LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Rosh Hashana begins at sundown Wednesday with the Los Angeles Police Department pledging to have a “strategic presence” around synagogues and other houses of worship amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
“I can tell you that we have been planning and meeting not only internally but with our other law enforcement partners to provide a safe time period for (holiday gatherings),” interim LAPD Chief Dominic Choi told KNX News Tuesday.
“You’ll see a strategic presence of our law enforcement professionals out there at critical sites, engaging with our community leaders, talking, so everyone’s informed of how to contact us, how to get early notifications if we see anything — see something, say something. There’s been a lot of discussion, a lot of planning.”
The Beverly Hills Police Department issued a statement Tuesday saying it is “closely monitoring world events and, as a precautionary measure, has increased patrols and partnered with private security to ensure the continued safety of our community around synagogues and houses of worship during Rosh Hashana and the High Holy Days.”
Antisemitic incidents in Southern California and worldwide have spiked following Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 rocket barrage and militants breaching the Gaza-Israel barrier that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 815 civilians.
Tuesday’s missile strikes by Iran against Israel in apparent retaliation for Israeli attacks targeting Iran-based Hezbollah sparked fears of both a regional war and acts of antisemitism in Southern California.
Services for the two-day holiday will be held Wednesday night — the day begins at sundown on the Hebrew calendar — Thursday and Friday. They feature the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn mentioned in the Torah and used by ancient Jews in religious ceremonies and as a call to arms — and now used at Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Jews are biblically commanded to hear the shofar during the High Holy Days.
While most congregations require membership and tickets for High Holy Days services, free services will be held in Beverly Hills and Hollywood
The JEM Center in Beverly Hills will hold a Rosh Hashana Eve service at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, a traditional service at 10 a.m. and an evening service at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and another service at 10 a.m. Friday.
Registration can be made online at www.jemcommunitycenter.com/events/high-holiday-services-2024.
The Laugh Factory Hollywood will conduct free services at 11 a.m. Thursday.
“We will pray together for peace in the Middle East, asking God’s blessings to help end the conflicts in the region,” Laugh Factory founder and owner Jamie Masada said in a statement.
This will be the 42nd consecutive year that The Laugh Factory has conducted free High Holy Days services.
Rosh Hashana is a time when Jews gather with family members and their communities to reflect on the past year and the one beginning. Celebrants also eat festive meals featuring apples dipped in honey, symbolic of the wishes for a sweet year.
Rosh Hashana ushers in the Days of Awe, a 10-day period of repentance and contemplation culminating in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Judaism’s most solemn and somber day.
During the High Holy Days, Jewish tradition holds that God records the fate of each person for the coming year in the Book of Life, which is sealed at the end of Yom Kippur.
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