Rabbis prepare to mark 9/11 on Rosh Hashana
For Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, a Modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, observing Rosh Hashana this year without acknowledging the events of Sept. 11, 2001, would be unthinkable.
“Yes, Rosh Hashana is a sacred day,” he told JNS. “But nothing could be more sacred than remembering the victims of 9/11, showing gratitude to the heroes of 9/11 and vowing to uproot the evil of terror.”
This year, Rosh Hashana will begin on Friday night, Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary of the attacks in which terrorists killed 2,753 people in New York.
“We will absolutely remember 9/11 on Rosh Hashana,” Steinmetz said. “It is simply too large an event to overlook, and everyone will be thinking about it that day.”
Steinmetz plans to hold the synagogue’s annual 9/11 remembrance on the Shabbat before Rosh Hashana, when it will acknowledge members of the NYC police and fire departments. Members of the departments will be called up during services, and the congregation will honor them.
“We cannot forget the evil of the perpetrators, who murdered thousands in cold blood,” the Rabbi Steinmetz said. “The terrorists who perpetrated this attack are nearly ideologically identical to Hamas and Hezbollah.”
“Gratitude is one of Judaism’s foundational values, and very much belongs on Rosh Hashana,” he continued. “We will never forget the nearly 3,000 victims of this terror attack, many of whom were members of the Jewish community.”
He added that “above all, we will never forget the heroes who ran into the buildings when everyone else was running out.”
At Temple Emanu-El, a Reform congregation on the Upper East Side, Joshua Davidson, senior rabbinic chair, plans to incorporate a commemoration of 9/11 into services on the first night of Rosh Hashana, which falls on Sept. 11.
“Many of whose members were here at that time — and all of our members think back on that day with deep emotion — one can’t not, I think, incorporate it,” he said. “It will certainly be a part of my message, my sermon that night.”
Though internal reflection is of the utmost importance on the holiday, remembering “communal struggles” can be a similarly beneficial and reflective experience, Davidson said.
“Rosh Hashana is Yom Hazikaron — the Day of Remembrance in Hebrew — it’s about G-d’s remembering covenant with us,” he added. “But remembrance also involves our own remembering where we’ve come from and those events that have shaped us into who we are and the community that we are.”
“It may not be the same for every city, but for New Yorkers, 9/11 is an event that will always be part of our collective identity,” he said.
The convergence of the High Holiday and the somber anniversary can also remind Jews of their communal responsibilities to one another, Davidson said.
“The way the country responded in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy — how we came together, no matter our political or ideological affiliation — can teach us something about healing the divisions that exist within the country today and within the Jewish community,” he said.
