Every Sept. or early Oct., Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and a high holiday for the community, occurs. This year it began at sunset on Friday Sept. 15th and lasted throughout the weekend until the sunrise on Sunday Sept. 17th. Rosh Hashanah is a special time of the year where people in the Jewish community pray to their god and make positive hopes about the new year.
According to the Jewish Student Union’s (JSU) club advisor, Mindy Daitchman, Rosh Hashanah gives her the opportunity to pray for a fortunate and happy upcoming year.
“It allows me, as being part of the Jewish people, to celebrate a very special and holy time,” Daitchman said. “It connects us to our God and our religion, and allows us to have an opportunity to plead God for another healthy, successful year, to have any requests and just beseech ourselves to our God.”
Senior Noam Halpern said for Rosh Hashanah, he celebrates by going to synagogue and having an early dinner throughout the weekend.
“My custom is that I have a big dinner, like an early dinner, and then we go to synagogue the night that it starts, and then do the same thing the next morning,” said Halpern. “Going to synagogue and coming back, it’s a weekend long celebration.”
According to Daitchman, synagogue is a major part of the holiday, along with specific foods during meals.
“So one of (the traditions) is synagogue. The other is we hear the shofar being blown in synagogue,” Daitchman said. “A shofar is a ram’s horn, which someone in the synagogue blows and we listen to. We eat apples dipped in honey, we eat pomegranates and we eat fish. There’s many different symbolic foods that we eat at this time.”
Sophomore Dalia Falck said eating fish for dinner represents bringing the beginning of the new year into realization.
“There’s a tradition where there’s a fish at the dinner table to represent the head of the new year.” Falck said.
According to Daitchman, along with eating fish, other foods also symbolize something to the Jewish holiday. She also said that something fun JSU did as a community before Rosh Hashanah is eating caramel apples together.
“Apple dipped in honey (means) a sweet new year. Pomegranates have a lot of seeds in it so it (means it) should be a prosperous year.” Daitchman said. “(JSU) made caramel apples to have a fun connection with the holiday.”
The next Jewish Student Union meeting is Thursday September 21st after school.
