10 Things That Make High Holy Days at Neshamah Unlike Anywhere Else

If you have attended High Holy Day services before and left feeling like something was missing — like the experience was beautiful but somehow not quite yours — you are not alone. And if you have never attended High Holy Day services because you were not sure a traditional synagogue was the right fit, read on.

Neshamah is not a traditional synagogue. Here are ten things that make our High Holy Days genuinely different.

1. No Membership. No Dues. No Prerequisites.

Most synagogues require membership — and membership fees — to attend High Holy Day services. At Neshamah, we have never operated that way. We are a dues-free, membership-free Jewish community. You do not need to belong to anything, pay any annual fee, or prove your Jewish credentials before you are welcome at our services.

Tickets are required and are priced affordably, with financial assistance available for anyone who needs it. The cost of a ticket has never been a barrier to attending, and it never will be.

2. The Beach Break Fast

When Yom Kippur ends and the shofar sounds at Neilah, most congregations break the fast in a social hall with coffee and bagels. Neshamah breaks the fast on the beach.

Our Beach Break Fast gathers the community at the ocean’s edge in Delray Beach as the sun goes down on Yom Kippur. Golden light, the sound of the waves, the relief of the fast ending, surrounded by people who just spent a full day in prayer together. It is the moment people talk about for months afterward. There is nothing else like it in South Florida.

3. Free, Open-to-All Yizkor

Neshamah’s Yizkor memorial service is free and open to anyone in the community — no ticket, no membership, no prior relationship with Neshamah required. We believe that grief does not discriminate, and access to a sacred space for remembering the people we love should not either.

Anyone who has lost someone and wants to speak their name in a Jewish context is welcome to come to Yizkor. That is the only requirement.

4. Music That Is the Centerpiece, Not the Background

Musical Director Sharon Shear has been leading the music of Neshamah’s High Holy Days since the beginning. The Neshamah Soulmates bring a quality of musicianship and emotional depth to the liturgy that is genuinely concert-level — and it is woven into every part of the service, not added as decoration.

People who come to Neshamah for the first time often say that the music was what got them. That a melody during Kol Nidrei or a moment in the morning Shacharit reached somewhere that words alone had not reached. That is what music at the right depth can do, and it is one of the things Neshamah has always done exceptionally well.

5. Children Are Participants, Not Bystanders

At many High Holy Day services, children are managed rather than included — whispered at to be quiet, given a book, or sent to a separate program away from the main sanctuary.

At Neshamah, children are in the room and in the service. The Neshamah Children’s Chorus sings during the High Holy Day services, making this a genuine whole-family experience where children see themselves reflected in the liturgy and feel that the day belongs to them too.

6. Rabbi Amy Knows Your Name

Neshamah was founded on the idea that Jewish community is built on personal relationships, not institutional ones. Rabbi Amy has officiated over 250 personalized lifecycle ceremonies — weddings, B’nai Mitzvah, funerals, baby namings — and she shows up at those moments because she is genuinely present in people’s lives, not just their religious calendar.

At a Neshamah service, you will not feel like a seat number. Rabbi Amy is accessible, personal, and interested in you specifically. That quality of relationship is rare in a community of any size, and it is central to what Neshamah is.

7. Teaching That Speaks to Real Life

Rabbi Amy’s High Holy Day teaching does not stay safely in the theological abstract. She connects the ancient texts and liturgy to the real questions people are actually grappling with — about loss, family, change, uncertainty, identity, and what it means to live a life with intention.

People regularly tell us that Rabbi Amy’s Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur sermons were the first time they felt like a rabbi was speaking about something that actually applied to their life. That is the goal every year.

8. Online and In Person

Neshamah’s High Holy Day services are available both in person at Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach and via livestream for those who prefer to participate from home or who are joining us from outside South Florida.

Livestream tickets are available for all five services. Whether you are local or long-distance, physically able to travel or not, your participation is fully welcomed and supported.

9. Safety Is Taken Seriously

All attendees — adults and children — are required to pre-register for every Neshamah High Holy Day service. Professional security is present at every service. These measures are in place not to create barriers but to ensure that every person who attends can be fully present without concern for their safety.

We take this responsibility seriously because the people who trust us with their High Holy Days deserve nothing less.

10. Fifteen Years of Community

Neshamah has been gathering for High Holy Days for fifteen years. Over ten thousand people have experienced our services across those years. That kind of track record is not built by accident — it is built by a community that shows up for each other, year after year, and by programming that is genuinely, consistently excellent.

If you have never been, this is the year to come. If you have been before and stayed away, we have missed you. Come back.

All five services are at niboca.org/high-holy-days/