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The High Holidays Are Here!

For a complete list of service dates, times and locations, CLICK HERE

TO READ/WATCH THE RABBI'S ROSH HASHANA SERMONS, CLICK HERE

MEMBERS; you can still renew your membership for 2022 

CLICK HERE

Once you've renewed your membership you will be entitled to join us at all High Holiday services* and 10 Days of Awesome events.

No need to register for services, just show up! 

NOTE: registration IS required for Neilah service and all "10 Days of Awesome" events. See below for registration links.

NON-MEMBERS

Welcome! You can still purchase tickets for 2022 Yom Kippur services

CLICK HERE

Once you've purchased tickets you will be entitled to join us at Yom Kippur (inclduibg Kol Nidre and Yizkor) and the remaining 10 Days of Awesome events. 

NOTE: registration IS required for Neilah service and all "10 Days of Awesome" events. See below for registration links.

GATES OF REPENTANCE PRAYER BOOK

This Prayer Book is used exclusively for our High Holiday Services.  Please note that we do not provide prayer books and there are no loaners or book sales at services. The book will be available for pickup at the front desk of each service. The book is also necessary for livestream services as we do not screen-share.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

REGISTRATIONS

1. NEILAH SERVICE* REGISTER

2. 10 DAYS OF AWESOME IN-PERSON EVENTS! DETAILS & REGISTRATION

All services are concurrently live-streamed. Members and High Holiday ticket holders will be sent the live-stream links before the holiday.

We would love to have you and your family volunteer for any of our High Holiday events. Students are eligible for volunteer hours! Please email volunteer@cityshul.com

Click HERE to watch Rabbi Goldstein's High Holiday video.

Click HERE to see our full Mission.

Click HERE to read our anti-racism statement.

If you are interested in learning more about City Shul or attending one of our Shabbat services click here.

Rabbi Goldstein's October Message: Yom Kippur and the "Rest of the World"

Just a few days ago I received a lovely invitation from a non-Jewish colleague. It read, “It’s been way too long, let’s have coffee! How is next Monday or Tuesday?” A bit surprised, I replied, “Thank you so much! Next Monday and Tuesday are Rosh Hashana, my holiest days. Can we find an alternative?” Their answer: “Sure! How about the week after, maybe Wednesday?” “Well, that’s even holier. It’s Yom Kippur. I’ll be fasting that day.”

This email exchange got me to thinking: how is it that the “rest of the world” doesn’t know it’s our most precious and important time of the year? It’s certainly more special than Chanukah— which everyone seems to know about even if they don’t quite know what we are celebrating— yet I’m never invited to schools or radio shows to explain Yom Kippur, the way I get scores of requests around Chanukah.

We seem to get a bit defensive around December, making sure the world is cognizant of our holiday, yet September comes and we are silent.

The world invites us for coffee on Yom Kippur, and schedules meetings and exams and other things for us to stress about missing, because we need to work harder to publicly acknowledge that this is our most holy and most important time of the year. If a child attends school on Yom Kippur— no matter how important a parent thinks their math class that day is—the message to the school is that this holiday doesn’t really matter to Jews. At this time of year, all Jews are a role model to the rest of the world of what Jews do and do not do. If an office meeting is scheduled for Yom Kippur, frankly any Jew who goes to that meeting is making it so much harder for the Jew who does go to synagogue that day to miss it, because the boss can easily say “well Schwartz doesn’t take the day off, and he’s Jewish, so why should you?!”  I acknowledge that not every boss or school is  understanding, but the more honest and articulate we are about what this time of year means to us, the more understanding and respectful they can learn to become.

Why not have your child bring in a shofar to school the week before Rosh Hashana, and ask for time to explain what these days and symbols mean? How about putting an out-of-office auto reply on your work email this year for Yom Kippur: “I am out of the office spending time in community, reflecting on gratefulness and forgiveness, and participating in the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur." Bring apples and honey to your office and teach your co-workers to say "Shana Tova."

We are told to put the Chanukah menorah in our window to “publicize the miracle.” At this time of year it is important to “publicize the holiday” and let your friends, your co-workers, your colleagues, and “the rest of the world” know about it. This time is family time, reflecting time, community time, synagogue time for the whole Jewish people, and how beautiful it would be for the rest of the world to help us celebrate it.

All Event Info can be found here.