\u201cJews feel extremely precarious right now,\u201d said Rabbi David Ingber, founder and spiritual leader of Romemu, a fast-growing, nondenominational Jewish congregation in New York City.<\/p>\n
Ingber says many of his congregants are politically liberal and opposed to Israel\u2019s policies on Gaza and other issues, yet are troubled by vehement assertions that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of us see Israel as an ancestral homeland,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s disconcerting \u2014 we\u2019re being told our own sense of history is illegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to unease, he said, is an upsurge of antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment coming from the political right<\/a>, augmenting the deep-seated anti-Zionist views of many on the left. In aggregate, Ingber said, \u201cit is the worst uptick of antisemitism we\u2019ve seen in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of absolute vulnerability,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re not sure where we belong.\u201d<\/p>\n The High Holy Days begin at sundown on Friday with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year; it will be observed until nightfall on Sunday. A week later comes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is widely considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. This year, it is observed from sunset on Sept. 20 until after nightfall on Sept. 21.<\/p>\n Ahead of the Holy Days, the Secure Community Network, which provides safety advice to Jewish institutions throughout North America, has been offering security webinars and in-person training on how to respond to active threats.<\/p>\n \u201cHope is not a strategy,\u201d said Michael Masters, the SCN\u2019s national director and CEO. \u201cIt\u2019s about preparation, training individual members of the community, getting everyone engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n Masters said the network\u2019s task has become more complicated as antisemitic threats surface from a wider variety of domestic and foreign sources \u2014 ranging from proxies of Iran to white supremacists in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are looking for who is the enemy, and it\u2019s not an easy answer who\u2019s behind the increase of anti-religion hate crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Violent attacks targeting U.S. Jews this year include an August assault<\/a> at a Manhattan synagogue, a March truck-ramming<\/a> at a temple in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and a January arson attack<\/a> on a synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi.<\/p>\n Yet even as Jewish leaders across the political spectrum condemn such incidents, the broader Jewish community is riven by divisions related to Israel\u2019s role in ongoing Middle East conflicts. Notably, about 3 in 10 Jews in the U.S. say Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians, according to a recent survey<\/a> by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.<\/p>\n Masters says it\u2019s clear that events in the Middle East can affect the \u201cthreat environment\u201d in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cBut more broadly, the community understands this threat is the continuation of well over 3,500 years of threat,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s fundamentally about hatred of the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n Noting that some Christian churches also have faced recent violent attacks, Masters says there may be an opportunity \u201cfor all of us as faith groups to come together.\u201d And similarly, he said efforts to improve security could be a \u201cunifying component\u201d for the different branches of U.S. Judaism.<\/p>\n \u201cOur adversaries do not distinguish between Orthodox, Reform, Conservative,\u201d he said. \u201cWe would be very wise to understand that as a community we are strongest when we stand as one.\u201d<\/p>\n Ingber also addressed intra-Jewish divisions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should create a space to hold differences, to be together with all of our differences,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a grave danger of schism around the Jewish people and its relation to the state of Israel. It\u2019s being weaponized.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRabbis will have to try to speak into this space,\u201d he added. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to get up in the High Holy Days and speak of division.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Holy Days will be a time of powerfully contrasting emotions, said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism \u2014 an umbrella group for more than 800 Reform synagogues in North America.<\/p>\n He noted that the Hebrew name for the Holy Days can be translated as \u201cthe days of awe\u201d or \u201cthe days of fear.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe fear is genuine,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cPeople are fearful in many cases to be publicly expressing their Judaism.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, we are human beings who crave the majestic dimension of these High Holy Days \u2014 the beauty and possibility of the new year,\u201d he added. \u201cYou have to hold both of these at the very same moment.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/High_Holy_Days_27223.jpg\")
FILE \u2013 A person reacts during Yizkor, a Jewish prayer service for the dead, to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, on Yom Kippur in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura, File)
\nAhead of holy days, webinars and training on response to threats<\/p>\n![\"Beth](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/High_Holy_Days_26798.jpg\")
FILE \u2013 Beth Israel Congregation President Zach Shemper stands for a portrait in front of the synagogue\u2019s closed entrance on Jan. 13, 2026, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo\/Sophie Bates, File)
\nIntra-Jewish divisions are a major concern<\/p>\n
![\"Followers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/High_Holy_Days_91461.jpg\")
FILE \u2013 Followers of Jewish faith pray over Roaring Brook celebrating the Rosh Hashanah holiday in Scranton, Pa., Sept. 30, 2019. (Jake Danna Stevens\/The Times-Tribune via AP, File)