Synagogues Celebrate New Year 5757

Tens of thousands of Jewish worshipers will attend Rosh Hashanah services today, greeting one another on the Jewish New Year with the Hebrew words L’shana tova teekatayvu, or “May you be inscribed for a good year.”

Starting with Rosh Hashanah eve services Friday night, Jews began marking the annual days of self-examination when, by tradition, God decides one’s fate for the coming year. Celebration of the new year 5757, like that of previous years, is characterized by quiet rejoicing and prayers for life, peace and prosperity.

Most who will attend Rosh Hashanah services this weekend and the concluding Yom Kippur services Sept. 23 have purchased tickets well in advance--a requirement at most synagogues because the large turnouts require them to reserve extra worship space for the holidays.

At the West Coast’s largest synagogue, Stephen S. Wise Temple, the congregation not only is using its own complex above Mulholland Drive and space at Bel Air Presbyterian Church (as in years past) but also the Skirball Cultural Center Auditorium for the first time.

Temple Isaiah on the Westside is holding its Rosh Hashanah services at the Century Plaza Hotel and renting its sanctuary to Beth Chayim Chadashim, a congregation serving the gay and lesbian community that needed a larger-than-usual space for holiday services.

Among congregations with less recognizable names, Temple Rodeph Shalom, “a progressive traditional synagogue,” is holding a Rosh Hashanah service at 10 a.m. today at the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo, and B’nai Horin, “a Jewish renewal community,” is holding services at 10 a.m. today and Sunday at the hilltop Brandeis Bardin Institute in Simi Valley.

The chaplaincy commission of the Southern California Board of Rabbis is providing High Holy Days services to Jewish hospital patients, nursing home residents and prison inmates.

More than 15 rabbis from all branches of Judaism serve in the program, which covers nearly 40 institutions in Southern California.

SCHOOL PRAYER

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Wednesday will be the day for the now-annual flagpole gatherings for students at some junior high and high schools. The “See You at the Pole” voluntary prayer sessions, normally at 7 a.m. before the school day starts, have avoided drawing objections on church-state separation grounds whenever they have been run by students, without direction by faculty or clergy.

The event is officially “promoted” (but not “organized”) countrywide by the National Network of Youth Ministries with some local assistance this year from International Youth Ministries in Burbank.

The latter is sponsoring rally-concerts at the Burbank Starlight Bowl on Tuesday and Wednesday, with Al Denson and Sinai performing both nights starting at 7 p.m. (818) 848-4496. Tickets at the amphitheater, if available, will be $15.

DATES

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“American Militias: Rebellion, Racism and Religion” will be discussed in a Sept. 22 lecture by Richard Abanes of Los Angeles, author of the recently published “American Militias.” The 2 p.m. talk will be at Caltech’s Baxter Lecture Hall under the auspices of the Skeptics Society. Tickets range from $5 to $8. (818) 794-3119.

* The rites and practices of modern-day Samaritans will be described Wednesday in Irvine by Mormon leader Tom Thorkelson at a lunch hour meeting of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council. The half-hour talk, using 80 photographic slides, will be on a trip this year to Holon, Israel, by Thorkelson and six others who participated in ancient Passover rites on Mt. Gerizim. Reservations must be made by Monday. (714) 548-4942.

* Cardinal Peter Shirayanagi of Tokyo will appear next weekend in Los Angeles for the first anniversary celebration of the Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will join the Tokyo prelate in a banquet Sept. 21 at the Hyatt Regency downtown. Shirayanagi will celebrate Mass at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 22 at St. Francis Xavier Chapel, 222 S. Hewitt St. (213) 626-2279.

* The masculine and feminine faces of God through human history will be discussed by Pam Brubacker of California Lutheran University in a 4 p.m. lecture Sunday at the (Episcopal) Church of the Epiphany, 5450 Churchwood Drive, Oak Park, near the Los Angeles-Ventura County line. Brubacker is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York. Donation $2. Reservations not required. (818) 991-4797.

FINALLY

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In keeping with a High Holy Days tradition, a group of Jewish faithful from a Santa Monica synagogue will go to that city’s pier Sunday to get rid of their sins--at least symbolically.

The emptying of one’s pockets into the water is called the tashlich ceremony, derived from a word in a passage in the biblical book of Micah about casting sins into the depth of the sea.

The tashlich rite is normally performed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah but, because that day coincides this year with the Sabbath, it will be done Sunday.

The origins and reasons are uncertain for the custom that says pockets should be emptied and sins transferred to the fish, said a spokesman for Kehillat Ma’arav, the Conservative congregation that will gather at 5:30 p.m. at the pier.

No matter. There will be singing, dancing and the blowing of the shofar, the ram’s horn whose blasts call Jews to repentance during the High Holy Days.

Notices may be mailed to Southern California File, c/o John Dart, L.A. Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311, or faxed to religion desk (818) 772-3385. Items should arrive about three weeks before the event, except for spot news, and should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time.

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PEOPLE

One of the nation’s most prominent women evangelical Christians is returning to Southern California.

The Rev. Roberta Hestenes is resigning after nine years as president of Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa., effective Oct. 15, to become senior pastor of the 2,200-member Solano Beach Presbyterian Church in San Diego County. Hestenes wanted to return to preaching and to be closer to family, a college spokeswoman said.

Hestenes, who was also the first woman president of the 77-campus Christian College Coalition, has served as chair of World Vision International and was once an associate professor at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena.

She was among eight religious leaders interviewed on the recent PBS television series “Searching for God in America” and will be one of many appearing in Bill Moyers’ PBS series “Genesis,” starting in mid-October.

* The Interreligious Council of Southern California has elected a woman as president for the first time in its 27-year history.

Beth Chandler Paullin of Rancho Palos Verdes, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, succeeds Dr. Maher Hathout, a physician and the chief spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern California.

Paullin is also the first Mormon to lead the multi-faith council. She has been a regional public affairs director for her church and was a vice president of the Interreligious Council the last two years.

Started in 1969 as a Catholic, Protestant and Jewish body, the Los Angeles-based organization now also has Buddhist, Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Sikh, Hindu, Mormon and Bahai representatives.