Alternatives for Holiday Worshipers : Judaism: Jews who don’t often go to temple can observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with informal congregations.

At this time of year, as the Jewish High Holidays approach, many otherwise non-observing Jews think about going to temple. The ancient chants and familiar invocations, they muse, might be uplifting. And what better time to reacquaint themselves--and introduce their children--to the religious aspects of their heritage.

But then they remember the “tickets”--the high price of admission to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services--and those practical concerns outweigh the religious impulse, and they turn aside the prompting of the Holidays. Yet there are, sprinkled throughout Los Angeles, a number of “off-the-beaten-track” congregations that--while they may not convene in buildings that resemble the traditional synagogues--offer a congenial welcome.

And because they are not burdened with the cost of building upkeep, many of these groups ask for only a donation, or nothing at all, for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services that resonate with spirit and substance.

“We are a small congregation of study-oriented people,” said Rabbi Michael Roth of Congregation Beth Ohr, which holds its services in the Unitarian Church in Studio City. “We deal with text and with theories and with thoughts.” The services at Beth Ohr, which utilize a Reform prayer book but freely incorporate elements of other Jewish denominations, reflect the congregation’s embrace of intellectual questioning and ancient prayer.

“We strive,” Roth said, “within a traditional approach, to constantly renew ourselves.”

It is this very prospect of renewal that attracts so many otherwise non-practicing Jews to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

These particular holidays call out to even the more secularized Jews, Roth said, because “they need some kind of contact, one period during the year when they can manifest their Jewishness. [It’s] a time that doesn’t correspond with any other holiday--Christmas or Easter. It’s totally and uniquely a Jewish time.”

Rabbi Stan Levy of B’nai Horin (Children of Freedom) in West Los Angeles agrees. “People respond to these holidays,” he said, “because it’s a way of connecting with family, and particularly family members who have passed away. . . . We want to find a place where we can express our hearts and souls.”

Although B’nai Horin’s Sabbath services are generally held “in the back yards of our members,” the congregation will hold its holiday services at the mountain retreat of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley.

Levy expects more than 350 people to attend the services, at which “there is no choir, but everybody sings. And there are flutes, trumpets, guitars, harps, all evolving into the deeply emotional vibration of the shofar, “ the ram’s horn, which traditionally signals the beginning of the Jewish New Year.

“We generally begin the service in total darkness and begin every prayer with a meditation,” Levy said. “We want to get to the deepest spiritual place of every worshiper.”

Tickets for the holiday series--which includes four services, on the morning and eve of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur--average about $225 per person at most synagogues. But tickets at temples such as B’nai Horin cost about $35 for a single service, or $115 for the series.

Similarly inexpensive High Holiday services--with an emphasis on personal expressiveness and meditation--will be held at Santa Monica High School’s Barnum Hall by the Encino-based Jewish Renewal congregation, Makom Ohr Shalom.

Many traditional services are conducted largely in Hebrew, which can be intimidating to the casual worshiper. But that need not be, said Beth Ohr’s Roth. “The prayer book, for me, is one of the holy experiences during any service,” he said.

“When an individual comes into a congregation and picks up a prayer book, I would hope that individual immediately experiences a transition. I’m not concerned, nor should the individual worshiper be concerned, with whether he or she understands the Hebrew.”

In fact, one doesn’t really even need a rabbi to join in prayer for the High Holidays, notes Rabbi Levy. “Anyone can go to a bookstore, buy a prayer book and go to the park with some friends and enjoy a very meaningful Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur experience.”

And services that are “95% in English and 100% free” will be held at the Sheraton Hotel at Los Angeles International Airport, hosted by Hasidic Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz, who expects about 1,000 worshipers.

“No tickets, no appeals,” promises Schwartz. “It doesn’t matter what denomination you are. If you’re Jewish, we just want you to come.”