The Jewish Chaplain's Council is helping to make sure Jewish servicemen and women throughout the world have a way of participating in the High Holidays this year by alerting them to the fact that Shalom TV will be making Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services available online (at www.ShalomTV.com, under "Watch Complete Programs") throughout the holidays as well as airing them on cable television systems to nearly 40 million homes throughout the United States and Canada beginning September 5 and running through Yom Kippur, September 18.
To enhance viewers' ability to participate in the services, congregational prayers will appear on the screen in Hebrew with English transliteration and English translation.
An agency of the JCC Association and serving Jewish military chaplains in the Armed Forces and Veteran's Administration, and through them, thousands of Jews at more than 500 military installations and VA medical centers worldwide, the Council has notified all of the Jewish chaplains in the United States military of Shalom TV's High Holiday services, which will be available online at all times during Rosh Hashanah (September 8-10) and Yom Kippur (September 17-18).
Rabbi Mark S. Golub, president of Shalom TV, explains that the services are designed for those unable to attend a synagogue.
"This may especially apply to Jewish men and women in uniform, many of whom are serving our country overseas and will therefore be unable to see our services on cable television," says Golub. "We are delighted to be able to make them available free on line and we appreciate the Jewish Chaplains Council's spreading our invitation for them to join the eclectic services I lead in my home community in Connecticut."
Different parts of the services are being presented as individual programs so that viewers can choose to watch portions of interest whether liturgy, Torah readings, the Shofar Service on Rosh Hashanah; Kol Nidre, the Yizkor Memorial Service or N'iloh on Yom Kippur; as well as a number of Rabbi Golub's sermons.
Golub also comments on the advantage Video On Demand has for viewers who may not be able to watch a service in the morning or in the evening.
"While there have been other High Holiday services on the Internet before, since Shalom TV is Video On Demand this will be the first time services will be continuously available, both on television and to online users, at their convenience throughout each holiday," he observes.
Stressing that television or internet services can never replace an actual service, Golub adds, "Wherever possible, one should share the New Year in song, prayer, meditation and commitment with a living and breathing congregation. But if one is unable to attend an actual service, we hope our programming will be of some comfort and enable a viewer to feel a bond with the rest of the Jewish community."
Shalom TV can be seen on Comcast, Time Warner, Cablevision, Verizon FiOS, Cox, RCN, Bright House, Armstrong, Service Electric Cablevision, Buckeye CableSystem, Metrocast, Blue Ridge Communications, Frontier, WOW!, and Rogers Cable (Canada).
