Gravestones at Mount Carmel Cemetery.(Molly Surno)

In the period before the High Holidays, it’s traditional for Jews to visit the graves of departed family members and recite kaddish, the mourner’s prayer. In the New York area, many of the sprawling Jewish cemeteries date back at least a century and were chosen by immigrant communities seeking a burial place for their landsmen for generations to come. Rabbi Andy Bachman, of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, knows these graveyards well—he often officiates at funerals in Queens and Brooklyn. He took Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry (and photographer Molly Surno—see gallery below) on a tour of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, the final resting place of some 85,000 Jewish New Yorkers including Bella Abzug, Abraham Cahan, and Benny Leonard, and he talked about how changes in burial customs over the past several decade reflect broader shifts in Jewish American life.

The video for our friends The Macaroons’ “Apples and Honey” dropped today. (“Dropped.” Look at me, talking like the youth.) Check out the delightful song, which I think sounds like Matthew Sweet (thus dating myself yet again), and the charming video, which is sure to entertain your tykes this holiday season. And please note the brief appearance of Lady Gala: Just like her namesake, she wears no pants!

You can also come see the band in concert (and say hi to me! I’ll be introducing them!) on September 26th, at 11 am, at the Tablet Magazine/JDub/Congregation Beth Elohim Sukkot street fair in Park Slope, Brooklyn (on Garfield Place between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West).

The Sway Machinery.(The Sway Machinery/Heather Conley)

If you are looking for an unorthodox—and very un-Orthodox—way to ring in the new year, Tablet Magazine is co-sponsoring Hidden Melodies Revealed, a “mystery musical extravaganza” with The Sway Machinery, which bills itself “America’s only indie rock/Jewish cantorial music group.” The “part ritual, part rock concert,” which you can learn more about (and purchase tickets for) here, takes place at City Winery in downtown New York City on September 8 at 10 pm—the first night of Rosh Hashanah.

Now is also a good time to mention that Tablet Magazine (and The Scroll) will not be publishing new content during Rosh Hashanah—or during Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah.

Personally, I’m a fan of that policy, and not (only) for the time off/saved vacation days it gives me: I think it is a compelling and potent statement about the magazine’s editorial priorities. Which is why, even though this event is “part ritual,” I question whether the magazine’s sponsorship is undercutting that statement. But maybe folks think I am being nitpicky? Or maybe people think we should be publishing during Jewish holidays? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Barbecued smoked brisket, as prepared by Joan Nathan. (Gabriela Herman)

I was leading a tour of Jewish culinary sites in Philadelphia at a conference about 20 years ago when Julia Child showed up. “Why are you here?” I asked. Always direct, she told me that she was interested in what I was doing, and one of her relatives had married a Jew, and it was a very good marriage, so she wanted to learn more about Jewish food.

Learning about food traditions is a major challenge in every mixed marriage, but perhaps more so when one partner is Jewish and the other must learn from scratch how to navigate both kashrut and the culinary customs that characterize the cycle of holidays that kicks off anew next week, with Rosh Hashanah.

“When you grow up outside the tradition you don’t know the holidays,” said Colleen Fain, 63, a community volunteer in Coral Gables, Florida, who converted to Judaism when she got married more than 40 years ago. “You have to learn the rituals, and it’s hard to pass that down when you are not familiar or comfortable with them. The convert has to work really hard to understand the customs so they unify the family.” (more…)

Yes, we know we say that Rosh Hashanah is “so early” or “so late” every year, but … Rosh Hashanah is really early this year! (Though actually, if you think September 8 is bad, just wait for 2013, when the new Jewish year will begin on September 5—the earliest that it can begin.) While Tablet Magazine’s High Holiday coverage won’t completely envelop you until next week, we are publishing our food-related content early, because cooking—and planning to cook—takes time! Hence today’s locavore guide to a late-summer Rosh Hashanah; and hence articles tomorrow on holiday-appropriate wine and on holiday cooking in mixed marriages (the latter by contributing editor Joan Nathan). So be ready, is what we’re saying.

To further get you into the holiday spirit, the guys behind God & Co. put together an advice-rap. Enjoy.

Rosh Hashana Rap from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Today in Tablet Magazine, books critic Adam Kirsch reviews a new book all about the famous 1917 Balfour Declaration, which committed Britain to a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Daniella Cheslow reports on a recent victory by Israel’s environmentalist movement. We kick off this year’s High Holiday coverage as Chef Melissa Petitto guides you through the produce available during this uncharacteristically early new year celebration and how to make it all delicious. The Scroll is looking forward to a summer Rosh Hashanah.

There is a joke about the Jewish calendar that goes something like this, “While sitting in synagogue, one man turns to his friend and says, ‘When is Hanukkah this year?’ The other man smiles slyly and replies, ‘Same as always: the 25th of Kislev.’ ” It’s a joke, but it makes an important point: The date of Jewish holidays does not change from year to year. Holidays are celebrated on the same day of the Jewish calendar every year, but the Jewish year is not the same length as a solar year on the civil calendar used by most of the western world, so the date shifts on the civil calendar. This year, Rosh Hashanah, which typically falls a little later in the year, begins in early September, when summer fruits and vegetables are still overflowing. So, why not lighten up the traditional menu to showcase all that the market still has to offer? Here are some recipes from chef Melissa Petitto.

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Today in Tablet Magazine, it’s five years after Katrina, and Rodger Kamenetz is celebrating Rosh Hashanah in New Orleans. Prompted by Daniel Luban’s essay on Islamophobia last week, David Horowitz and Luban debate the Ground Zero Islamic center. In his weekly haftorah column, Liel Leibovitz says that chosenness is what you make of it. The Scroll hopes to make a good Friday of it, for starters.

An abandoned home in New Orleans last month. (Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

Lately in New Orleans, I’ve been dreaming of moving backward in time. It’s a strange sensation: to start at the end and move to the beginning. Time dissolves in dreams, as it does in certain stories.

Jews belong to the oldest book club in the world, and we’ve been dissolving time forever in our old stories, rereading them every week for thousands of years. Why do we do it? Rabbi Nachman, our great tale teller, said stories are meant to heal the soul. And in truth, five years ago, when I thought I was a homeless man, I found soul comfort in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and in stories of the rabbis, too.

My wife and I were traveling up north when Hurricane Katrina struck, and after the shocking failure of the federal levees, we sat in a cheesy hotel room in New York City drinking scotch and watching television coverage of our fragile city flooding. We were desperate for specifics. Was our home underwater? (more…)