We are so excited to welcome in 5785 with you! Join us on erev Rosh Hashanah and Day 1! Registration closes Sunday, September 29th.
More details and registration below – help us plan by letting us know when you plan to join us!
Health, Weather, and Accessibility Info:
Help us take care of each other! Please sign our health equity brit (covenant) before coming to in-person CJC gatherings.
All Rosh Hashanah gatherings will be in or near outdoor pavilions. In the case of rain, we will still meet, protected by the pavilion roof. In the case of severe weather, we will let you know if we decide to cancel. We will provide warm drinks and hand warmers if it’s chilly. Please dress for the weather.
Seating will be a combination of picnic benches, folding chairs, and blankets and pillows on the ground. We invite you to bring anything that will make sitting more comfortable and accessible for you.
All locations have onsite parking with paved sidewalks from the parking lot to the pavilion.
Euclid Beach Shelter can be accessed via bus #10; Tuxedo Park via bus #53 and #54; and Garfield Reservation via bus #19 and #48. We also strive to arrange rides for those who need – let us know if you need one in the registration form below!
Erev Rosh Hashanah Potluck Dinner & Prekante & Tashlich
Wednesday, October 2nd | 6:00-8:00pm | Euclid Beach Shelter (here) | All ages welcome!
Join the Cleveland Jewish Collective to welcome in Rosh Hashanah! We will begin by lighting candles, blessing grape juice and challah, and eating apples with honey. We will provide these ritual foods, and we invite you to bring a vegetarian dish to share with the group.
After dinner, we will head down to Lake Erie for two water rituals. Prekante is a Sephardi practice from Turkey and the Balkans of face washing in order to let go of what we can’t control and leave the old year behind. Tashlich is an Ashkenazi practice of casting away our mistakes from the past year into water.
Some people in our community are Gluten Free, Dairy Free, or allergic to nuts – please keep these dietary needs in mind as you decide what to bring for our potluck, so that everyone has at least one thing they can eat. Please list ingredients so that people know what they are able to eat.
Rosh Hashanah Day 1
Thursday, October 3rd | 10am-2:30pm | Tuxedo Park (here) | Adult Oriented (let us know in the registration form if childcare would be helpful!
Day 1 is geared towards adults but little ones are welcome to play on the nearby playground or with crafts and toys we will have available. We may also be able to provide childcare – please let us know when you register if that would be helpful for you.
***10:00-11:30am Learning: Hagar and the Gates of Tears***
Every year on Rosh Hashanah we read the story of Hagar and Ishmael’s banishment, and the miraculous appearance of a life-saving wellspring of water. This year, this story takes on additional resonance, as the death toll continues to rise in Gaza and throughout the region. Through the lens of this sacred story, we will explore the power (or lack there of) of prayer. What can our prayers for a sweet new year mean amidst so much devastation? How might our experience of prayer shift or deepen through our learning?
***11:30am-1:30pm Shachrit: Morning Prayer***
Join us for Rosh Hashanah morning prayers, during which we will embody what we’ve just learned. Our prayers will include singing, poetry, shofar, and Torah reading.
The learning and prayer are meant to enhance each other, but feel free to come to either or both parts.
***1:30-2:30pm Potluck lunch***
CJC will provide apples, honey, grape juice, and challah. We invite you to bring a vegetarian dish to share with the group.
Some people in our community are Gluten Free, Dairy Free, or allergic to nuts –please keep these dietary needs in mind as you decide what to bring, so that everyone has at least one thing they can eat. Please list ingredients so that people know what they are able to eat.
***Tashlich on your own***
Our communal tashlich (casting away our mistakes into water) will be the previous night, but there is a stream nearby – please feel free to do your own tashlich at any point while you’re here.
Teshuvah, Tashlich, and Treats
for tots and teens and everyone in between
Sunday, October 6th | 10am-12:00pm | Garfield Reservation, Garfield Heights (here) | Kid Oriented (for kids of all ages with their grownups)
Join us outdoors for a morning full of crafts, play, and song. Led by Rabbi Miriam and Laurel Simkoff, we will blow shofar to wake us up, eat apples and honey for a sweet new year, and head down to the water together for tashlich, the symbolic casting away of our mistakes from the past year into water. Appropriate for children of all ages with their grownups.