What To Expect in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur

This article has been reprinted with permission from InterfaithFamily

If this is your first Yom Kippur, you should be aware that it's an entire day of prayer, much longer than on Shabbat or any other Jewish holiday. There are five official services on Yom Kippur:

Evening service, often called Kol Nidre after its opening ritual
Morning service (Shacharit)
Additional service (Musaf)
Afternoon service (Minchah)
Closing service (Neilah) which is only done on Yom Kippur


An ordinary sabbath or holiday only has four services, and none are as long and complex as those on Yom Kippur, which has many added poems and readings. Most synagogues have a break between the additional morning service and the afternoon service. Many people who fast find that they are tired and need a nap. Not everyone has the staying power to pray all the services, and many Jews just choose to go to their favorites. Kol Nidre, with its solemn tune, is probably most popular, and the memorial service, usually done after the Torah reading in the morning service, but sometimes moved to the afternoon, is also well-attended.

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Celebrating the High Holy Days with Kids

This article has been reprinted with permission from InterfaithFamily

Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), together, are known as the High Holy Days (or High Holidays). For many families, these holidays are the most synagogue-focused, requiring creativity and patience as services are explained to children.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur demand a great deal of self reflection and self-control. At first glance, this might make them seem irrelevant or even oppressive to children under the age of ten or even thirteen, but the gravity and universal pull of these two holidays – when North American synagogues are filled beyond capacity – is felt by youngsters, too.

While the meaning and impact may be far less intellectual or spiritual for children, these holidays are impressive in their solemnity and sheer size. In addition to special meals and attention from family and friends, children will notice the crowds and expanded size of the sanctuary. The annual beginning-of-school excitement will become associated with the start of the Jewish year. For kids who attend secular schools, if they miss school to observe these Jewish holidays, that will seal their importance.

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Why Mormons can’t be anti-Zionists

by Mark Paredes for JewishJournal.com

After reading Ray Filar’s inane, vapid essay on why she is an “anti-Zionist Jew,” I googled the phrase “anti-Zionist Mormon” to see whether one of my coreligionists had published a similar piece. Although there are slightly more Mormons than Jews in the world, I was pleased – though not surprised – to find that no Mormon has written such an article. While I have come across Mormons who have criticized specific actions by the State of Israel, only Mormons who are unfamiliar with church history and doctrine could possibly oppose Zionism.

The Mormon Church has supported the Jewish people and Israel for all of its 184 years. In fact, Israel is the only country in the world whose creation was officially supported by the LDS Church. In its earliest days, the Church called on Jews to gather to Palestine and form a state. The first edition of the first Church newspaper announced that it “comes to bring good tidings of great joy to all people, but more especially to the House of Israel scattered abroad, for the Lord hath set His hand again the second time to restore them to the lands of their inheritance.”

In response to an article entitled “What Do Mormons Believe?” written by a newspaper editor, an 1834 article in a Church newspaper stated: “We believe that God has set His hand to recover the remnant of His people, Israel; and that the time is near when He will bring them from the four winds and reinstate them upon their own lands which He gave their fathers by covenant.”

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Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - Everything You Want to Know

This article has been reprinted with permission from InterfaithFamily

Rosh Hashanah starts the evening of September 24, 2014; September 13, 2015.
Yom Kippur starts the evening of October 3, 2014; September 22, 2015.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are also known as the High Holy Days or the Days of Awe. These holidays usually fall in September or October and are often characterized by long synagogue services and a focus on repentance.

The Jewish High Holidays are not always the most popular holidays in interfaith family families. How do you and your partner negotiate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the most synagogue-centric holidays on the Jewish calendar? Read InterfaithFamily.com's articles, resources and links for ways to make the High Holidays more inclusive.

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My Son's Curious About God and My Wife Doesn't Believe

From The Seesaw in The Jewish Daily Forward

Our Boy Is Starting to Ask the Big Questions

I’m a Jewish man married to a non-Jewish, not at all religious woman. I believe in God and she doesn’t. Our 5-year-old is starting to ask the big questions about what God is and whether we believe and we now feel like we have to get our story straight on this whole God thing, but don’t know where to start. Should we explain to him that we have different point of views and just be honest? Or, my wife’s idea, should we come up with one answer that is less about us and more abstract and inclusive? If the latter, any ideas? She says she doesn’t want her lack of belief to get in the way with his potential for belief. Help.

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