Welcome to a year of holiday celebrations! From apples and honey to bright Hanukkah candles, from the seder table to the Ten Commandments, holidays are rich with education, community, and traditions. They provide a rhythm to the Jewish year and connect generation to generation.
HOLIDAYS
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
We hold services in the Sanctuary and Lower Level at 87th Street and at Fifth Avenue and 90th Street. Seats are available by ticket only. There are also High Holiday services for families and children of all ages.
Blessings for Rosh Hashanah Evening
Blessings for Yom Kippur Evening
Sukkot
We mark the beginning of fall through song and prayer, shaking the lulav and etrog, and gathering in the sukkah. Join us for services throughout the eight days of Sukkot.
Blessings for Sukkot
Shemini Atzeret
We gather for the final days of the fall festival season and recite the Yizkor service. Hear Cantor Schwartz chant Geshem, the prayer for rain, at the beginning of the musaf service.
Simchat Torah
In the evening we celebrate the Torah with lively music.
The next morning, we end the annual cycle of Torah reading and begin it again, honoring two congregants as Hatan Torah and Kallat B’reishit.
Hanukkah
In honor of Hanukkah there are parties, art projects, concerts, and activities for all ages.
Tu BiShvat
Tu BiShvat finds us eating fruit, learning about the produce of the Land of Israel, and focusing on sustainability and responsibility to the environment. The Shabbat closest to Tu BiShvat is always Shabbat Shirah, “the Sabbath of Song.” The cantors prepare special musical services for that Shabbat morning.
Purim
In addition to a full megillah reading for older children, teens and adults, Purim includes a phenomenal Purim spiel, a Purim service for young children, and a Purim carnival for families. There are costumes, noisemakers, hamantashen, and silliness for all.
Pesach
Before Pesach, we prepare with learning opportunities for adults and families. On the first two nights of Pesach there are congregational seders at the synagogue. During the holiday, there are services and more learning events.
Park Avenue Synagogue Pesach Guide
Seder Resources
Pesach 5781
Shavuot
In the evening on erev Shavuot, there is a Tikkun Leil Shavuot learning event, and in the morning, festival services for adults and for families.
Tisha B’Av
Tisha B'Av, the 9th of Av, is a solemn fast day that commemorates the anniversary of a number of disasters in Jewish history, primarily the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. The fast, like Yom Kippur, starts at sundown and lasts until dark the following day.
Between ma’ariv and the chanting of Eikhah, the Book of Lamentations, we have a study session on the themes or the liturgy of the day.
Sat / Jul 17 / 8:24 pm / Fast Begins
Sun / Jul 18 / 8:59 pm / Fast Ends
Tisha b’Av Learning
Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen
Sat / Jul 17 / 8:15 pm
Menachem Z. Rosensaft
Livestream
Confronting God, the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and the bystanders to the genocide in which six million Jews were murdered, Menachem Rosensaft's new book of poetry also reflects on themes that echo from then to now: other global genocides, the urgency of racial justice, and the separation and loss experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rosensaft will discuss his writing process and share selections from his latest volume.
If you would like to purchase Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen, you can find it on Amazon.com
Ma’ariv and Reading of Megillat Eikhah
Sat / Jul 17 / 9:00 pm
Livestream
Morning Minyan with Torah and Haftorah Reading
Sun / Jul 18 / 9:00 am
Zoom. Register for Link or Livestream