For one 3-year-old, the Jewish New Year means learning ancient Hebrew rituals with a mouse - in cyberspace.
C'mon, c'mon! Faster, faster!" urges Alexandra Melnick, her tiny hand clutching the mouse as Jewish religious images pop up on a computer screen.
Worship is just a click away for Congregation Emanu-El in Manhattan, one of the world's largest synagogues, which is broadcasting Rosh Hashana services on the Internet.
For some Jews observing the year 5757 in dozens of countries, the soul searching that marks the holiday means clicking into http://www.emanuelnyc.org from home.
For 18 hours starting at sundown in Israel - at noon in New York - Jews worldwide listened to the service, accompanied by on-screen images of religious objects and texts.
In the first three hours yesterday, 32,000 people in 21 countries logged on to the synagogue's home page.
Yesterday afternoon, sound expert Warren Melnick was rushing around a second-floor office in Manhattan's garment district to adjust the computers for the remaining 15 hours when Web browsers could tune in to the taped half-hour service originally held at the Fifth Avenue temple.
Melnick, 31, Alexandra's uncle, had to finish before sundown, when the holiday began in the United States. He belongs to a Long Island synagogue that adheres to the Conservative branch of Judaism; its members cannot operate electronic devices this weekend.
"I click - and I see a shofar," his daughter Jillian, 4, says, referring to the ram's horn blown symbolically on the holiday.
"I blow it 'cause it's the New Year," she says and giggles, sliding off the chair and skipping around the 2,300 square-foot office.
The new style of worship bagan last year, when Temple Emanu-El installed a communications tower.
"I said, let's start a Web site. And they said, 'What's that?' " says Robert Gould, a congregation member whose company, WebSine, specializes in audio broadcasting on the Internet.
In April, the first complete religious service hit cyberspace, with about 225,000 people from 33 countries going on-line for the Passover "Cyber Seder."
Jesse Markowitz, 29, of Gaithersburg, Md., said via computer during the Rosh Hashana event that he had found the Cyber Seder meaningful.
"Participation in the Cyber Seder allowed me to join another family at their table and share and learn from them their Passover story to bring back to my family," Markowitz said.
Added Gould, who quit his job as a Wall Street lawyer when his new company took off, "We bring Temple Emanu-El to the world, and the world to Emanu-El."
Copyright Newsday.
Reprinted with permission.
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