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The High Holidays of My Youth

JL;DR SUMMARY Adina Sapir reflects nostalgically on her childhood experience of the High Holidays in a small shtiebel in Boro Park during the 1970s and 80s. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

FamilyJewish TraditionHigh HolidaysYamim NoraimHolocaust SurvivorsCommunityMemoryRabbi Joseph B. SoloveitchikShtiebelBoro Park

Places mentioned

Boro Park, New York, United States
"In those years, Boro Park was saturated with Jews who had numbers on their arms; nearly everyone above a certain age had witnessed the unfathomable and had somehow mustered the strength to marry, have children and start over."
New York, United States
"Adina Sapir is a freelance writer living in New York."
Hungary
"and her shul friends, who had memories of a vibrant Jewish life in small shtetls that dotted the Hungarian, Czechoslovakian and Romanian countrysides, spent the High Holidays weeping, asking forgiveness from G-d."
Czechia
"and her shul friends, who had memories of a vibrant Jewish life in small shtetls that dotted the Hungarian, Czechoslovakian and Romanian countrysides, spent the High Holidays weeping, asking forgiveness from G-d."
Romania
"and her shul friends, who had memories of a vibrant Jewish life in small shtetls that dotted the Hungarian, Czechoslovakian and Romanian countrysides, spent the High Holidays weeping, asking forgiveness from G-d."
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Cairo Item ID 61600
Cairo Source ID 6
Retrieved 2025-09-16 05:31:12 UTC
Curated 2025-09-16 08:34:31 UTC