Entering the New Year with Prayer and Song

As the Jewish New Year approaches, Rosh Hashanah invites us to reflect on the past and look ahead with hope. Its prayers and melodies carry themes of judgment and mercy, awe and renewal. At the heart of this experience is the musaf service, a central part of the liturgy whose soaring music and shofar calls embody the spirit of the day.

The Milken Archive’s recording—a composite replication of the traditional Conservative service—brings this liturgy to life much as worshippers might have experienced it in American synagogues during the mid-20th century.

Featuring Cantor Alberto Mizrahi and the New York Cantorial Choir, the recording combines traditional motifs and melodies with interpretations, variations, and extensions that have been devised by some of the 20th century’s most influential cantors. Some settings are simple and singable, meant to bring the whole congregation along. Others are grand and dignified, reflecting the artistry of cantors and choirs who carried the traditions of Eastern Europe into new American settings. Together, they create a soundscape that feels at once deeply traditional and full of vitality.

Listening to this service offers more than a glimpse of history. It’s a way of stepping into the atmosphere of Rosh Hashanah itself, where awe and solemnity coexist with hope and joy for the year ahead.

Discover and Listen to the Musaf Service for Rosh Hashanah

A Season for Forgiveness (Radio Program)

During the High Holy Days, themes of repentance and forgiveness resonate not only in prayer but also in song. A Season for Forgiveness, a two-part radio program, traces these themes through music and narrative. With selections that range from solemn penitential prayers to stirring choral works, the program features the complete First S’liḥot service that traditionally takes place on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. Together, these elements reflect on the universal human search for renewal, reconciliation, and return.

JTA: From the Bronx to the Bosphorus

John Kalish reviews a new book by Walter Zev Feldman, the musician and scholar who helped start the klezmer revival.