The Jewish Uniformed Service Association of Maryland is hosting its ninth annual Rosh Hashanah services free to veterans starting with a Shabbat dinner on the erev of Rosh Hashanah.
This year the Erev of Rosh Hashanah falls on the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11.
“Especially to first responders, law enforcement and … military, it’s a very solemn day,” said Rabbi Chesky Tenenbaum, director of JUSA.
For Tenenbaum, Sept. 11, 2001, hit close to home.
“I lived in New York, just a couple miles from the Twin Towers and definitely remember that day,” he said. “I was able, a couple weeks after 9/11, to visit ground zero and see the heroic work of all the first responders and the military.”
Tenenbaum said his experience on 9/11 contributed to what drew him to chaplaincy — and his uncle, Col. Jacob Z. Goldstein of the New York Army National Guard.
“That year, Rosh Hashanah was a few days after 9/11,” he recalled.
Tenenbaum watched as his uncle took a piece of wood and buckets to create a makeshift bimah for Rosh Hashanah services that year.
“He said when he blew the shofar, everything stopped,” Tenenbaum recounted of a recent conversation with his uncle. “Jews, non-Jews, everyone stopped to hear the shofar being blown and that was something very special.”
Tenenbaum told Baltimore Jewish Times that preparing for the new year is preparing for ways in which the Jewish people can better themselves and the world around them to make it a better place.
“A lesson that we learn from Rosh Hashanah [is] how we start anew for a new year,” he added. “Especially for veterans, and also in general men and women in uniform, [High Holidays] can be difficult for them to find a place where they feel completely at home … That’s why at the JUSA Chabad House, it’s a place for them, as our motto is serving those who serve us.”
JUSA is recognized as a Veteran Friendly Congregation by the Military Chaplains Association, the only synagogue in Maryland, according to Tenenbaum.
He added that community members can help support those who serve this High Holiday season by sponsoring a seat for JUSA’s Rosh Hashanah Friday night meal and Rosh Hashanah services.
Like every Shabbat at the JUSA Chabad, Tenenbaum will say a prayer for those in the U.S. armed forces’ safety and security. With 9/11 being the erev of Rosh Hashanah and on Shabbat, Tenenbaum said he expects a higher turnout this year.
“I think with everything going on in the world, especially the Middle East and Israel, that people, the Jewish community, definitely feels more connected to their Judaism and to God,” he added. “I think that will definitely play a role as well with all the uncertainties happening in the world.”
In addition to their high holiday services, JUSA is delivering honey cakes to veterans for Rosh Hashanah as a part of their Veteran Circle of Friends initiative for the third year in a row.
“The JUSA Chabad House was created for them… to be inspired and to give inspiration … especially now to cope with everything going on in the world,” Tenenbaum added. “The veterans who have fought in … Iraq or Afghanistan, for them these trying times are especially hard … So through connecting them to [their] Judaism, through connecting them to God through prayers, my hope is that they’ll be inspired and be able to help them cope.”
For more information or to sponsor a seat for a hero go to, jewishusamd.org/highholiday
mresnicow@midatlanticmedia.com
