Good morning, New York. Hope you made it through last night’s storm dry, if not high. For the second time in two weeks, Central Park was hit with the all-time record for the most amount of rain to fall in a single hour.
AFTER THE DELUGE Members of two synagogues in Williamsburg, the Sambor Shul on Walton St. and Ohr Yisrael Elimelech Shul at Wythe Ave. and Rutledge St, were forced to rescue Torah scrolls from flooding caused by last night’s storm. (Hamodia)
- Related: The Lakewood Scoop has images of yeshiva students in Carteret, New Jersey wading in waist-deep water.
HIGH HOLIDAYS If you are looking for a place to mark Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in person or online, we’ve got you covered: The Jewish Week’s second annual (gulp) guide to High Holiday services in the COVID era includes livestreaming options and alternative venues, including a nightclub, a Brooklyn church and a bowling alley.
JUST DO IT In a video, Orthodox rabbis from the Five Towns and the Rockaways called on people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Watch the video here. (Mediaite)
INTERFAITH RESCUE New York-based prison-reform advocate Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, with help from his Brooklyn Orthodox community and Israeli-American businessman Moti Kahana, helped arrange a rescue flight of Afghan civilians. (JTA)
BINGE-WORTHY All 180 “Seinfeld” episodes will be on Netflix starting Oct. 1, the streaming service announced on Wednesday. (Times of Israel)
WHO WILL BUY A 700-year-old High Holiday prayer book is expected to fetch up to $6 million when it goes up for auction next month at Sotheby’s in New York. (The Guardian)
SAFETY FIRST NYPD officials joined community leaders in Crown Heights on Wednesday for a pre-High Holiday community safety event. (collive)
AROUND THE WORLD, VIA JTA
- Hurricane Ida has scattered the New Orleans Jewish community, upending High Holiday plans.
- State Department employees want their boss Antony Blinken to fire a co-worker who attacked Jews in internet posts.
- Most Israelis back reforms that would loosen the Orthodox rabbinate’s grip on marriage, conversion and kosher certification, according to a new poll.
PEOPLE & PLACES
Met Council on Jewish Poverty, in partnership with UJA-Federation of New York, launched America’s largest kosher food distribution Wednesday, with plans to deliver High Holiday food to 154,000 New Yorkers.
Jeffrey Shandler, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University, will spend a year at the Center for Jewish History as its NEH Scholar-in-Residence. He’ll explore the history of Jewish museums shut down or never realized because of political and social upheaval. (Read a Jewish Week interview with Shandler.)
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The Jewish Educator Portal has a new homepage with a more robust search experience for users, as well as a ton of resources for the High Holidays, including a fun e-book for young kids to learn about and celebrate Rosh Hashanah.
TODAY’S BIG IDEA
A popular meme urges employers not to schedule meetings or events on the Jewish holidays. Bad idea, writes Eli Gottlieb: “Posting such messages can do more harm than good.” (JTA)
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Join My Jewish Learning and Dr. Yael Ziegler to explore the biblical story of Hannah, which is read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Sign up here. 1:00 p.m.
Photo, top: Brooklyn Borough President and Democratic nominee for New York City mayor Eric Adams, center, joined Met Council on Jewish Poverty to distribute emergency kosher food at the Flatbush Community Fund food pantry ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Sept. 1, 2021. With him are Yitzy Weinberg, executive director of the Flatbush Community Fund, left, and David G. Greenfield, CEO of Met Council. (Met Council)
