Day of Atonement to Be Marked with Prayers for Victory and for Jews in Europe

The chanting of Kol Nidre tonight will open the most holy day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, which will end at sundown tomorrow.

Throughout the country, memorial services will be held for the hundreds of thousands of Jews massacred by the Nazis in Europe. Prayers will be recited for the safety of those who are now subjected to torture and starvation on the Nazi-dominated European continent, as well as for a speedy victory of the United Nations.

Major Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, national director of the Selective Service, will speak to the Jewish men in the armed forces on a Yom Kippur broadcast to be heard over the Columbia network from 4 to 4:30 tomorrow. Special arrangements by the Army and Navy, the Jewish Welfare Board and the USO will enable Jewish service men to observe Yom Kippur in the traditional manner, it was announced today by Walter Rothschild, chairman of the JWB’s Army and Navy Committee.

The blowing of the Shofar, the ram’s horn, tomorrow evening, will end the all-day fast which originated in biblical times and is described in the 16th chapter of Leviticus. In those days the people fasted and afflicted themselves while the high priest made atonement for the entire house of Israel. This atonement was made by animal sacrifice, and particularly by the symbolism involved in formally driving the scapegoat into the wilderness bearing with it the sins of the people. Now prayer takes the place of sacrifice, Jews worshipping fervently on this Sabbath of Sabbaths, abstaining on this day from food and drink, spending the day in the synagogue in prayer, meditation and supplication for forgiveness. Yizkor, the memorial service in which the worshippers pray for their departed, is one of the outstanding features of the Day of Atonement.