A Holiday Poem
23 Elul 5761
(September 11, 2001)
accompanying the rumble of burning jet
fuel and fatiguing metal
echoes in skyscraper ravines
first responders
sirens
wailing from all directions
apocalyptic cacophony
earlier that morning
shofrot blaring from the four corners of the City
annual heralds of the coming
Judgment Day
(It is customary to blow the shofar every day after the morning service of the month of Elul, which precedes Rosh Hashanah, except on Sabbaths and the last, 29th day of the month.)
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
