Rosh Hashana begins tonight and continues in most synagogues with services tomorrow and Sunday morning. The 10-day period, known as the Days of Awe, concludes with Yom Kippur, 24 hours of prayer and fasting that starts at sundown Sept. 19.
Some synagogues in Philadelphia are hiring extra private security, notifying police and checking the grounds more carefully.
Police are taking no chances. "We sent out a teletype to all districts reminding officers to be extra vigilant at any synagogues during this holiday season," said Philadelphia Officer Carmen Torres.
The B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League, which issued a directive on security last month, suggested everything from "adequate outdoor lighting" to notifying police "no matter how minor the incident may appear."
"Security consciousness is a part of modern life," said Barry Morrison, ADL's regional director. "But there is a need to not overreact. The sky is not falling. These episodes are the work of a very small group of people who are not in the mainstream.
"This is the golden era of American Jewish life."
Gabbai intends to make many of those points in a Rosh Hashanah sermon at the historic synagogue located opposite Independence Mall on 5th Street.
Mikveh Israel, founded in 1740, has been "on the forefront of having equality of religion," he said.
". . .We cannot let our life people influenced by other people. Nobody who has bigotry or racism in their minds will influence our lives," Gabbai said.
For Rabbi Harold Romirowsky, of Oxford Circle Jewish Community Center, the shofar provides a different lesson - "to rouse people from their lethargy" on the issue of gun control. Easy access to guns and legislators' inaction is the evil he said he will emphasize in a sermon.
The "High Holidays" are a time when even non-observant Jews flock to the synagogues. It is a season of reflection and atonement, a time to seek God's judgment and to ask forgiveness of others.
But, said Gabbai, that does not mean granting blanket forgiveness to haters like Furrow.
"God judges us on our behavior. Every individual has responsibility for their own actions, and we either get the merit or the punishment from God.
"Forgiveness comes only after an individual has shown repentence. We are not under the obligation to forgiveness."
Blowing the shofar, a hollow ram's horn, traditionally opens and closes the Days of Awe. But when Rosh Hashana coincides with the sabbath, as it does this year, Shabbat takes precedence and the shofar sound is delayed.
So Gabbai will be blowing into the difficult instrument Sunday morning instead of tonight - mindful that Furrow and the Chicago killer Stephen Smith will be in his listeners' minds.
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