Hearing the blast of a ram’s horn to usher in the month before Rosh Hashanah is a big deal in the Italian seaside resort of S. Marinella. Just ask Mino Zarfati, the 47-year-old lay leader of Rome’s Jewish community who organizes an annual summer event with the shofar as its centerpiece.
Jewish Romans Hold Fast to Summer Custom at Seaside Resort
Hearing the blast of a ram’s horn to usher in the month before Rosh Hashanah is a big deal in the Italian seaside resort of S. Marinella. Just ask Mino Zarfati, the 47-year-old lay leader of Rome’s Jewish community who organizes an annual summer event with the shofar as its centerpiece.
“It’s a very big tradition for Roman Jews to hear the shofar,” says Zarfati. “Everyone wants to be there.”
This year, the Aug. 31 blowing drew 200 men, women and children – most of them vacationers from Rome – who gathered on their last day of vacation at the seasonal Chabad-Lubavitch center operated by Rabbi Yitzchok and Sarah Hazan. The date marked the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul.
“At 8:30 in the morning, families, children, everyone came,” says Zarfati.
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