The Jewish community of Shymkent gathered on September 11 in Nur cafe to meet Rosh Hashanah. The holiday presenters were Dina Sulumova in Russian and Elena Atran in Hebrew. For several years Elena Atran has been coming from Israel to meet the Jewish New Year with us. Her knowledge of Hebrew, Jewish customs and traditions helps us to organize the holiday.

During New Year days people should give each other gifts and send congratulations. All the family gathers at a festively set table with holiday dishes - it is necessary to have a fish head on the table (so that the whole year Jewish people be in the front, not in the tail), apple with honey (so that the year be sweet). Elena told us about these and many other things.

The community was congratulated by Chairman of the Jewish Cultural Center Eduard Atran, Hesed Shimon Director Bella Atran and Chairman of the religious community Zelik Murdukhayev. They wished all people on Earth a sweet New Year!

Teacher of the Jewish Tradition Boris Shamuelov recited a holiday prayer before the meal in Hebrew and Russian so that all people present would understand the meaning. The simple and kind words, "Wake up those who are dreaming, who is wasting life. Look into your souls and make your actions be good…"

Representatives of ethnical cultural centers, the Greek, Armenian, Kazakh and others, came to congratulate the Jewish community. Nurlan, our guest from the Kazakh cultural center, was delighted with our event, "It is the first time I celebrate the New Year in September! Stuffed fish is a chef-d’oeuvre. I have not tried a tastier fish. But the first thing I did was dipping a piece of apple into honey according to an ancient Jewish tradition and made a wish. Now I believe that the whole next year will be sweet and my wish will come true".

We had a wonderful concert - songs in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. The guests were happy to listen to the young star Anel Akbalayeva with a favorite song "Balalaika". Children from the Jewish Sunday school participated in the concert. They had prepared poems and songs about Rosh Hashanah. The amazing waltz danced by dancing group "Alezimki" delighted everybody with new costumes.

Many wishes were said in different languages, but one congratulation was always only in Hebrew "Shana tova!"

Bella Atran