Yom Kippur at UAlbany
5765 / 2004 arranged by UAlbany Hillel & Shabbos House

Thanks to all who participated and assisted with this Yom Kippur at UAlbany. As this year it fell on a Saturday, more students stayed up in Albany instead of going home as usual for Yom Kippur.

A Pre-fast meal was held at Shabbos House (see below for photos) with a record (unexpected!) number of students. All services were held at Campus Center, with traditional services for Kol Nidrei, Mincha and Neilah (all in CC 375) and both traditional and egalitarian prayer services for the Shachrit and Musaf Prayers.

Rabbi Mendel prepared "Machzor Notes" with info, instructions and insights by page number, to help with the Prayerbook Blues. Aviva Zucker of Hillel led a "Kippur Konversations" meditation session in the afternoon, and did all the room arrangements and the break-fast, as well as much of the publicity about services. Yishai Cohen ('04) did a splendid job of leading Kol Nidrei, Shachrit (traditional) and Mincha, Rabbi Mendel led Musaf (traditional) and Neilah, and Dr. Marc Hecker led Shachrit and Musaf for the egalitarian service. Allie Newman of Ruach led a midday discussion session in the Hillel Student Office (CC320) with readings, thoughts and inspiration.

While the traditional services did keep to tradition, we didn't do the sermons and all, so we spent about an hour and change on Kol Nidrei, 4 hours on Shachrit and Musaf, and under 2 hours for Mincha and Neilah. Considerably less time than formal congregations. In fact there was time left over before the end of Neilah, so Rabbi Mendel shared a story about a drunken Kol Nidrei (not the Neilah story he usually tells about the suspenders).

May we all have a Happy, Healthy Sweet New Year, with much blessing!
 

Pre-Fast Meal at Shabbos House
A record, unexpected number of students attended. Less than on recent Friday Nights, but still quite a turnout. While Shabbos House was full, it was because we didn't set up "right" (left the couches in, used more chairs than benches etc) as we do for a larger turnout.