Shalom TV, a non-profit, free VOD service devoted to Jewish culture and public affairs (note: pay-TV platforms distributing the service include Comcast, Cox, Verizon FiOS TV, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Bright House, Rogers Cable, Frontier, MetroCast, RCN, Service Electric, Buckeye CableSystem, Armstrong Cable and Blue Ridge Communications), contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it will offer on-demand Jewish High Holiday services (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) to the 38 million homes reached by its service, starting September 5th. According to Shalom TV, this marks the first time that Jewish High Holiday services will be made available on national cable television. "Each year, we receive requests from our viewers asking if Shalom TV would provide services for the High Holidays and we've always wanted to do something for them," Shalom TV president, Rabbi Mark S. Golub, explained. "Since Orthodox and Conservative synagogues do not permit the taping of Shabbat and holiday services, we decided to invite them to the services I lead in my home community in Connecticut."
According to Shalom TV, the fact that it is distributed on VOD will allow it to present different parts of the services as individual programs--thus enabling viewers to choose whichever portions of a service (liturgy, Torah readings, Shofar Service on Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre, Yizkor Memorial Service, N'iloh and Martyrology on Yom Kippur, or Rabbi Golub's own sermons) are of most interest to them. In addition, whenever one of the services includes congregational participation, Shalom TV plans to display the relevant Hebrew text on-screen, together with a Latin Alphabet transliteration and an English translation. "I want people to feel they can actually participate in our services, not simply watch them on TV," Golub explained.
According to Golub, his services eschew a cantor and a choir, and invite the entire congregation to sing most of the liturgy. "My own services are certainly alternative and eclectic," he said. "They do not fit any stereotypical service one would find in a mainstream synagogue and appeal both to those who rarely attend a synagogue as well as to those who are traditional in their approach and appreciate that the key elements of the High Holiday service are included while the emphasis is on Jewish learning." Among other things, his services occasionally feature Golub himself playing the accordion.
