Kol Nidre is Kol Nidre

Equally moving, wherever you are in the world

By Jerry Brodsky

If you accessed streamed High Holiday services from around the world from the list provided by FJMC International, you heard Kol Nidre – everywhere. Whether the native language is English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, Hungarian or any other, the words and the emotionally connecting High Holy Day tunes of prayers in synagogues are the same around the world, and that fact is extremely moving in and of itself.

Scanning the world live online during services from faraway places, one couldn’t help but be emotionally struck by the fact that Jews around the world were celebrating, asking forgiveness, contemplating their lives, and remembering deceased loved ones during Yizkor on the same day, albeit in different time zones, and with the same fervor and seriousness, the same Torah service, and the same emotional connection as Jews everywhere else in the world. It’s a powerful symbol of unity and commonality.

If you missed the opportunity this year, many synagogues archived their services so you can still connect yourself to your brothers’ and sisters’ celebrations around the world. And you can go back to that list for Shabbat and other holidays to confirm the fact that around the world, Kol Nidre is Kol Nidre, and the Shema is the Shema, for all of us!

Jerry Brodsky is president of the International Region of FJMC.