28 / matters magazine / school 2026 U nder a glowing sunset sky, the sound of Hebrew prayers re verberated across a broad slope near a big, shady tree in Maple wood’s Memorial Park on Sept. 15, 2023. Rabbi Abigail Treu of Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange had just launched the first Rosh Hashanah in the Park service. “The genesis of the idea was my wanting to do something that would help bring Jewish joy and celebration into the public sphere, whether you belong to a synagogue or participate in the Jewish community or whether you don’t,” says Rabbi Treu. Rosh Hashanah celebrates the Jewish New Year. For Jews around the world, it begins a 10-day period of repentance and introspection – which Jews refer to as the Days of Awe – that ends with Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calen dar. On that day of fasting and prayer, Jews ask God’s forgiveness for their transgressions and to inscribe them in the Book of Life, a metaphor for a year of good health and blessings. So when Rabbi Treu and then-Cantor Eliana Kissner chose to conduct Rosh Hashanah in Me morial Park instead of in Oheb’s sanctuary, they hoped to create a uniquely spiritual and commu nal beginning to the Days of Awe. They also want ed to open the service to all Jews and non-Jews. “We wanted to offer a service that would be ac cessible to people who aren’t part of the synagogue, and we also wanted something that was going to be an offering to the wider community,” Cantor Kissner says. By being outside, she says, “it just makes the service automatically more accessible.” And because the free service began at 5:30 p.m., when residents were heading home from work, a cross-section of people attended. “I definitely en countered people whom I had never met, people who weren’t members of synagogues, people who might not do anything for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur,” says the cantor. Rosh Hashanah in the Park is now an annual tradition. The congregation is preparing to cele brate its fourth Rosh Hashanah in Memorial Park. Approximately 300 people, from newborns to se niors, have attended the past three Rosh Hashanah services in the park. People bring chairs or sit on blankets on the grass and some enjoy a picnic din ner afterward. Services are conducted in a mix of Hebrew and English, and attendees receive print outs to follow along with the songs and prayers. At the past three annual services, Rabbi Treu and Cantor Kissner briefly explained the meaning and significance of each prayer and song. Because Judaism expresses a deep bond to the natural world, with prayers and text that lyrically describe the wonders of nature and the Jewish connection to the land, it seemed only fitting to welcome the New Year in the bucolic setting of Memorial Park. Rosh Hashanah falls on the first day of the first month of the Jewish year, and in services, Jews acknowledge the new moon. “We wanted to be outside and acknowledge that and be in relationship with nature,” says Cantor Kissner. For the first Rosh Hashanah in the Park, Rabbi Treu recalls, she and the cantor created “a service of its own. We didn’t just take the service that we would do in a sanctuary in a traditional or clas sic liturgical sense. We created a service that was almost like the ‘greatest hits’ of Rosh Hashanah, which makes it accessible for people who have a little bit of background.” They continue to use that “greatest hits” service outdoors. When asked whether it felt strange being outside the familiar setting of a synagogue sanctuary, both clergy women emphatically said no. “I love creat ing new rituals, new ways of onboarding people, Jewish Joy and Celebration in the Park Oheb Shalom Congregation welcomes Rosh Hashanah BY HARRIET SIGERMAN Cantor Eliana Kissner and Rabbi Agibail Treu leading Oheb Shalom's Rosh Hashanah in the Park service in 2025. Photo by Joy Yagid. The first Rosh Hashanah in the Park service was held in 2023. Photo by Joy Yagid.
View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.