New York’s hundreds of synagogues and halls converted into temporary houses of worship for the Jewish High Holidays were all crowded during the Rosh Hashanah services, while many thousands of Jews observed the new year in prayers at Jewish resort hotels in the New York area.
Many non-Jewish business establishments on fashionable Fifth Avenue and other streets were closed and displayed Rosh Hashanah greeting signs in their windows. Many newspaper stands were similarly closed for the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Motion picture theatres in Jewish neighborhoods were almost empty, and some of them served as temporary houses of Jewish worship.
The World’s Fair parking lot in Flushing was packed at sundown on Rosh Hashanah Eve. One rabbi in Queens, welcoming the Rosh Hashanah Eve worshipers, explained that the services were being held only in the sanctuary, rather than in the sanctuary and lower auditorium as originally scheduled, because only about half the expected number of worshipers were present.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
