A fitting way to start. My first post with real information on the start of the new year. So today was Rosh Hashana. The only Jewish community in northern Moravia is in Ostrava (about 40 minutes by car) and it numbers maybe 30 or 40, mostly older people. It was an interesting experience. They had a dinner at a hotel in Ostrava because they do not have a synagogue. I went to this dinner with Maria, the exchange student in Opava from Brazil. It was very interesting. I am used to our Rosh Hashana services, 3 hours in Boulder Community Church, with prayers, song, participation and shofar. This was 2 hours at a hotel in Ostrava. It started out with a lady talking in Czech, of which I only caught words. Then their Rabbi came out, and for about 30 minutes, did what I am assuming is an abbreviated version of the Rosh Hashana service. I recognized most of the prayers, but they were done very quickly, and with only him singing. The only prayer in which people joined in was the last, Oseh Shalom. The remaing 45 minutes or so was dinner. It was a very interesting experince; very different than what I'm used to. This Jewish community does not have a meeting place of their own (that is what I gathered through this, and the help of Johannes, a volunteer working with the Jewish community in Ostrava from Germany who has been here a week and also doesn't speak much czech), and so they only meet for major holidays. They don't have enough men to make minyan, and thus rarely meet for shabbat. The synagogue in Ostrava was destroyed during WWII. That got me thinking about how different these people's Judaism must be from my own. Only a handful in the room probably were old enough to have actively participated in an actual synagogue, and only as teenagers. The number of people under 25 (excluding myself, Maria and Johannes) probably numbered 4, out of the 30 or 40 people in the room. I am used to a place were Judaism is prominent, and people have some knowledge of the history and traditions. Here I have found that people know very little. It is a largely athiest country, but many people continue to wears crosses. It was an interesting experience, and I think I may join the group again for Yom Kippur, so we'll see what they do for that.
L'shana Tovah
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It's interesting learning about a totally new country from your experiences. Although I was a teenager during the time that we were struggling with the Soviet Jewry problem, trying to get them some freedoms and be allowed to leave the country, I never would have dreamt that the Jews in Czechoslovakia observe Rosh Hashanah as you experienced. It will be interesting to read what Yom Kippur is like.
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