N.Y. synagogues feel holiday pinch as financial crisis wears on congregants

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent

NEW YORK - "I did not need to ask for quiet during the long Musaf service on Yom Kippur," the rabbi of a large Reform synagogue in Manhattan said Sunday. "The worshipers sat withdrawn inside themselves and they looked contemplative and worried."

The rabbis of other large New York synagogues offered similar impressions of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Most of these are well-known, long-established synagogues - mainly Reform, some Conservative and a few Orthodox. They are located in an area between 60th and 90th Streets that is known for its wealthy synagogues.

"People said the U'Netane Tokef prayer seriously this year," said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Reform Movement's Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on West 68th Street in Manhattan. "The words 'who will be impoverished and who will be enriched,' and 'who will be laid low and who will be raised up' resounded throughout the synagogue this year."
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And during the rabbis' Yom Kippur sermons, the phrases Days of Awe, repentance, accounting for one's acts all seemed to take on added significance in Manhattan synagogues.

The financial crisis and the stock market collapse clearly set the tone for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this year. Many of the worshipers at these synagogues are leading brokers and bankers at Wall Street's most respected financial institutions. Others are known for the millions they made from their local businesses.

"In those synagogues, everyone was invested in the stock market," one rabbi said.

Just a short while ago, these peoples' names routinely starred in the business pages of New York newspapers, and everything they said was quoted as gospel. Manhattan synagogues were proud to show off the lists of their congregants. But now, these same people star in the news for the size of their losses and their critical financial situations, which merely highlight the severity of the crisis.

About 2,000 people attended Yom Kippur services at the Stephen Wise Synagogue. Hirsch said the 100-year-old synagogue was at the center of the financial storm, and almost everyone was harmed by the stock market crash, including Hirsch himself. The synagogue is now in the process of establishing a program that will offer psychological support to members who lost their fortunes, or their jobs. A synagogue is a communal framework for helping each other not only in times of joy, but in difficult times as well, Hirsch explained.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Brooklyn, in contrast, were reluctant to talk about the effects of the financial crisis on their congregants. "At least half of the neighborhood's residents were invested in stocks," said one community leader, "but you will not hear a word of complaint or fear to the outside world."

Nevertheless, ultra-Orthodox rabbis in New York fear that the losses will lead to a drop in the contributions that finance their communities' religious education systems, including their flagship yeshivas.