By Debbie Schlussel

As you read this, I’m out of online commission for the Jewish Holiday of Rosh HaShanah, which began last night at sundown. The holiday lasts for two days, so I will be away until Saturday Night (the Jewish Sabbath begins as the holiday ends). However, I’ve prepared a few posts in advance, which will go up in my absence–stuff you won’t read anywhere else but on this site (including my movie reviews on Friday). So, stay tuned. Below are a couple of my favorite pics (from my collection of Jewish-American military memorabilia) of Jewish-American soldiers in World War II at Rosh HaShanah services in 1944. Also, don’t miss the postcards I posted from Jewish-American soldiers serving in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II that I posted in the past and the patriotic postcard from Jewish-Americans praying for America and victory in World War I as well as a couple of postcards of Israeli soldiers wishing a Happy New Year. I’ve posted these before, but they are evergreens in my book.

As I’ve noted before, although it’s called a “New Year,” Rosh HaShanah is not a time for partying and the like that you normally associate with “New Year” celebrations. It’s an earnest and serious time in which we spend a good deal of the day in synagogue praying that G-d will forgive us for our sins and inscribe us in the Book of Life, inscribe us for a year of health and happiness, success, and peace. It begins what is known in Judaism as the Ten Days of Repentance, which ends with Yom Kippur, when our fate is sealed.

On Rosh HaShanah, we eat apples (my faves are McIntosh and Fuji, though Braeburn will do) with honey and ask G-d to bless us with a a year as sweet as apples with honey. Some people also eat several other foods, including pomegranate and carrots, which symbolize good things.

As we pray in our synagogues, you will not hear our rabbis calling for violence and destruction and preaching hate and genocide, as is the case in mosques all over the world, including in America. Jews don’t attack American embassies and murder the ambassadors and security staff, but we do pray for the well-being of our country and that would include our embassies and their personnel. Contrary to the usual at the mosques, our rabbis will sermonize about peace and what we can do to be better people spiritually. That is the Jewish way. In synagogue, we will also hear a man blow many different sounds out of a ram’s horn, called the “shofar,” and we are obligated to hear all the sounds.

Man Blowing Sounds Out of the Shofar

At synagogue, I will be praying for a good and peaceful year for our country and that G-d will bless America with prosperity and freedom uninfringed by politically correct pandering to Muslims and other malefactors, that our freedom of speech is not encroached by fear of what the savage descendants of Ismael might do and have already done. As always, I will pray for secure borders and continued safety for those of us who get it and dare to speak out against the Islamic encroachment. I will pray for the safety and security of our troops serving in the U.S. Armed Forces all over the world. I will pray for America’s economy to get better and for our country to return to the greatness that is now tarnished (though things seem to be getting worse, not better). I will also pray for all of my friends, Jewish and Gentile, for their continued health and happiness and financial livelihood. These are dangerous times we live in, and I will ask G-d to keep us safe, secure, and free.

To my Jewish friends and readers who sent me New Year’s wishes, I regret that I cannot respond to each of you individually, but I reciprocate your good wishes and say, “Ktivah v’Chatimah Tovah”–May You Be Written and Sealed (by G-d) for a Good Year. L’Shanah Tovah U’Metukah–To a Good and Sweet Year.

To my Gentile friends and readers, thank you to the many of you who also sent me New Year’s greetings and good wishes. And thanks for your continued support, friendship, and readership. I am blessed to have you. As always, you are in my prayers. And I hope you will read my new stuff posted in my absence.

I’ll see you again, live, on Saturday Night. Y’all come back now, ya hear!