New York – Two years ago, some 80 members of Temple Emanu-El in Closter brought their Selichot service to Ground Zero, offering prayers and stories at the site of the devastated World Trade Center.
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“The solemn feelings [at the site] made it more potent and powerful,” said the congregation’s Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner, noting that this year — with Sept. 11 and Selichot observances falling so close together — congregants will once again travel to lower Manhattan for the service.
The shul will hold “a traditional Conservative Selichot service” on Saturday night, Sept. 12, said Kirshner. A series of penitential prayers, Selichot takes place late on the Saturday evening preceding Rosh HaShanah.
“Selichot invokes the High Holy Days,” said Kirshner, “like a beacon or trumpet.” Using special prayer melodies that offer a foretaste of those used on the High Holy Days, “they are a wake-up call, reminding us of the High Holy Days.” The shul’s chazzan, Cantor Israel Singer, will join in the service, he said.
Joining the members of Emanu-El will be Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, president of the New York Board of Rabbis — of which Kirshner is treasurer — and a chaplain of the New York Fire Department.
Potasnik, a first-responder in 2001, was also with the congregation at its service two years ago, when congregants “told stories in between their prayers,” said Kirshner. Speakers ranged from “people who lost friends, to physicians who worked at the site,” he said.
Kirshner noted that the service was made possible with the help of site developer Larry Silverstein, “who allows access to this area of Ground Zero.”
The rabbi added that members of the congregation will make Havdallah in the synagogue parking lot before leaving for New York. He expects more than 60 people to attend, he said, adding that he is not aware of any other congregation planning to hold a service at the World Trade Center site.
“Selichot is a time that puts a microscope on the month of Elul,” said Kirshner. “We blow the shofar every day…. It’s really a bell-ringing, telling us to prepare ourselves to usher in the new year.”
In addition, he said, “it’s a solemn time to make right what’s wrong between you and God, as well as you and other people, and to recalibrate” those relationships. Selichot, he said, reminds you “not to fall into your usual Saturday night customs but to do some soul-searching.”
The rabbi said it is important as Jews and as members of the wider community to keep alive the memory of those who died in the attacks on Sept. 11.
“We need to memorialize those who died needlessly on that day. It needs to stay in the frontal lobe of our memory so we don’t forget the reason they died,” he said.
Explaining that the holiday is about “asking for forgiveness and the ability to forgive,” he said, “it is our responsibility to do this in a place where it may be the hardest to do.” While those who will attend the service are certainly not ready to forgive the bombers, he said, going to a place of tragedy “brings a sense of solemnity and introspection,” just as people visit Poland to reflect on the Holocaust or go to a cemetery between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
He said he hopes the service at Ground Zero will accomplish two things — ushering in the season of reflection and renewal “and branding the memory of 9/11 in our daily actions. I’m afraid we’re reaching a state where we’re quickly forgetting.”
For further information, call the synagogue at (201) 750-9997.
I like this idea!
Once again, the Reform and Conservative movements are in a perpetual struggle for relevance……how sad….
think of reform and conservatives as teenagers who have gone astray, you dont bash them and toss them by the wayside, you wait patiently and try to provide them with clarity.
Are they having the pre selichos social there too?
very appropriate place to hold this selichot services, the conservative movement is indeed in Ground Zero themselves!!
Thats great, but so what! Do u keep shabbos? Its Korais, slichos is only a minhag,in which it says if u use ‘H name w/o a head covering your wicked. Hey bro start with the basics!!!!!!!!!
To #4 from #2 :
I stand by my comment…..nothing more than a struggle for relevance for 2 dying movements….
It’s a good idea… wish we’d have thought of it! Makes selichos visceral.
Let’s not get petty here, the conservetive movement was founded upon the utmost disrespect of the torah and chazal, the current leaders of these organisations are amei haarets of the first degree, the jts school is a practical joke, any 17 year old yeshiva student has more knowledge the there gradutaes in every field, a big portion of their membership is not halachikly jewish, the joke continues at ground zero, whilst they should be soulsearching about the sponsord chilul shabat the eating of treafus the disregard in torah misinai the law of family purity,they do a meaningless act of saying selicos at ground zero, I’m reminded of wat god told us at mount sinai “if u accept the law all is well,if not here shall be uy burial place
The reform and conservative movements with their vanishing shul memberships are nothing more than progressive social movements. I agree with Quote #2 . How about they go after the fur industry next…???
look what we’ve stooped to, defending conservative judism-whatever that means (to quote rav gifter ztl)
To # 13:
#11 is unfortunately correct. He is merely stating the numbers. If you are conservative or reform in America today, you have a 90% chance of your grandchildren being gentile. Sorry, but facts are stubborn things……
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU !!!! it’s Elul and it’s time for teshuva and reflection–show some achdus for pete’s sake!! I see nothing wrong with what they want to do at Ground Zero. But even if you don’t agree with them, this isn’t the forum for it. Think Bais Hamikdosh and why we lost it. Ahavas Yisroel means love your fellow Jew–it doesn’t say love only the frum Jew !! And to answer #20 – many conservative Jews do keep taharas Hamishpacha and most of them keep kosher as well. I used to live in PA and there was a large conservative congregation there and many of them used the mikva and most of them kept kosher.
Rabbi Potasnik is also the chief chapalain of the FDNY and a very close personal friend of rudy giuliani