul replaces handwritten seat charts and three Excel workbooks with one Unisoft account — and survives Rosh Hashanah without an emergency call.
A Marseille Sephardic synagogue with 480 member families had run its High Holy Days the same way for two decades: handwritten seat charts pinned to the wall, a paper Yahrzeit calendar in the rabbi's office, three different Excel workbooks for dues, donations and gala pledges. The 2025 season finally pushed the leadership to consolidate.
האתגר
- High Holy Days seating managed on paper — every year the same arguments, the same misallocated seats
- Yahrzeit calendar maintained by hand in a paper ledger with mistakes accumulating year over year
- 480 dues records spread across three Excel files with no cross-referencing
- No CERFA pipeline — receipts written by hand, often weeks late
מה שבנינו יחד
- Member migration of 480 families with full Hebrew calendar enrichment (Yahrzeit, Hebrew birthdays)
- High Holy Days digital seat plan with kibbud assignments tied to dues status and giving history
- Aliyot management module configured with real-time pledge entry on the bimah
- GoCardless mandates set up for 280 families on a single membership drive evening
מספרים שהשתנו
Digital seat plan with rules per family eliminated double-bookings and forgotten reservations.
Live gala dashboard projected on screen during the dinner — pledges entered in real time, receipts emailed before the dessert.
End-of-year batch replaces what used to be 6 weeks of handwritten work.
SEPA membership conversion drive enabled by GoCardless integration.
The first Rosh Hashanah where the gabbai didn't spend the entire morning fixing seat conflicts. The community noticed before the leadership did.
— Anonymized testimonial · Marseille Sephardic synagogue
