Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish Holiday commonly referred to as the Jewish New Year. It is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Rosh Hashanah is the first of the high Holidays specifically set aside to focus on repentance that concludes with the holiday of Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar. It is the New Year for people, animals, and legal contracts. Jewish people believe Rosh Hashanah represents either analogically or literally the creation of the World, or Universe.

On Rosh Hashanah, Jewish people all over the world gather in synagogues to celebrate the day. The holiday is celebrated with sweet foods, like apples dipped in honey and honey cake and round Challot made with honey and raisins as a wish for a sweet year.
Here is a link to children’s games and activities to celebrate the holiday. It includes information, art projects, crafts, stories and recipes:
http://www.chabad.org/kids/article_cdo/aid/354744/jewish/Rosh-Hashanah.htm
Rosh Hashanah is celebrated for two days, Monday September 17th and Tuesday September 18th. The two day holiday will begin at sundown on Sunday evening.
We wish all of our Jewish host families, au pairs, and friends a very Happy Holiday.

Many of our au pairs may be too young to remember this event, but it has become part of our American Culture. Here is a letter written by 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels commemorating the 11th Anniversary of 9/11:

September 11, 2012

Today, we honor the thousands of innocent men, women, and children who were taken from us too soon eleven years ago. Here at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, we will read their names aloud. We will stand together in silence at six moments, marking when the Twin Towers were struck, the buildings fell, the Pentagon was attacked, and Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Together, we will remember the devastating loss and reflect on the preciousness of life.

How you choose to observe the 9/11 anniversary is personal. Whether through quiet reflection or prayer, acts of service, or sharing a message of remembrance through social media, please join me in memorializing those who were killed and the sacrifices made on this day eleven years ago.

Despite the unimaginable tragedy of 9/11 itself, this day is also about the spirit of unity that came in the aftermath. It showed us that the best of humanity can overcome the worst hate. It gave us hope for the future.

We now see hope every day at the 9/11 Memorial. We find hope in the Callery pear tree that survived the destruction of the World Trade Center and is now known around the world as the Survivor Tree, standing tall among the Memorial trees. The children who visit give us hope for the future. And we find undeniable strength in the fact that over 4.6 million people from all 50 states and 170 countries have come here to pay their respects since we opened the Memorial one year ago.

We will also see hope at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Thanks to an agreement forged by the 9/11 Memorial and our Chairman, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with Governor Andrew Cuomo, Governor Chris Christie, and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, the construction of the Museum will move forward. When it opens, the Museum will be a place for education and inspiration. It will commemorate the lives lost, preserve the history of what happened on that terrible day and tell the stories of courage and compassion that were so much a part of the response to 9/11.

On this eleventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks, please join me in remembering those who were lost and how we came together to honor them in the aftermath. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families. The memories of their loved ones live on in our hearts and in the Memorial that bears their names. They will never be forgotten.

Warm regards,

Joe Daniels
President & CEO