User-friendly Rosh Hashana Seder at your fingertips

Users will find that traditional elements have been given a modern twist, and the creators have pulled symbolism from root words and through deliberate wordplay.

By TAMARA UNGAR
Rosh Hashana (photo credit: Courtesy)
Rosh Hashana
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Rosh Hashana just got more user-friendly, with an online kit that makes the traditions surrounding the New Year accessible to Jews around the world.
The free program, produced by the Kol HaOt organization for the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, is available in English, Hebrew, Russian and Spanish, and is easily downloaded. It includes a modern Rosh Hashana Haggada, a full host guide with recommended shopping lists, creative table decorations and activities to entertain and engage guests.
No’a Gorlin – associate executive director of the ROI Community, a foundation initiative bringing together an international network of change-makers to redefine Jewish engagement – explains that the kit equips participants to discover symbolism within the ingrained traditions of the Rosh Hashana Seder.
“The idea was that we wanted to come up with a holiday card to send to members of our network and beyond,” recounts Gorlin of the kit’s beginnings. “We wanted something interactive, not just a greeting but something to engage with.”
Users will find that traditional elements have been given a modern twist, and the creators have pulled symbolism from root words and through deliberate wordplay.
“While many are familiar with simanim [symbolic foods] at the table, what [the kit] offers is an explanation,” she says.
The kit is very much in line with the Schusterman ethos, which seeks to make Judaism more relevant and ignite passion and unleash power in young people to create positive change for themselves, the Jewish community and the wider world.
Kol HaOt director Elyssa Moss Rabinowitz notes that all of the traditional blessings in the kit are translated and transliterated. “It assumes no prior knowledge or background,” she elaborates, “and includes customs from all different countries and backgrounds – from Middle Eastern to Ashkenazi, Libyan, Ukrainian and Ethiopian.”
Rabinowitz adds that expansion into other languages and perhaps other Jewish holidays, accompanied by an increasing number of materials, is on the horizon.
To download the free Rosh Hashana Seder Kit: www.schusterman.org/rosh-hashanah


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