Belgium has become the latest country to announce plans to recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly this month in New York City.

In an announcement on X Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prévot said the recognition was intended to “increase pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas terrorists,” adding that Israel has violated its international obligation to “prevent any risk of genocide.”

Prévot stipulated that the move will only become official once “Hamas no longer has any role in managing Palestine” and all the Israeli hostages are released from Gaza.

“This is not about sanctioning the Israeli people but about ensuring that their government respects international and humanitarian law and taking action to try to change the situation on the ground,” she said.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever had previously joined German leaders in saying that recognizing a Palestinian state before Hamas’ deposal would be “pointless.” But his government faced fierce pressure for further action from its centrist and left-wing member parties that was alleviated by Prévot’s announcement.

She outlined 12 “firm” sanctions that will be implemented against Israel and Hamas, including bans on importing products from Israeli settlements and designating some Israeli ministers, violent settlers and Hamas leaders as “persona non grata.”

Belgium will also support the European Union suspending cooperation with Israel, including its trade pact known as the Association Agreement as well as research programs and technical cooperation.

The announcement makes Belgium the latest country to add to a growing list of planned support for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. General Assembly, following similar declarations from Australia, France, the United Kingdom and Canada. Currently, more than 140 countries recognize Palestinian statehood, making up three quarters of U.N. members.

Prévot also said the announcement would be joined by an “equally firm commitment” to calling for European measures to target Hamas as well as antisemitism within Belgium.

“Any antisemitism or glorification of terrorism by Hamas supporters will also be more strongly condemned,” the post read.

The announcement drew swift condemnation from far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has faced travel bans in other countries that are seeking to pressure Israel.

“Self-righteous European countries that are being manipulated by Hamas — at the end they’ll discover terrorism on their own flesh,” Ben Gvir told the Associated Press.

A major association of genocide scholars has passed a resolution saying that Israel’s two-year military campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry immediately rejected the determination, accusing the scholars of having been swayed by “Hamas’ campaign of lies,” and a Jewish former member of the association’s advisory board raised questions about the process leading up to the resolution.

Still, the resolution by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, announced on Monday, represents a potent addition to an increasingly intense debate over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, where it has been waging war since Hamas attacked Israel from the enclave on Oct. 7, 2023.

The resolution calls Hamas’ attack “horrific” and says it constituted “international crimes” but cites casualty figures, statements of Israeli government officials, the determination of human rights groups including one in Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent support for relocating Gazans to conclude “that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scoffed at the genocide allegation, saying last month, “If we wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon.” Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says 63,000 people there have died in the war, out of a population of more than 2 million.

But genocide scholars say the wholesale murder of a group is not required for genocide to occur. They use a definition devised in the wake of the Holocaust and adopted by the United Nations in 1948, the same year Israel gained independence. Under the definition, genocide has occurred if some members of a group are killed or injured or the “group conditions of life” are deliberately harmed with the intent to destroy the group.

In recent months, a growing number of genocide scholars, including Jewish and Israeli ones, have said they have become convinced that Israel’s campaign meets the standard, though there remain some dissenters. According to the scholars’ association, 86% of those voting on the resolution supported it.

A former member of the association’s advisory board, Sara Brown, who is now a regional director of the American Jewish Committee in California, said the vote tally was misleading because most members did not vote and dissent was quashed.

“The process was a disaster from start to finish. Those of us against the resolution tried to submit our concerns for discussion but were blocked by the leadership,” Brown said in a statement. “We were promised a town hall, which is a common practice for controversial resolutions, but the president of the association reversed that. The association has also refused to disclose who were the authors of the resolution. Anyone who considers themself a genocide scholar should feel embarrassed by this vote.”

The Times of Israel reviewed emails validating Brown’s claim that a town hall meeting had been promised and then not held, the Israeli news organization reported.

The association’s resolution came as details were emerging from a White House meeting about postwar planning for Gaza that took place last week. According to The Washington Post, the meeting focused on a proposal, developed in part by Israelis involved in a troubled U.S.-run humanitarian aid effort, to pay Gazans to leave and redevelop the territory as a resort and technology hub.

Jerrold Nadler, the New York congressman who once came armed with a Zabar’s bag to a presidential impeachment hearing, will not run for reelection, he announced on Monday.

The Jewish representative also told The New York Times, where he revealed his decision to retire, that he planned to join the rapidly growing number of Democrats in voting against the continued sale of offensive weapons to Israel, citing what he said were “without question” war crimes in Gaza.

“I don’t know what to say at this point,” Nadler, a longtime pro-Israel stalwart, told the newspaper. “I can’t defend what Israel is doing.”

Nadler’s retirement will deprive Congress of its most senior Jewish member, and the only one to have received an Orthodox Jewish education. He was first elected in 1992 and will exit after 34 years representing one of the most Jewish districts in the United States, covering parts of Manhattan that include the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Nadler, 78, had previously signaled that he planned to run for another term representing the 12th Congressional District. He had already drawn a challenger, a 26-year-old Jewish Rhodes Scholar and social entrepreneur named Liam Elkind who said in his launch video that Democrats needed to “confront the gerontocracy.”

Nadler said he had grown convinced by the idea that older members of Congress should step aside to make way for younger legislators at a pivotal time for American democracy. “Watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party, and I think I want to respect that,” he told The New York Times, referring to the former president who was pushed to end his reelection bid last year amid allegations of infirmity.

Nadler declined to comment on his potential successors to The New York Times, which reported that sources close to him said he favors his protege Micah Lasher, a state Assembly member from his district, to replace him. Lasher, who is Jewish, has not announced a bid for Congress. At least two other candidates are also planning to enter the race, City & State reported in the wake of Nadler’s announcement; the two it named are not Jewish.

Nadler maintained a reliably liberal record throughout his career, playing a role in legislation on gun control, same-sex marriage and immigration reform. He also broke with other Jewish lawmakers from New York in voting to support the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 after withholding his backing for weeks, citing his support for Israel and its security.

His star turn came near the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, when Nadler helmed the House Judiciary Committee. There, he served as manager for two separate impeachments of Trump, one over election interference in Ukraine and one over Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that made Trump the first president to be impeached twice.

During the second impeachment trial, C-SPAN caught Nadler carrying a trademark bag from Zabar’s, the appetizing shop in his district, into Congress. After news organizations asked Nadler what the bag contained, the response came from his deputy press secretary Julian Gerson: “A babka and the constitution, what else?”

Gerson is now a lead communications staffer on the mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist. Nadler made waves by being one of the first establishment Democrats to endorse Mamdani after he won the party’s primary in June.

Nadler told The New York Times that he was “not terribly optimistic” about the future of democracy in the United States, with Trump at the helm again.

The day after Trump’s reelection, he had been among a crowd of Jews to congregate at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, the Upper West Side synagogue where he is a member, for what one rabbi said was akin to “sitting shiva,” the Jewish communal grief ritual.

There, Nadler drew upon the Jewish education he received at the Crown Heights Yeshiva in Brooklyn, which he attended prior to being admitted to Stuyvesant High School, the elite public school.

“‘By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. How shall we sing a song to the Lord in a strange land?’” Nadler said, quoting Psalm 137 and a spiritual frequently sung in American synagogues. “This seems like a strange land now.”

Six major Jewish organizations that have pushed to expand federal funding for synagogue security are urging Jewish institutions to apply again for the grants despite any concerns about the Trump administration and its terms for grantees.

In an unusual joint statement, the groups say they are confident that receiving funds from the Nonprofit Security Grant Program will not require compromising religious values.

The statement does not name any particular concerns but comes shortly after some synagogues and Jewish groups said they would not apply this year because of terms requiring grantees to support federal immigration enforcement at a time when the Trump administration is mounting a major campaign against immigrants.

“While we are aware that questions have arisen on the part of certain religious institutions regarding the current year’s program criteria, our organizations strongly urge all eligible institutions to apply for this critical resource,” the major organizations said in their statement. “We are in regular contact with government officials who have affirmed their continued commitment to protecting the safety of all faith-based institutions and the values they hold.”

The statement was issued Tuesday by Jewish Federations of North America, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and three groups that focus solely on Jewish security issues: the Secure Community Network, Community Security Initiative NY, and Community Security Service.

JFNA in particular was a leading force in building the grant program, which is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Department of Homeland Security. Created in 2004 and expanded after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018, it is the main federal source of money for houses of worship and nonprofits to bolster protection against terrorism and hate-motivated violence. Rising concerns about antisemitic attacks have sharply increased demand for the grants, for which Jewish groups have also encouraged other houses of worship to apply. This year, $274 million is on the table.

Another Jewish group, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, last week wrote to the Trump administration asking for clarity about what is required of faith institutions receiving security funds. But the group also urged synagogues and Jewish institutions should still apply for the grants, noting that applying does not commit an organization to accepting any funding.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is nearly upon us — the two-day holiday begins on the evening of Sept. 22, ushering in the year 5786. Ten days later is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which begins with the Kol Nidre service on the evening of Oct. 1 and concludes at sundown Oct. 2.

Rosh Hashanah is typically celebrated in synagogue with traditional liturgy and prayer, accompanied by festive meals, the eating of new fruits, apples dipped in honey (and, in some customs, a fish head). 

But around New York City, there’s even more to see and do this High Holiday season.

We’ve rounded up a wide-ranging list of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services and celebrations, ranging from traditional synagogue services and family-friendly programs to musical events, volunteer opportunities, immersive theater and more.

Our selection spans boroughs and price points, and all are open to the public. Keep scrolling to see more. Shana tova umetuka! (A sweet and happy new year!)

Family-friendly services and events

A children’s cooking workshop for Rosh Hashanah

Join the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood (54 Nagle Ave.) on Sunday, Sept. 14 at 3 p.m. for a Rosh Hashanah-themed cooking workshop as part of the YMHA’s Bubbie’s Kitchen program. Festive foods and crafts will be made, including a dried fruit collage, homemade iced apple cider, apple cider donut holes and fruit salad with pomegranate seeds. Register for the free event here.

Rosh Hashanah dinner with Kehillat Harlem

Join Kehillat Harlem (2248 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.), a partnership-style shul uptown, for Maariv evening services on Monday, Sep. 22 at 6:30 p.m and Rosh Hashanah dinner on Tuesday, Sept. 23, also at 6:30 p.m. Childcare will be provided for morning services on Sept. 23 and Sept. 24, which run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

The recommended donation for all Rosh Hashanah services is $180, and dinner is $36 for adults, but no one will be turned away. RSVP here.

Kehillat Harlem is also hosting Yom Kippur services (and break fast) on Wednesday, Oct. 1 and Thursday, Oct. 2.

Family services uptown at Congregation Habonim

For a full slate of traditional, egalitarian, Conservative services, join Congregation Habonim at the Society for Ethical Culture (2 West 64th St). Feel free to bring the kinderlach as well, as there’s plenty of age-appropriate programming: there’s Torah Tots for children under 5 (with their parents or caregivers) and youth services for children in 3rd through 6th grade. 

The first night of Rosh Hashanah services begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22, and morning services begin at 9 a.m. More dates and times are available here.

Not able to make it in person? You can Zoom in for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services led by Cantor Emeritus Bruce Halev and Rabbi Mark Somerstein, featuring the German Liberal liturgy, with choir and organ accompaniment. Register here for all services.

Mindfulness services uptown at B’nai Jeshurun

In addition to its traditional Conservative-style services for adults and families, B’nai Jeshurun (257 West 88th St.) is also offering a mindfulness service this year, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23. Expect a “deeply powerful” service, led by Rabbis Shuli Passow, Marc Margolius, and Cantor Dave Mintz. Register here for all B’nai Jeshurun services.

A soulful Rosh Hashanah for the family at 92NY

Celebrate the new year on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 9:30 a.m. at 92NY’s Arnhold Center (1395 Lexington Ave.) with a live band, singing, dancing, prayer and even puppetry, followed by a festive kiddush with challah, sweets and apples and honey. This event is geared toward families with children under 7, but all ages are welcome.

Come back Thursday, Oct. 2 for the 92NY’s annual puppet show retelling of Jonah and the big fish in honor of Yom Kippur. Grab your tickets here, from $90.

Free High Holiday services in Brooklyn with Chabad’s “spiritual startup”

Dirah, a Chabad-affiliated community in Gowanus, Brooklyn, is offering a soulful and free service for families. Children’s services are available, and full-time security will be provided at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School (342 Smith St.). Reserve your seat here, and check out Dirah’s full High Holiday schedule here. All Rosh Hashanah services are followed by a buffet meal, and there will be a break fast after the Yom Kippur service concludes on Oct. 2.

Tashlich, Torah and art with Ashreynu

Celebrate the High Holidays with Ashreynu, a pluralistic community based in Astoria, Queens  (21-14 30th Ave.). On Tuesday, Sept. 23, Ashreynu is offering morning services starting at 10:30 a.m. The following day, meet at Ralph DeMarco Park on Shore Blvd. at 11 a.m. for an afternoon of tashlich, Torah and art. Come back the following week for Yom Kippur where various traditional services will be held, followed by a Yom Kippur fast-friendly yoga session at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 2. The recommended donation price is $36 for each day. Reserve your spot here.

Family Rosh Hashanah service with The Neighborhood, Fig Tree and B’nai Brooklyn

Join three Brooklyn Jewish cultural and educational communities — The Neighborhood, Fig Tree and B’nai Brooklyn — for Rosh Hashanah family services at The Moxy Brooklyn Williamsburg (353 Bedford Ave.) on Tuesday, Sept. 23 from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. Expect child-friendly meditation led by meditation teacher Alison Laichter, as well as music, storytelling and “spiritual play.”

All ages are welcome, and no Hebrew or meditation experience is necessary to participate. Get your tickets here for $36 for adults, $18 for children. Tickets include a vegetarian meal (with vegan and gluten-free options available).

NOT a Rosh Hashanah Service with JCC Harlem

Join JCC Harlem (318 West 118 St.) and Fig Tree, an independent Jewish education program, on Wednesday, Sept. 24 for a family-friendly exploration of Rosh Hashanah rituals and ideas followed by a communal dinner. This event is designed for families with children ages 5 to 12. Get your tickets here for $18.

Tashlich at the Pier 62 Carousel with Emanu-El Downtown

Why not take your kids to Hudson River Park to do the tashlich ceremony in style? Head to the Pier 62 Carousel (between West 22nd and West 23rd Streets) and join Emanu-El Downtown on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. for a family-friendly rendition of the symbolic casting away of sins. The ceremony will be led by Rabbi Sarah Reines; pizza will be provided. Get your tickets here.

Young adults

Rosh Hashanah dinner with Chabad Young Professionals

Chabad Young Professionals (location upon RSVP) is offering Rosh Hashanah dinner for both nights of the Jewish New Year. Get your tickets, starting at $90, here. The first night dinner, on Monday, Sept. 22 begins at 8:15 p.m.; second night begins at 8:30 p.m.

Join CYP again in 10 days to break the Yom Kippur fast with breakfast for dinner, where bagels and lox, omelettes, and pancakes will be had. Break fast tickets start at $35.

CYP will also organize various public shofar blowings in the Chelsea/Flatiron area. Check out dates and times here.

20s and 30s service and reception at Congregation Rodeph Sholom

Head to Congregation Rodeph Sholom (7 West 83rd St.), one of the oldest synagogues in the United States, for a Rosh Hashanah service geared toward those in their 20s and 30s on Monday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. Stick around after services for a wine and dessert reception. 

Click here for the full schedule of events at the Reform congregation, which includes children’s services, adult Torah study, accessible worship options for people with disabilities, tashlich and Yom Kippur offerings.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with Brooklyn Jews

Brooklynites in their 20s and 30s seeking a progressive, egalitarian prayer experience can check out Brooklyn Jews, a community located within Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim.

Services meet at the Union Temple House of CBE (17 Eastern Parkway), with Erev Rosh Hashanah services beginning on Monday, Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m., and first day morning services on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 10 a.m. For more times and the Yom Kippur schedule, check the calendar here.

Tickets cost $54 per person per individual service, with the option to purchase an all-access pass for $140. Register here.

A free, walk-in service with Ohel Ayalah

Geared toward adults in their 20s and 30s, this free, annual walk-in service provided by Ohel Ayalah will be held at West 83rd Ministry Center (150 West 83rd St.) this year. You can preregister here or simply show up. Check out their full High Holidays schedule here.

Musical Holidays

Chamber orchestra selichot with Congregation Beth Elohim

On Saturday, Sept. 20, join Park Slope’s CBE for the debut performance of Selichos/Transformation — a new musical piece by composer Jeremiah Lockwood, inspired by his grandfather, Cantor Jacob Konigsberg and his father, composer Larry Lockwood. The piece features Yiddish singers Riki Rose and Yoel Kohn, and is inspired by the traditional selichot liturgy, marking the start of the High Holiday period. Get your tickets here, starting at $18. The program will be held at the Union Temple House of CBE (17 Eastern Parkway) and begins at 8:30 p.m.

Jazzy High Holiday services

Sim Shalom Universalist Synagogue is once again putting on a jazzy celebration to mark the Jewish New Year. Led by Rabbi Steven Blane, this service on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 10:30 a.m. blends traditional liturgy with original music. Get your tickets here from $160. Services will be held at All Angels’ Church (251 West 80th St.). Come back on Oct. 2 for round two: a jazzy rendition of Yom Kippur. Get tickets here.

Electric musical service at Brooklyn Bowl

For a plugged-in Rosh Hashanah service, head to Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg (61 Wythe Ave.) on Tuesday, Sept. 23rd, where a musical celebration of the holiday awaits. Watch last year’s livestream for a sneak peek of what to expect. Service and song leaders include Rabbi Daniel Brenner, and musicians Jeremiah Lockwood, Isaac Gardner, John Bollinger, Jordan McLean, Stuart Bogie, Yula Beeri, Yusuke Yamamoto and others.

Doors open at 9 a.m. and the program begins at 10 a.m, followed by a festive lunch at 12:30. Grab your tickets here, from $58.

Rosh Hashone with the Workers Circle

Join the Workers Circle, a Jewish nonprofit promoting Yiddish culture, for a virtual klezmer gathering in celebration of Rosh Hashanah on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 2 p.m. Yiddish cultural activist and klezmer musician Deborah Strauss, accompanied by Yiddish singer and actor Dylan Seders Hoffman, will lead the musical program.

Get your tickets here: $25 for members, $36 for non-members.

Rooftop chamber orchestra Kol Nidre

If you haven’t quite gotten your fill of the beautiful melodies of Yom Kippur, head to the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Ave.) on Monday, Sept. 29 for an evening of on-theme music about renewal and reflection, ranging from the traditional liturgy and klezmer to the Beatles and contemporary Israeli music.

As the sun sets, you’ll hear Ernest Bloch’s “Niggun for Violin and Orchestra,” and Israeli cellist Elad Kabilio will share how German protestant composer Max Bruch wrote “Kol Nidre for Cello Solo and Orchestra.” The program runs from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.; get tickets here.

A meditative, musical High Holiday season with Lab/Shul

Join the God-optional, artist-driven community at Lab/Shul at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center (199 Chambers St.) for a musical and meditative experience on both days of Rosh Hashanha, complete with contemporary art, shofar sounds and tashlich, as well as family-friendly programming and “Storahtelling.” Come back on the evening of Yom Kippur on Wednesday, Oct. 1 for the Kol Nidrei service and a conversation on the meaning of “tikkun,” or “repair,” and the conclusion of the holiday on Oct. 2 with a Neilah “ecstatic ritual.” Grab your tickets here.

Social and environmental justice

An egalitarian Mizrahi service with JFREJ

Join Jews for Racial and Economic Justice at the Urbane Arts Club at (1016 Beverley Rd., Brooklyn) on Monday, Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m. for an egalitarian Rosh Hashanah service in the Moroccan nusach, or musical style. Organized by the Egalitarian Sephardi Mizrahi Community in coordination with JFREJ, services will be led by singer Laura Elkeslassy and student rabbi and educator Rinat Abastado. The recommended ticket price is $54 per service, and KN95 masks are required for services. Grab your tickets here. Doors open at 6:30 p.m, services begin at 7 p.m.

Picnics and prayer in Queens with Malkhut

Malkhut, a progressive Jewish community in Jackson Heights, Queens, will welcome Rosh Hashanah with a potluck picnic in Astoria Park from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m on Monday, Sept. 22. (A non-traditional service will be available over Zoom that evening.) In-person services with music will be available Tuesday, Sep. 23 at the CUNY School of Law in Long Island City (2 Court Square West), with children’s programming. Come back for Yom Kippur, where multiple sessions will be held focusing on social justice and injustice, including chevruta (partnered learning) and close reading. Check here for more times and registration, as well as children’s programming.

Reverse Tashlich with Repair the Sea

This event turns the tradition of symbolically casting sins away into a body of water on its head: Participate in a beach cleanup with Repair the Sea, a Jewish nonprofit dedicated to protecting the ocean. Multiple New York City organizations are participating in the project this year, including Congregation Rodeph Sholom with Central Synagogue, and Nice Jewish Runners. Click here to see where you can join, or organize your own beach cleanup here.

​Off the beaten path

A walk through history at the Tenement Museum

Learn how Rosh Hashanah was celebrated on the Lower East Side in the early 1900s through this walking tour at the Tenement Museum (103 Orchard St.), which will be held on Sept. 14, 18, 21, 25, and 28. On the two-hour tour, you’ll learn about the High Holiday ticket discovered hidden in the museum’s floorboards, how New Yorkers transformed everyday and secular spaces into synagogues, and how an onslaught of Jewish New Year’s cards once overloaded the United States Postal Service. 

Following the tour, stick around for a presentation and tasting led by Sarah Lohman, a culinary historian and the author of “Eight Flavors.” Lohman will recreate a citron cake from Hinde Amhanitski’s 1901 Yiddish cookbook, “A Manual for Cooking and Baking.”

Haze & Honey: An Infused Rosh Hashanah Experience

If you’re up for something totally different in honor of Rosh Hashanah, this psychedelic, alternative and cannabis-infused Shabbat dinner, a “toast to new beginnings,” certainly meets the mark. On Sunday Sept. 21 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., head to The House in Bushwick (29 Locust St.) where Sinners’ Shabbat and Tokin Jew, a Jewish cannabis community, will be serving up cocktails, mocktails, and an “infused” dinner, accompanied by DJ sets and dancing. Come dressed to impress in white and gold, and expect a night of delightful debauchery. Get your tickets here from $45. Doors close at 9 p.m.

A drag and burlesque show and mutual aid fundraiser with 8 Oily Dykes

Self-described “local anti-Zionist Jewish dykes & friends” group 8 Oily Dykes is putting on a drag and burlesque show and fundraiser for Gaza, loosely inspired by Rosh Hashanah, on Saturday, Sep. 27 at Brooklyn’s Littlefield (635 Sackett St.).

What do drag and burlesque have to do with the High Holidays? “Let’s take this ancient ritual and make it ours,” the event page says. “After all, the Torah doesn’t say you can’t FEAST before you fast.”

Doors open at 7 p.m. show begins at 7:30 p.m. Grab your tickets here.

Immersive experiences with Temple of the Stranger

Dress in your best whites and head to the Temple of the Stranger, a pop-up experiential Jewish community, for the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the Neilah service, with a night of immersive theater, meditation and sacred ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 2 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Expect ritual, song, meditation, chant and sound baths, as well as prayer, ecstatic dance and a guided break fast. This experience will be held at Gymnopedie (1139 Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn). You must arrive on time to participate. Get your tickets here from $59.

Temple of the Stranger is also hosting a Rosh Hashanah experience with the immersive theater group Glittermilk the week prior, on Monday, Sept. 22 from 6 p.m to 9 p.m. at Gymnopedie (1139 Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn). There will be live music throughout. The dress code is all red, and you must arrive on time. Get tickets here.

TEL AVIV — Under the haze of neon lights and techno beats, Roni Tessler waited for legendary DJ Offra to begin his set in a Tel Aviv club. Minutes later, the music cut and the party was shut down. Israel had launched a wave of airstrikes on Iran, pummeling nuclear sites and triggering a 12-day war that would trap Tessler and nearly a hundred other North American LGBTQ Jews in the country.

Organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, the trip included 15 first-time visitors to Israel and came amid a broader sense of alienation many had been feeling in their LGBTQ communities back home. Tessler, originally from Potomac, Maryland but living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for the past 15 years, compared being in Israel to Fire Island “as a place where gay people can breathe.”

Israel, he said, offered the same attraction, but doubly.

“Israel also feels like a place where I can breathe, but as a Jew,” he said. “Seeing Israeli flags everywhere and Jewish stars and knowing the people around me don’t hate me.”

After the initial strikes, flights were suspended. In the ensuing days, most of the delegation fled the country by other means — including by boat or through Jordan — where they were told to hide their Jewish symbols. For those who had come seeking the safety of being visibly Jewish, the reversal was hard to ignore.

The trip was intended to be bookended by the Jerusalem Pride parade at the beginning and Tel Aviv’s storied counterpart on June 13, but with the war breaking out the night before, that parade was called off.

Still, the group pressed on with their itinerary. Ultimately, several members took advantage of flight interruptions to extend their stay, while others returned this month on a second major delegation of LGBTQ Jews, drawn by the massive reorientation in their identities induced by the fallout from Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

“A lot of our folks identified as gay first, and then as American or Jewish, but now the Jewish part of our identity has kind of moved to the top, because we’ve been forced to,” said Jayson Littman, who helms Hebro, a group for gay Jews in New York that worked with Birthright Israel on the second trip. He said interviews with trip applicants revealed that many described themselves as “closeted again” as Jews in their gay communities.

Nate Looney, JFNA’s director of community safety and belonging who organized the June mission in just nine weeks, said interest had surged after a year marked by antisemitic hostility at Pride events across the United States. Looney, who lives in Washington, D.C., and identifies as trans, recalled a glass bottle being thrown at his group during last year’s Pride parade and described growing efforts by organizers in multiple cities to exclude Jewish or pro-Israel contingents entirely.

“I never thought there would be violence coming from within, directed at me only for being a Jew. You could show up and be fully queer, but just don’t show up and be fully Jewish,” he said, adding, “Jews were being forced back into the closet.”

In the months since, Pride events around the world have been marred by clashes over Israel, including when organizers have sought to exclude Jewish LGBTQ groups. In Ottawa, Canada, the parade was canceled after pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the route. Montreal’s parade banned two Jewish groups from participating before reinstating them under pressure. Jewish groups pulled out of the events in San Diego, citing safety concerns and an anti-Israel headlining act.

In Rome, the Jewish LGBTQ group Keshet Europe hired private security in anticipation of possible disruptions, after skipping the parade last year entirely out of safety concerns. The parade was a distressing experience for those who participated, Ruben Piperno, one of the organizers, told JTA at the time.

“We were subjected to insults, jeers, and serious accusations, with some individuals following us throughout the entire parade, challenging our queer identity, and accusing us of ‘pinkwashing’ on behalf of the Israeli government,” said Piperno, who is 31 and lives in Turin.

On the JFNA trip, many of the delegates said the rupture with their communities had been sudden and isolating. Eshel, an Orthodox LGBTQ nonprofit, and A Wider Bridge, a pro-Israel LGBTQ group, surveyed hundreds of LGBTQ Jews. Among those who “strongly present as Jewish” — with visible Jewish clothing or symbols, 67% reported experiencing antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. A majority of respondents also said they were withdrawing from queer spaces or concealing their Jewish identity in order to remain in them.

Ashley Kravetsky, a nurse and drag performer from Edmonton, Canada, said the backlash she encountered pushed her out of a community she had long seen as a refuge.

“I was very surprised that people were not able to recognize that what they were saying was harmful to me as a Jewish person,” she said. “I was seeing people post about inclusion and equity and how we have to love and hold space for marginalized communities and in the same breath saying ‘free Palestine’ and ‘Jews are colonizers’ and ‘no Zionists allowed,’ without even conversations allowed to take place. I can count on one hand how many people were willing to have a conversation with me.”

“It was no longer safe for me to be in the queer community — and that included threats of physical violence,” she added.

For Orthodox LGBTQ Jews, there were even fewer options. Eshel co-founder and director Miryam Kabakov, who joined the delegation, said her community was being forced out of one space without being able to enter another.

“A very large percentage are leaving LGBT spaces to be in Jewish spaces. But in our case, they’re also Orthodox, and that’s not an alternative — they can’t really go to Orthodox spaces. So where do they go?” Her organization has since received funding from UJA to begin building what she called a “third space.”

For Bobby Apperson, who relocated from San Francisco to New York in search of a larger LGBTQ Jewish community, the trip to Israel was his first. Before leaving, he had watched a social space he had frequented in San Francisco come under repeated attack. Manny’s, a Mission District café owned by civic advocate and queer Zionist Manny Yekutiel, had its windows smashed and graffiti scrawled across the walls. Messages read: “Fuck Manny,” “Zionist Fucks Gentrifyers,” [sic] and “The only good settler is a dead 1.”

“It was all very Kristallnacht,” Apperson said. “It’s not just queers but the progressive movement overall. They think they’re fighting for Palestinians, when actually they’re doing the complete opposite — embracing intifada and global jihad and undermining safety, including for themselves.”

In Israel, he said, the tone was different. “Not one person we met was calling for violence of any kind against Palestinians. Here the queer community is fighting for peace — for the entire queer community, including Palestinians. It’s not splintered.”

Looney said the mission intentionally foregrounded complexity rather than presenting Israel as a sanitized success story, and some of the group’s encounters challenged assumptions. A panel of LGBTQ IDF reservists included two trans soldiers and offered what one participant described as “more ideological diversity than I ever heard in the States.” One trans reservist, Ma’ayan Gross — who is currently serving with her original all-male combat unit in Gaza — told the group she supported continued military operations there, even at the risk of killing Israeli hostages — a position held by only a small minority of Israelis. Others still expressed unease or disapproval of the war.

“I’ve heard queer people here saying things that sound like what the far-left anti-Zionist movement says in the U.S., like wondering if the military has gone too far,” Apperson said.

In Jerusalem, the group attended the Pride parade, which commemorated 10 years since the murder of 16-year-old marcher Shira Banki. Apperson described the heavy security presence — ostensibly to prevent anti-LGBTQ violence — as jarring.

“It was to protect Jews from other Jews. Even in Jerusalem, you have to choose between your queerness and your Judaism,” he said.

“But it’s an inversion. In America, queer people are looking at all Jews as suspicious — it’s classic antisemitism,” he added. “And here, queer people are being looked at with suspicion by, you could say, the most Zionist people.”

For Chaim Levin, a New Yorker and anti–conversion therapy advocate who once studied in a Jerusalem yeshiva, the sight of communist flags at the march — likely from supporters of the far-left Israeli Communist Maki Party — was a reminder of how disorienting Israel can be. His grandparents fled Soviet Russia to Israel in 1948, he said, and seeing that symbol in the streets of Jerusalem was hard to stomach.

“It was really shocking,” he said. “But also, I take solace in the fact that there’s free speech and they can do that here.”

Over six days, participants visited kibbutzim devastated in the Oct. 7 attacks, met with survivors of the Nova festival massacre and representatives from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, spoke with LGBT representatives from communities as diverse as Haredi and Arab, and sat down with President Isaac Herzog.

Yoanna Chaya Kollin, a trans delegate from Los Angeles, said, “Herzog turned to me and said, ‘All transgender people will be welcome here always.’ I know it’s not the same, but Donald Trump would never do that for me in a million years. It made me feel seen.”

A visit to the Western Wall’s egalitarian section proved especially meaningful for several in the group, particularly those who were still observant or had once been. A handful posed with a rainbow flag bearing a Star of David — a moment that marked a turning point for Jeremy Nagel, from Los Angeles, who had studied in yeshiva two decades earlier.

“In the past, I had always gone to the Kotel to pray the gay away,” he said. “This is the first time I didn’t do that. I never thought then that I’d be back in this capacity, as a proud gay Jew.”

Dillon Perez, from New York, said he had arrived expecting to focus on personal healing, but standing at the Western Wall, his thoughts turned outward. “I came to reconnect to Israel for myself, and maybe to meet a cute guy. But the prayers that mattered the most had nothing to do with me. At the Kotel I kept saying, ‘Hashem, keep Israel safe.’”

The trip was also meant to be a two-way exchange, Looney said, offering solidarity to LGBTQ Israelis navigating war and exposing them to the intensity of diaspora antisemitism. Several Israeli speakers said they had never experienced antisemitism at that scale and were struck by its impact on their North American peers.

“We’re all faced with the decision about whether we’re a minority of Jews within the LGBT community or a minority of LGBT in the Jewish community,” said Hen Mazzig, an Israeli activist who divides his time between Tel Aviv and London, where he lives with his non-Jewish partner. “Each of those comes with different challenges. So it’s great to be in a space where we can be both.”

Omer Ohana, the first gay man formally recognized as an IDF widower after losing his fiancé Sagi Golan on Oct 7, led a session that left many in tears. Meeting Diaspora Jews, he said, gave him the energy to keep going. But it wasn’t just emotional support; every dollar behind advancing the same-sex widower legislation came from U.S. donors, he said.

Even after Iran began targeting Israel with devastating missile barrages, the online backlash didn’t stop. After posting on Instagram about the surreal shift from dancing at a Lady Gaga event one minute and running for a bomb shelter the next, Levin said an acquaintance unfollowed and blocked him.

“That was just another confirmation for me,” he said, of someone else who had “bought into this dynamic that Israel — bad, everyone else — good.

“Obviously, that’s not true. I hope one day they’ll see that but I don’t have a lot of hope.”

Tessler, along with a few others including Nagel, stayed in Israel for the duration of the war before going on to Europe and the United States. Two weeks after the canceled Offra set, he was back at the rescheduled event, posing again with Nagel in the same spot where they had stood just before everything changed.

“This is how Israel has functioned since its inception,” he said. “You get the feeling that there’s no sense of victimhood here — we’ll protect ourselves, but we’re still going to live, and we’re going to live life to the fullest. It was very special to be a part of that.”

Tessler returned to Israel this month to lead the Hebro-Birthright volunteering mission for 160 LGBTQ Jews from 15 countries. Like the JFNA delegation, it was organized at the last minute in part to create a safe space for queer Jews.

Like the many other volunteering trips that Birthright has organized for adults, the Hebro trip itinerary includes stints at food pantries, army bases and communities damaged by war. But the Israelis joining the group all come from the local LBGTQ community, and Littman said the group found its own resonance in visiting the site of the Nova music festival massacre.

“Seeing that that sort of safe space was broken, we definitely kind of connect to that,” said Littman, who is on the board of a New York City synagogue where about 40% of members died in the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. “And we know what it means to insist on something that’s joyful even after pain.”

Simone Somekh contributed reporting.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that he is “denying and revoking” the visas of Palestinian officials ahead of the United Nations General Assembly next month.

The unprecedented move will prevent members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority from attending the General Debate where several countries, including Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, have announced plans to recognize Palestinian statehood.

“The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” Rubio said in a statement.

The move represents a major break with precedent. The United States typically allows foreign leaders to attend U.N. meetings even if they are on the outs with the U.S. government. Iranian officials and Russian officials have regularly attended meetings at the U.N., for example.

But the Trump administration has shown unusual willingness to use its visa-granting authority to advance an ideological agenda, including by revoking the visas of students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at their universities.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas said the revocation “stands in clear contradiction to international law” in a statement urging the United States to reconsider the move. Abbas was recommended to be included in the ban, according to an internal State Department memo obtained by the New York Post.

Abbas was also expected to attend a high-level meeting on Sept. 22 co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia about brokering a two-state solution.

Abbas, 89, is widely seen as essential to developing any plan for postwar governance in Gaza. He has shown willingness to have PA security forces cooperate with the Israeli security forces and, in June, condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel for the first time.

In his statement, Rubio called on the PA to “end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the ICC and ICJ, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, told reporters that he was assessing how the move would apply to his delegation, adding that they would “respond accordingly.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, applauded the move. Israel opposes any efforts to create a Palestinian state.

“Thank you @SecRubio for holding the ‘PLO’ and PA accountable for rewarding terrorism, incitement and efforts to use legal warfare against Israel,” he tweeted. “We thank @POTUS and the Administration for this bold step and for standing by Israel once again.”

Rubio’s move, announced on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, did not immediately ignite widespread reactions from Jewish groups. But it drew strong condemnation from Hadar Susskind, the president and CEO of New Jewish Narrative, a progressive Zionist organization.

“The Trump administration is doing more than just shooting itself in the foot. It is playing into the hands of Hamas,” said Susskind in a statement. “A better future for Israelis and Palestinians depends on the establishment of a Palestinian state. We want that state to be led by political factions that recognize Israel. That’s who governs the Palestinian Authority. That’s who the Trump administration is denying entry to.”

An Ontario man has been charged with what police say appears to be a hate-motivated attack after he stabbed a Jewish woman in an Ottawa grocery store known for its large selection of kosher food.

The victim, a woman in her 70s, was taken to the hospital with “serious injuries,” according to police, and was treated and released later the same day. The Jewish Federation of Ottawa called the victim “a cherished member of our community,” and said she is “recovering.”

The suspect, who was charged with aggravated assault and possessing a dangerous weapon, has been identified by police as Joseph Rooke, a 71-year-old man who lives in nearby Cornwall, Ontario.

A Facebook profile with matching details has posted numerous antisemitic and anti-Israel messages.

One post asked whether the loyalties of Prime Minister Mark Carney and other Members of Parliament are “grounded in the ludicrousness of judaism and all the absurdities in the lies that formed the foundation of jewish belief and ethos?” 

Another called Judaism “the world’s oldest cult.”

The posts regularly condemn Israel for committing “genocide,” with one post calling Israel “a very evil state” whose “true self and jewish ethos lays hidden under a manufactured veneer of victimhood…”

“His comments online are those of a hateful man and a rabid antisemite,” B’nai Brith Canada posted on X. “For months, B’nai Brith Canada has warned Canadian leaders of the dangers of allowing hate to foment unchecked on our streets and online platforms. Sadly, our warnings have gone unheeded.”

The stabbing occurred inside the Loblaws — a major Canadian supermarket chain — located next to the Centrepointe/Craig Henry neighborhood, which is the city’s “highest concentration of Jewish community,” according to Choose Ottawa. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said the store “has been the repeated target of anti-Israel protests.”

The stabbing is the latest in a string of antisemitic incidents across Canada since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, including a Montreal synagogue being firebombed on two occasions, a Toronto Jewish girls’ school being targeted by gunfire three times the same year, and a series of bomb threats sent to dozens of Jewish institutions across the country. Ottawa’s National Holocaust Monument was vandalized in June with red graffiti reading “FEED ME,” an apparent reference to the hunger crisis in Gaza.

“The senseless attack on a Jewish woman in an Ottawa grocery store this week is deeply disturbing,” Carney wrote on social media. “My thoughts are with her, her family, and Ottawa’s Jewish community, and my support is with law enforcement as they work to swiftly bring the perpetrator to justice.”

Carney added, “To Canada’s Jewish community: you are not alone. We stand with you against hate and threats to your safety, and we will act to confront antisemitism wherever it appears.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford posted on X that he was “deeply disturbed by the violent attack.” “Hate, violence and antisemitism have no place in our province.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs wrote online that Canada is “at a tipping point” with antisemitism. “We call on all levels of government to act urgently and decisively to ensure the safety and security of Jewish Canadians,” the post read. “Condemnations are not enough—Canada must take concrete steps to protect its citizens and put an end to the spread of violent antisemitism in our communities.”

The body of Ilan Weiss, who was killed while defending Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, 2023, has been recovered by the IDF and Shin Bet security service.

“The body of Ilan Weiss, who was held hostage for 693 days in Gaza, has been recovered in a joint IDF and ISA military operation,” the IDF said in a post on X Friday. “Ilan was from Kibbutz Be’eri and left his home on the morning of October 7 to join the kibbutz emergency response team.”

Weiss, 56, was murdered and kidnapped by Hamas during the massacre. His wife, Shiri, 54, and daughter Noga, 19, were also taken hostage by Hamas during the attacks and were released during a ceasfire in November 2023.

The IDF also recovered the remains of another hostage who could not yet be identified.

There are now 48 remaining hostages held in Gaza, of which 20 are presumed to be alive. Last week, President Donald Trump cast doubt on that figure, telling reporters that some Israeli hostages had died inside Gaza since the last ceasefire.

Israel has not responded to a Hamas offer for a ceasefire deal that would include the release of some of the living hostages. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said they are no longer considering partial deals, even as the vast majority of Israelis support an end to the war in order to release the hostages and have staged multiple mass protests this month to press their case.

The recovery of the hostages’ remains comes as Israel instead widens fighting in Gaza City, which it says is one of Hamas’ last major redoubts. It also comes on the one-year anniversary of the murder of six hostages who were killed as Israeli troops neared the location in Rafah where they were being held, and as army leaders and advocates for the hostages warn that the Gaza City operation could risk the remaining hostages’ lives.

“Ilan, 56, was a family man and a devoted father to his daughters.” The Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote in a post on X. “There are no words to express the depth of this pain. The hostages have no time. We must bring them all home, now!”

The Boulder, Colorado chapter of Run For Their Lives, the Israeli hostage awareness event that was firebombed in June, will no longer publicize its demonstrations after weeks of continued threats, including from a local political candidate.

“​​Participants are facing a level of harassment that makes it impossible to continue safely in public view,” Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the local Jewish Community Relations Council, said in a statement.

The Boulder march, one of more than 230 chapters around the world held weekly to draw attention to the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, was attacked on June 1 by a man who threw Molotov cocktails at participants. Thirteen people were injured and one 82-year-old woman later died.

The man accused of the attack, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was arrested at the scene and indicted on 12 hate crime counts.

Since then, anti-Israel counter-demonstrators have targeted the group, according to local Jewish leaders. Protesters have called Run For Their Lives participants “genocidal c–t,” “racist,” and “Nazi,” and mentioned the lead organizer’s children, according to videos reviewed by JCRC.

Video posted to social media by a pro-Palestinian counter-demonstrator show clashes. One from Aug. 17 documents the counter-demonstrator, Eric Gross, shouting, “More than 1,000 children under the age of 1 murdered by the IDF” and someone in the Run For Their Lives group appearing to respond, “Not enough.” Gross then trails the group along Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, where the marches have taken place, singling out the woman he said made the comment, who ultimately left under police protection, according to the video.

The march disavowed the comment in a statement this week, saying, “We are aware of a social media post of our August 17 walk where an inappropriate and offensive comment was made by one of our walkers. This individual’s comment in no way reflects the views of Run For Their Lives.” The group also said the woman accused of having made the comment did not in fact make it and that she had faced threats as a result of the video.

Aaron Stone, who is running for Boulder City Council, has been one of the more vocal counterprotesters, and allegedly called Rachel Amaru, the founder of the Boulder chapter of Run for Their Lives, a “Nazi,” according to CBS Colorado.

Amaru told 9News that “100% I’m being attacked because I’m Jewish,” adding that, “calling a Jew in Boulder right now a ‘Nazi’ is so over the top.”

When asked if he regretted calling Amaru a “Nazi,” Stone told CBS Colorado that he agreed “it is a very strong word to use.” But he defended protesting against the group.

“I’m not seeing a Jewish person,” Stone said. “I’m seeing someone who is walking down the street talking about 20 hostages and ignoring the 2 million Palestinian hostages that are being kept in Gaza.”

Starting at this weekend’s event, the group will not publicly advertise the locations of their marches, and will add heavy security to undisclosed locations, according to the JCRC. It is a move that other Jewish and Israeli events have made to evade pro-Palestinian protests during the war in Gaza.

“It is deeply unfortunate that after enduring the horrific June 1 firebomb attack that resulted in the death of a community member, participants now face such persistent harassment that they must keep their gatherings secret to simply stay safe,” tweeted the Anti-Defamation League of the Mountain States.

Boulder City Council member Tara Winer, who is Jewish, told 9News that she had been marching with the group several weeks ago but decided to leave after experiencing the antisemitic chants.

“I have to deal with the agitators every two weeks, if not more, and my weekend is my weekend, so I did not want to have to stand there and listen to that again,” Winer told 9News, referencing the open comment at City Council meetings. “I think that I have been targeted. Yes, absolutely.”