Category: Uncategorized

Registration for High Holidays 5784 is now OPEN!

We return to you and you return to us.
הֲדַרַן עַלָךְ וְהֲדַרַך עֲלָן
(hadran alakh v’hadrakh alan)

Dear NSP Community,

One year ends and another begins: a cycle completed. When the world may seem scary, unprecedented and uncertain, we return to ritual, radical imagination, and community. We return to self, the Divine, and what sustains and grounds us. We honor and learn from the past as we move toward change and transformation.

The community we have all built together is the true heart of NSP. With that spirit of togetherness, collaboration, and hope for the future, we’re thrilled to announce that registration is now OPEN for the High Holidays. We hope you can join us, in-person or online, as we usher in a new year full of hope, joyful intention, and a renewed commitment to each other and ourselves. ALL are welcome, regardless of NSP membership status or ability to pay.

Register today to join NSP for the High Holidays! Registration closes on August 31, so don’t wait. 

An important note: August 31st is an ACTUAL DEADLINE, so that we have enough time to prepare for the joyful and momentous task of putting on High Holidays programming for our entire community. Please register now, and make sure your spot is saved before August 31st!

Here’s what to expect from the NSP High Holidays this year.

A note on COVID Safety:
While we are thrilled to be gathering together in-person this year, we remain mindful of the continued risk COVID-19 poses to our members and to the wider DC community.

This year we continue to embrace a hybrid approach: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur adult services will be held both in person (indoors) and online. We will also be offering indoor children’s services; outdoor school-age kids’ programming; an outdoor, in-person Tashlich ritual; and outdoor events with our Jews of Color Space. More details provided below about COVID safety & precautions! 

High Holiday Services:
We are thrilled to welcome back Batya Levine, who will be co-leading the adult services with Rabbi Yosef again this year, in addition to a special Tashlich ritual and shofar service on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

In-person services will be held in an accessible location indoors (with COVID precautions), in the Columbia Heights/Petworth area. Exact locations and accessibility details will be emailed to registrants. Childcare will be provided for all adult services. Registration will close on August 31!

Rosh Hashanah

Friday, Sept 15
Jews of Color & Multiracial Families Rosh Hashanah Dinner & Seder | In person (outdoors)

Saturday, Sept 16
Adult Morning Service & Kiddush | In person (indoors) or online
Children’s Morning Service (Ages 1-5) | In person (indoors)
School-Age Kids’ Afternoon Program (K-3rd Grade/ 4-7th Grade) | In person (outdoors)

Sunday, Sept 17
Jews of Color & Multiracial Families Seudah/Luncheon | In person (outdoors)
Afternoon Shofar Service & Tashlich (Casting Away Ritual) | In person (outdoors; bring your own picnic!)

Yom Kippur

Sunday, Sept 24: 
Kapparot (Community Support Ritual) | In person (outdoors)
Kol Nidre (Yom Kippur Evening) Service | In person (indoors) or online

Monday, Sept 25:
Adult Morning Service | In person (indoors) or online
Children’s Morning Service (Ages 1-5) | In person (indoors)
Yom Kippur Learning Spaces and Quiet Spaces | In person (indoors or outdoors)
School-Age Kids’ Afternoon Program (K-3rd Grade/4th-7th Grade) | In person (outdoors)
Ne’ilah (Closing) Service | In person (indoors) or onlineBreak-fast | In person (outdoors)

For more details, including service times, visit the High Holiday Services section of our website!

NSP High Holiday programs are free of charge to be as financially accessible as possible. We ask those who are able to support our programs by making a sliding scale donation when reserving your High Holidays ticket. NSP is a volunteer-driven, non-profit organization, and your support allows us to continue to serve our community and keep our services open and affordable to all.

We also need and appreciate extra hands for the High Holidays! If you are interested in volunteering for any of our services or programming, please let us know when you fill out the registration form. 

COVID Precautions:
We want programming to be available to as many congregants as possible, while maintaining our commitment to pikuach nefesh, safeguarding life, as a central value: “We hold that to save one member of our community is to save and preserve the entire community of NSP and beyond.” 

In accordance with NSP’s COVID policy, all attendees who are eligible must be fully vaccinated for in-person events. Masks will be strictly required for all indoor High Holiday events, in addition to rapid testing. Rapid tests and N95/KN95 masks will be supplied on site for those who need them. For more details, please visit the High Holidays COVID Safety Information page on our website.

We recognize that some people may still prefer to avoid large in-person gatherings. We encourage you to join us for High Holidays online, and/or in whatever way feels best and safest to you! Please reach out to us if there’s anything we can do to make your High Holiday experience safer and more comfortable.

Accessibility Information:
We are committed to making the High Holidays accessible and inclusive for all who wish to attend, including CART captioning, ASL interpretation, and wheelchair/mobility aid accessible locations. 

For full details on how we are planning to meet our community’s access needs, please visit the High Holidays Accessibility Information page on our website. If you have any access needs that aren’t met by these plans, please email access@newsynagogueproject.org, so that we can work to meet them.

Ready to register? Click here to join NSP for the High Holidays!

Still have questions? Email our High Holidays team at administration@newsynagogueproject.org.

Pushcart Judaica Pop Up Market

Join Pushcart Judaica, NSP, and our partners for a weekend of queer, radical Jewish arts & culture in DC! June 23-25

Register here for Friday Night Services with guest service leader Marni Loffman

Welcome Shabbat with NSP through uplifting song and prayer, and stay for a potluck dinner! Kabbalat Shabbat services will be led by Marni Loffman from 6:30-8pm

Marni Loffman is a composer, musician, singer and ritual-leader with a love of community education and asking big questions. With a background in cultural anthropology, religion and international peacebuilding, Marni is often weaving social analysis with music making practices. How can music help us belong? How has music played a role in the construction of identity? What does this sound like? What does this feel like? Marni’s debut album, the long short path, releases on rosh chodesh (the new month) Elul in mid august. the long short path is an invitation to pray from wherever you are on your journey, from a place of eternal wandering and continual arrival, from the paradox of belief, from desiring “traditional” sounds and also yearning for relevance, familiarity and meaning, from recognizing a kernel of truth everywhere but also knowing that no place contains the full picture. Listen to Marni’s debut single tefilat haderech on all streaming platforms.

Register here for the Linke Fligl Land Stories Workshop, Havdalah and Kiddush Levana

לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגמֹר
AND THOUGH WE MAY NOT FINISH THIS:
Creating Home & Accountable Land Relationship as Queer Diasporic Jews

Together, we will view a mini-documentary capturing 7 years of communal work towards right relationship with land at Linke Fligl, a queer Jewish farm & cultural organizing project on Schaghticoke land (NY). From there, participants will explore personal relationships with land through a “Land Stories” practice, a ritual for sharing & witnessing our complex & evolving stories of loss, connection, home, & quest for accountable relationship with place.

Current Positions

We are not currently hiring, but check back for positions in the future.