Anyone familiar with “Jaws” knows the classic line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” The same can be said for sanctuaries during the High Holiday season, when hundreds — sometimes thousands — of people attend services.
That’s why Sixth & I Historic Synagogue holds some services at the neighboring Chinese Community Church.
“We have always gone beyond our building for the High Holidays because our sanctuary alone can’t accommodate the number of people we serve,” Michelle Eider, Sixth & I’s director of marketing and communications, wrote in an email to Washington Jewish Week.
According to a 2023 annual report, Sixth & I saw nearly 6,990 High Holiday attendees in 2023.
Other synagogues in Washington, D.C., and the surrounding areas have had to expand to a tent in their parking lots during the High Holidays.
Adas Israel Congregation, a Conservative shul in D.C., regularly sees about 150 to 300 people during Friday night services. During the High Holidays, that number is closer to 5,000 or 6,000, according to Marcy Spiro, Adas Israel’s chief operating officer: “We’ve grown over the past 10 years definitely.”
Adas Israel’s services take place on its 100,000-square-foot campus — in the main sanctuary, smaller sanctuary and a large tent in the parking lot — in the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School sanctuary and at smaller satellite locations.
“It’s kind of a blessing and a challenge,” Spiro said, adding that Adas Israel’s logistics team begins High Holiday preparation immediately after Purim, which falls sometime between February and March, depending on the year.
The team of 10 mapped out the schedule of services, put together the cohort of volunteers, reserved spaces and planned marketing and advertising. Spiro also attends to the finer details of having thousands of people attending High Holiday services at Adas Israel.
“One [consideration is ensuring everyone] feels welcomed when they arrive, that they have a place to sit, that the temperature is comfortable, that we have enough Machzors, all of those little things that we need to make sure that it’s a meaningful experience,” Spiro said. “It’s a blessing to have so many people, and it just takes a lot of time and energy to make sure that everyone’s having a meaningful experience.”
On an ordinary Shabbat, Kemp Mill Synagogue sees anywhere from 800 to 1,000 people.
For Rosh Hashanah, the Silver Spring Orthodox synagogue has seated nearly 1,300 people plus 150 children in child care, according to Aryeh Shudofsky, KMS’ executive director.
“It’s a big crowd,” Shudofsky said.
He added that the 25,000-square-foot synagogue has always had four separate minyan locations to accommodate everyone.
“Our two larger rooms can seat close to 1,000 people, and then the other two smaller rooms make up the difference,” Shudofsky said. “Last year, we had to add a fifth option for people, and that was challenging to figure out how to do, but we 100% wanted it in the building. It was important to Rabbi [Brahm] Weinberg that it be in the building.”
The solution? To create an additional early morning Rosh Hashanah minyan — a hashkama minyan — that begins at 6:15 a.m. At 8 a.m., the group moves outside to a tent in the parking lot so that another minyan can read Torah in the sanctuary.
The synagogue’s first through sixth-grade groups move into the tent at 10 a.m. and use the space for the next three hours.
“That was how we figured out how to relieve some of the pressure due to space: to create that fifth minyan at an earlier hour,” Shudofsky said.
Yet other synagogue buildings are large enough to accommodate the thousands of attendees without spilling over to alternative locations.
Washington Hebrew Congregation sees “a few thousand” attendees for the High Holidays between its two locations, according to Lindsay Feldman, WHC’s executive director. She said the WHC sanctuary seats a little over 2,200 people: “We’re very fortunate because of the size of our sanctuary.”
WHC holds services simultaneously from its Northwest D.C. and Potomac locations.
“And then we also break out as well in terms of our preschool services and a family service, so people have plenty of options to pick a service that works for them, whether they want something energetic, intergenerational, something for their children of all different ages,” Feldman said.
She added that WHC clergy and staff begin preparing for the High Holidays months in advance: “It’s all hands on deck at all times.”
“It takes months,” Feldman said. “There’s the membership side, there’s the education side for the school and making sure services are appropriate for our children — for those services, making sure the buildings are prepared. Everybody comes together [for] ticketing, membership, security, everything.”
Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah is another large synagogue. The Potomac Orthodox shul’s most well-attended service is on Kol Nidrei, the first night of Yom Kippur, during which time 800 to 1,000 people gather in the building.
“We’re fortunate to have a large enough building that can accommodate everybody,” Rabbi Eitan Cooper, Beth Sholom’s associate rabbi, said.
