Sharon Pulwer was lost in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, shortly after moving here from Israel to study photography, when she came across the black hats and modest clothes of religious Jews in New York City. A secular Jew, she was momentarily taken aback. “I was very surprised that there was this very vivid part of Jewish life here that I was not aware about.”

Yom Kippur is a time when it’s comforting to be in familiar surroundings, in a synagogue that you like, with family and friends by your side. That’s because you can use all the support you can muster to fulfill the demanding rituals.
But last year, I found myself alone with my thoughts in a room full of strangers in a place I’d never been before. And it turned out to be an especially meaningful holiday.

ince last Friday, Rabbi Yossi Groner of Charlotte’s Ohr HaTorah said he’d tried in vain to reach the rabbi at their satellite synagogue in hurricane-ravaged Wilmington. But with Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, fast approaching, the two Orthodox rabbis finally made contact by phone on Monday.

In the last perhaps 20 years, especially in the last 10 years, what has become known as the Chabad movement has changed Judaism in America and perhaps around the world. At a time when assimilation is taking a greater toll on Jews than genocide, Chabad is stemming the tide.

“God gave the people a day of forgiveness, and that day was Yom Kippur,” said Rabbi Zalman Charytan of Chabad Jewish Center of Kennesaw, an outreach center that primarily caters to students at Kennesaw State University.

Chabad will offer services in nine locations. “Chabad’s doors will be open to every Jew, for on this holy day all Jews must be united and undivided,” Rabbi Moshe Bryski said. “We need the prayers of every Jew, no one excluded.”

To better understand the Jewish High Holy Days, which started at sunset on Sept. 9, I went to see Rabbi Elimelech Goorevitch at the Chabad Jewish Center. Chabad is an orthodox Jewish movement, said to be the fastest growing, planted in Laguna 24 years ago by Rabbi G and his energetic wife, Perel.

The 38th annual Chabad “To Life” telethon on Labor Day weekend raised more than $3.6 million for Chabad West Coast, according to Rabbi Simcha Backman, co-director of Chabad of Glendale and the Foothill Communities.

Before I left the US, several Chabadniks had mentioned that my summer travels would bring me near the burial site in Almaty on the occasion of the senior Rebbe’s yahrzeit, marking the anniversary of his death. Still, I had no intention of going.

Storm or no storm, the rabbi has no intention of allowing a simple hurricane to disturb his plans for Sukkot. “I fully intend on having my sukkah up,” he said. “Wind is a concern but the wind should be gone by Sunday so I have plenty of time.

Services are open to every Jew, observant or non-observant, member or non-member, affiliated or non-affiliated.
“Chabad’s doors will be open to every Jew, for on this holy day all Jews must be united and undivided,” said Rabbi Moshe Bryski. “We need the prayers of every Jew, no one excluded.

Jewish life at Stockton University got off to a strong start as students came back to school earlier this month, just before Rosh Hashanah.
New and returning students were greeted with many options for celebrating the High Holidays, including “student-friendly services” close to campus at the Chabad House and the option to attend services at local synagogues for free.