2001 -- SEP 30 - OCT 1
2002 -- SEP 18-19

• Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. In hope of a sweet year, people eat sweet foods, such as apples dipped in honey. The holiday also begins a ten day period of soul searching and repentence, culminating in Yom Kippur. The blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah (ram's horn) calls the people to repent and ask God for mercy and forgiveness.

2001 -- Thu, SEP 27
2002 -- Mon, OCT 9

• Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year. It is a day of fasting devoted to prayer and repentence during which Jews confess, individually and communally, for the past year's sins and beg forgiveness. The holiday begins at sunset with the Kol Nidre service and ends twenty five hours later with the blowing of the shofar (ram's horn); a final appeal to God's compassion and mercy.

2001 -- Tue-Wed, OCT 2-3
2002 -- Sat-Sun, OCT 14-15

• During this festival, Jews celebrate the fall harvest, by building succot (temporary shelters open to the sky) where they eat meals filled with seasonal fruits and vegetables. The succot serve as a reminder of the shelters used by the ancient Israelites as they wandered through the desert after they left Egypt. They resembles structures used by field workers in parts of the Mideast today.

2001 -- Tue-Wed, OCT 9-10
2002 -- Sat-Sun, OCT 21-22

• Shemini Atzeret links the holiday of Sukkot to the festive holiday of Simchat Torah, which celebrates the completion of the cycle of the Torah reading.

• On Simchat Torah (literally, joy of the Torah), the year long public reading of the Torah is concluded and the next year's reading begins. Each Torah is removed from the ark and carried with singing and dancing through the congregation.

2001 -- Mon-Mon, DEC 10-17
2002 -- Fri-Fri, DEC 22-29

• Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, celebrates the Maccabbees' revolt against the Syrian tyrant, Antiochus, in ancient times. The chief custom is to light a menorah (8-branched candelabra), beginning with one light and adding another with each passing night, to commemorate the miracle of a tiny supply of oil that burned for eight days when the Temple was rededicated.

Monday, January 28, 2002

• Tu B'Shvat, the New Year for Trees, is seen as a harbinger of spring. In Israel, the rainy season has ended and the sap in the trees has risen and the fruit of the trees begins to form. While it is mostly a tree planting holiday there, elsewhere it is a time for expressing one's connection to Israel by eating Israeli fruits, such as carob, raisins, figs and dates.

Tuesday, February 26, 2002

• Purim is a carnival festival, commemorating Esther's and Mordecai's victory against the Persian villain, Haman, in ancient times. On Purim, the Megillah (Book of Esther) is read in synagogue.

March 28-April 4, 2002

• Passover, or the Festival of Freedom, celebrates the Jews' deliverance from slavery and exodus from Egypt in the second millennium BCE. On the first two nights, a special meal is prepared and the story of the holiday is recited at a seder. Throughout the holiday, foods with hametz (leaven) are forbidden and matzoh (unleavened bread) is eaten to remind Jews of the historic event.

Tuesday, April 9, 2002

• Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is observed throughout the world through a variety of memorial services for the millions of Jews who suffered and died in the Holocaust.

Wedesday, April 17, 2002

• This day marks the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland. Israeli Independence Day is a festive day filled with parties, performances and festivals.

May 17-18, 2002

• A harvest holiday in ancient times, Shavuot later became associated with the Giving of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) on Mt. Sinai. For this reason, the Torah reading on this day includes the Ten Commandments. Dairy foods are customary on this day because the Bible compares the Torah to milk.

Thursday, July 18, 2002

• Tisha B'Av (literally, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av) commemorates the destruction of both temples, as well as other tragic events in Jewish history including the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.