Rabbi Daniel Dorsch's Rosh Hashanah Message for 2024

One of my prized possessions that I keep under the pulpit with me during the holy days is a machzor that belonged to my great-great grandfather, Herman (Zvi) Gerendasi. The book was printed in 1903 in Yiddish and Hebrew.

Our family lived in a town called Beregszasz, today Berehove, in the Carpathian Mountains. Zvi and his family bore witnesses to the rise and fall in fortunes of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His children fought with Kaiser Franz-Josef in the First World War, and then left for America as Europe slipped into economic depression. As an old man he was brought over from Europe by his children living in New York. My Zayde, at 95 years old, still vividly recalls going to his apartment, picking him up, and walking him to shul every Shabbat.

I have no doubt that the Rosh Hashanah that Zvi’s family observed in Europe over 100 years ago is somewhat different from the one my family observes today. Just as it is also the case that there are no Jews left in Berehove, which is in present day war-torn Ukraine.

I often wonder if Zvi imagined in his wildest dreams that his descendant would be a rabbi in Marietta, Georgia. Would he even recognize or appreciate the kind of Judaism my family espouses?

Every year, I open up his Machzor. The words he davened are the same as the ones I pray. The hopes and aspirations of the Jewish people to live in health, safety, and security are still the same dreams that we have a hundred years later.

In those moments I smile. Well over a hundred years later, I know that he is smiling, too.

Rabbi Dan Dorsch is the rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim. He is also the president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.