Through yoga, prayer, challah and community, the University of Rhode Island Hillel Center upheld almost 4,000-year-old traditions in celebration of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Rosh Hashanah began Oct. 2 and ended on Friday. Yom Kippur begins Friday at sunset and ends at nightfall on Saturday.
Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorists attacked Israel, making it the deadliest attack on Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust, according to ABC News . Hillel hosted a memorial vigil at their center on Monday at noon.
“Our being together, our experiencing pride in who we are and in our community will get us through,” Amy Olson, the executive director of URI’s Hillel Center, said.
Following the vigil, the Hillel Center hosted a capsule exhibit from ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, which examined how Israeli culture has reacted to the war, according to the Hillel Center’s press release for the event. The exhibit continues through Thursday, Oct. 10.
On Friday, Hillel had an untraditional service in the form of spiritual yoga on the URI Quad with the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn.
“It’s a kind of a spiritual awakening in some ways,” Olson said.
The holiday of Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year and emphasizes self-reflection, according to Olsen. The yoga event provided students with an opportunity to take time and reflect.
On Oct. 2, URI Hillel hosted an Erev Rosh Hashanah service for students with a dinner afterward that featured traditional foods such as Challah, according to Olson. On Oct. 3, they held a traditional Rosh Hashanah service followed by lunch.
The dinner on Oct. 2 also featured a student speaker, fourth-year Leetal Young, who discussed her hardships in the past year.
“She’s [Young] encouraging students to reflect on where they’ve been, where they are and where they want to go,” Olson said.
In anticipation of Yom Kippur, Hillel has prayer services planned on both Friday and Saturday. Additionally, they have a “Break the Fast” event Saturday at 7 p.m.
URI Dining Services did not schedule anything for the celebration of Yom Kippur and Rashanah, according to the director of dining services, Pierre St-Germain. Traditionally, Dining Services do more for the holidays of Passover and Hanukkah because they have more foods associated with them.
For the celebration of the High Holy Days, the most widely observed Jewish holidays, Dining Services took lead from Hillel and asked for recommendations on what foods they should serve during these holidays.
“We do work with students to try to accommodate requests or interests,” St-Germain said. “We’ve never gotten a request to do anything additional, even working with Hillel specifically.”
Dining Services also aims to try and help with the observance of the holidays of other religions.
“As we try and develop our program, we obviously try and work towards being as inclusive as possible,” St-Germain said.
Dining Services don’t just observe one religion’s holidays, and they shouldn’t, according to St-Germain.
Students interested in participating in any of the remaining upcoming Yom Kippur events can register in advance on the Hillel Center’s website.
