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Hanukkah – this is how people celebrate in New York

This weekend, the Sufganyot Festival of Lights begins, and latkes pile up in the bakeries, and the great menorah is set up on the corner of 5th Avenue. Our author spoke to Doron, 11, and Veronica, 12, about how their families celebrate the various Jewish holidays.

It’s Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. You see significantly fewer cars on the streets, the sidewalks are deserted. “Closed for the holiday. Open tomorrow, ”says a sign on the door of a children’s shoe store. Elegantly dressed couples, he in a suit and with a white kippah on his head, she in a festive costume or dress, go to one of the numerous synagogues. The street in front of the West Side Institutional Synagogue is cordoned off and a tent is set up. Here, in Corona times, people pray outside.

Yom Kippur fell on September 16 this year. It is the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar and is celebrated by devout Jews with all-day fasting, confession and intense prayer.

The rhythm of the autumn weeks in New York, home of the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, is shaped by the numerous religious holidays. Rosh Hashanah, the two-day New Year celebrations, and Yom Kippur are holidays on the New York public school calendar, the largest school system in the country with nearly one million students. Many private schools are also closed on these days. The pulse of the otherwise hectic city life is noticeably slowed down.

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