This essay is devoted to using the insights of recent historical work and the findings of social psychology to consider an alternative story of Judaism’s path, trying to conjure up a world where the Temple survived the depredations of Babylon and Rome.

by Matthew LaGrone

A fictitious tale based on the symbols of Rosh HaShanah

Keren helps a very special chrysalis to open up and turn into a butterfly. The thread from the chrysalis’s cocoon turns into magic shoes that give Keren superpowers. She uses these powers to help the Angel of Rosh HaShanah to retrieve the ancient shofar with which to open the treasure chest and herald in the new year.
This story is about renewing the inner strength within each of us.

by Razia Mizrahi

When the Sages wanted to design the liturgical cycle (Machzor) for Rosh Hashanah, they placed at its center judgment and enthronement. In contrast, when they fashioned this holy day by means of biblical passages to be read in its course, for the focal readings from the Torah and Haftarah passages, they opted for the motif of parenthood. This motif links the four selected readings: each passage recalls a son born to a childless woman: Sarah, Hannah, and Rachel. All the passages include an additional motif: sons who had become distanced from their fathers for various reasons. In this way, the relationship between the Creator and the Jewish People is presented as that between parent and offspring.

by Dr. Zahava (Keller) Neuberger

The Yamim Noraim are very different from our other Jewish yearly events. There are not parties and carnivals; there are not stories of miracles, heroes, and the history of the Jewish people. There are not very many tangible symbols or special songs. What there are long synagogue services, unfamiliar prayers, and very difficult themes like repentance, justice, and mercy. Though these holidays can be so difficult, still this is the time that synagogues overflow with daveners, families come together as adult children come home, people send greeting cards, and one can often feel the buzz of the holiday season in a Jewish way.

By Sylvia Schildt

In its heyday, from the early 20th century through the 1950’s, Brownsville, a crowded working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, was populated mainly by Jewish immigrants and their American-born children. If you were born or raised here, like myself and my four siblings, you had the impression that the whole world was Jewish. Or nearly.
* Yiddish for “holiday”