How to Celebrate Rosh Hashanah in New York City in 2025
L’Shana Tovah! A new year has come, and we have your guide to how to celebrate Rosh Hashanah in NYC! From the history, to the traditions, to the FOOD, we’ll help you plan how to celebrate Rosh Hashanah 5786!
What is Rosh Hashanah?
Celebrated on the first two days of the month of Tishri in the Hebrew lunar calendar, Rosh Hashanah begins a 10-day period known as the High Holy Days, culminating on Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah celebrates the New Year, and is typically celebrated by attending religious services, gathering with friends and family, and eating symbolic foods. The new year is a time to reflect upon the past year, and set goals to improve in the next. Many of the traditions reflect on the passing of time, renewal, and the hope of prosperity in the future.
Religious Services
The High Holy Days, which kicks off with the observance of Rosh Hashanah, is a busy time for Jewish life in New York City. You have many options for how to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, and most synagogues in NYC post their schedule for services online so you can plan ahead. Probably the most iconic part of the observance of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the shofar, a ceremonial horn instrument. The sounding of the shofar is a call to reflection and repentance. If you’re interested in learning more, the 92nd Street Y, a famous NYC cultural institution, hosts Rosh Hashanah programming for all ages - which is even streamable online!
Community Celebrations
In addition to being a time of introspection and atonement, it is customary during Rosh Hashanah to set a positive tone for the new year. Therefore, there can be no better way how to celebrate Rosh Hashanah than with a party! Brooklyn Bowl fuses a traditional Rosh Hashanah service with live music and meditation in their Musical Celebration of Rosh Hashanah. For a different groove, Rabbi Steven Blane hosts Jazz High Holidays at various locations and times - even on Zoom, if you can’t make it to the city! If you have little ones, you might want to check out the Rosh Hashanah programming at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, which includes - how cute is this? - learning the art of Challah braiding with Play-doh! Aww!
Festive Foods
Speaking of Challah, you know we had to mention the traditional foods of Rosh Hashanah! Challah, of course, takes its place on the Rosh Hashanah table - but rather than the traditional braided loaf shape, for the New Year, the Challah will often be braided into a round shape, to symbolize the constant cycles of seasons. Most well-known is the traditional practice of eating apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah, to symbolize a sweet start to the new year. A fun spin on the apple and honey tradition are Apple Cakes and Honey Cakes, a sweet, shareable dessert with a nod to tradition. William Greenberg, one of our favorite NYC bakeries, makes a Parve Macaroon Apple Cake, which would be the envy of anyone’s tablescape. And for our gluten-free friends, I will have you know that I look forward to the return of By The Way Bakery’s Apple Cake every year! Another traditional Rosh Hashanah food is pomegranates. Pomegranates are said to contain 613 seeds, which correspond to the 613 commandments in the Torah. Eating pomegranates at Rosh Hashanah is believed to symbolically commemorate the multitudes of good deeds one aspires to complete in the new year.
There you have it! Our guide to how to celebrate Rosh Hashanah 2025 in New York City with reverence and reflection, festivities and food. No matter how you celebrate Rosh Hashanah, we wish you a happy new year! But before you celebrate too hard, get your food orders in because Yom Kippur is just around the corner.
