Rosh Hashanah

• A month of Selihot. Sephardic Jews begin Selihot the day after Rosh Hodesh Elul and continue through Yom Kippur, about forty days, recalling the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai. Ashkenazi Jews usually begin only a week or so before Rosh Hashanah. Selihot are said before dawn or after midnight, and in some Sephardic synagogues they are sung with energy and joy.
• The shofar. The ram's horn is sounded during the Musaf prayers. Before it is blown, many Sephardic congregations sing Et Sha'arei Ratzon, a poem on the binding of Isaac by Rabbi Judah Samuel Abbas of Fez, written in the twelfth century.
• Tashlikh. In the afternoon, people recite prayers beside a river or other water, symbolically casting away their sins.
• Greetings. In Hebrew, Tizku leshanim rabot, “May you merit many years.” In Ladino, Anyada buena, dulse i alegre, “A good, sweet, and happy year.” Persian Jews may say Sale no mobarak, “Happy New Year.”

New Year cards in Sephardic Seattle

Joseph Albert Souriano arrived in Seattle from Istanbul in 1920 and opened the Columbia Printing Company, becoming the city's Ladino printer. Each year before Rosh Hashanah, cards arrived for his family from Istanbul and beyond, written in Ladino, Hebrew, Turkish, French, German, and English. Many carried the wish to be inscribed in the book of life.

The University of Washington's Sephardic Studies program has shared the cards online, where students can study them as primary sources.

Ottoman Sephardic (Turkey, Rhodes, the Balkans)

Families call the seder yehi ratzones and serve apples, dates, leeks, spinach, squash, black eyed peas, and a fish head or cow cheek. Rhodes families make savory dishes like spinach quajado and leek patties. In Turkey, many dipped apples in sugar instead of honey. Rhodes Jews avoided wearing new shoes on the holiday, and their Seattle descendants still chant High Holiday poems in Ladino.

Syria (Aleppo)

Many Syrian Jewish tables feature stuffed vegetables, such as cabbage, zucchini, and grape leaves, in a sweet and sour sauce of apricots, prunes, and tamarind. In Aleppo, some customers exchanged an Arabic blessing with the barber at their haircut before the holiday.

Iraq and the Baghdadi diaspora

Some families had a ram slaughtered the night before the holiday and served its head separately. A prayer book in the Iraqi Jewish Archive includes the text of the home ritual. Iraqi tables include dates, spinach, zucchini, beans, and apple jam scented with cardamom, served without salt. Baghdadi families in Calcutta made an apple preserve called maraba.

Morocco

Some Moroccan families serve seven cooked vegetables on the eve of the holiday. The blessings are sung to ornate melodies, and the meal may bring lamb tagine with chickpeas and raisins, chicken with prunes and almonds, couscous, and pumpkin soup.

Iran

Some Persian Jewish families hold a seder of nine simanim. In some families leeks are torn in half rather than eaten, and a light food such as cow lung or even popcorn is added for a “light” year. A bean stew may also be served.

Libya

Libyan Jews often use sugar mixed with sesame seeds in place of beans or fenugreek. Many families open the meal with aharaimi, a spicy fish in tomato sauce. Some scatter new wheat on the tablecloth for abundance and leave out salt for a sweet year. A large Libyan community lives in Rome.

Yemen

Yemenite Jews have their own ancient prayer traditions. Among those who follow the Baladi rite, some rise early on Rosh Hashanah to sound thirty blasts of the shofar at or before dawn, in addition to the regular blowing later in the morning.

Tunisia (Djerba)

On the island of Djerba, some children pickled fallen olives and offered them to passersby in the street, calling “zeitun yehi ratzon,” a playful echo of the holiday blessings.

In the public school classroom

• Explore the simanim as a language lesson: how do puns work, and what foods would make wordplay in English, Spanish, or Arabic?
• Use a primary source: compare the Souriano family's multilingual New Year cards in the University of Washington's digital collection.
• Map the communities in this explainer and compare their foods, following school allergy rules.
• Be aware of the holiday on school calendars, and avoid scheduling tests on Rosh Hashanah.
• Teach about the blessings and the shofar. Do not have students recite blessings or prayers or take part in ritual.

In Jewish schools and communities

• Hold a class seder with simanim from several communities, and let students write new wishes of their own.
• Listen to recordings of Et Sha'arei Ratzon from different communities and compare the melodies.
• Visit an early morning Sephardic Selihot service during Elul.
• Design New Year cards in Hebrew, Ladino, or Judeo Arabic, inspired by the Seattle collection.

At home and with family

• Ask relatives: Which foods were on your family's Rosh Hashanah table? How were the blessings sung?
• Cook a family siman together, such as an apple preserve, a pumpkin dish, or stuffed dates.
• Read A Turkish Rosh Hashanah or Anyada Buena, Shanah Tovah with young children.
• Record an elder's holiday memories for JIMENA's oral history project.