Local congregations are making high-profile preparations for the Jewish High Holy Days, which begin on Friday. The Jewish Discovery Center put up a billboard at a busy intersection to welcome all Jews to free services. A well-known Canadian cantor and composer will join Temple B’nai B’rith in Kingston.
Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, begins on Friday. Yom Kippur, the solemn fast of atonement, begins Sept. 21.
A big invitation in Lackawanna County
The Jewish Discovery Center, a Chabad center in Waverly Twp., took the unusual step of putting up a billboard at Viewmont Drive and North Main Avenue near the Scranton/Dickson City border.
It reads in part, “Meaningful services. No membership. No charge.”
Some, but not all, synagogues limit High Holy Day services to members or may require buying tickets in advance. But even then, many admit people who cannot afford a ticket. Making donations in advance, instead of at the service, complies with Jewish law on handling money.
“You want people to feel like they’re already a member,” said Rabbi Benny Rapoport. He meets many young people who move to the area and don’t have a connection to the Jewish community.
“We’re here for them,” Rapoport said.
The schedule, including services, educational workshops, children’s programs and meals, is on the website Jewishnepa.com, and reservations are suggested. There is a link for making voluntary donations.
Cantor Charles Osborne (COURTESY OF TEMPLE B’NAI B’RITH)
The entrance to the Jewish Discovery Center in Waverly Twp. on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Rabbi Laurie Green poses for a photo in Temple B’nai B’rith in Kingston on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Cantor Charles Osborne (COURTESY OF TEMPLE B’NAI B’RITH)
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Well-known music in Kingston
At Temple B’nai B’rith, a Reform synagogue in Kingston, all are welcome free of charge. No one is ever turned away.
“The High Holy Days are a time of reflection, introspection, and spiritual renewal,” Temple B’nai B’rith President Adam Thalenfeld said in a media release. “We invite everyone to join us as we come together as a community to celebrate these sacred holidays. And remember, all are welcome to our Shabbat services throughout the year, as well.”
Cantor and composer Charles Osborne will provide music. “We are so lucky to have gotten him,” said Rabbi Laurie Green. “He is very high in demand.”
His “Samachti B’omrim Li” is a widely performed and popular composition. It is a Hebrew setting of Psalm 122.
Osborne, a Canadian who spent some time in the Poconos, said Temple B’nai B’rith has a reputation for professional music on holidays.
“I thought it looked like it might be fun,” Osborne said. “And since I have all of this repertoire that I’ve written, I thought it might be interesting for the congregation.” He is working with Temple B’nai B’rith to balance the new and the familiar for a “meaningful, fulfilling experience.”
His wife, Sue Osborne, will join him and play the flute.
Osborne’s original compositions include four oratorios, a symphony, music for flute, guitar, viola and harp, and more than 300 choral pieces.
Osborne composed “Kings and Fishermen,” performed at New York’s Lincoln Center, and “Souls On Fire,” which featured Leonard Nimoy and was performed across the country.
On the secular side, he won an Obie, an award for off-Broadway theater in New York City. He is a founding member of the psychedelic band the Rainbow Press.
One of the Rosh Hashana events, tashlich, a ritual symbolically casting away sins into a body of flowing water, will be at the Lands at Hillside Farms.
Green asks that reservations be made by phone, but said no one will be turned away. The schedule is on the website tbbwb.com.
“If they forget to do that or have some other sort of problem, then they just come,” she said. “We will usher them in.”