World leaders recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations, Israel and the U.S. oppose,

and Jews around the world look inwards as the days of awe are upon us.

It's unholy. I'm Yonit Levian, Tel Aviv.

And I'm Jonathan Friedland in London. Unholy, two Jews on the news.

Normally I would say,

Shanatova, umutukar to you, a happy and sweet year you'll need.

But the greeting has acquired a new variation.

I learnt this year in Shul, Israelis greeted me with a

different one. And you perhaps can tell us what that is and why. Yeah, I think Israelis have been,

have grown accustomed to saying, Shanayotter Tova, basically ever since October 7th, since this

country is still reeling and, you know, dealing with what has happened and kind of still trapped on that day, then we kind of less and less hear people saying, Shanatova, like have a good year, and it's more like have a better year than the year that has passed. So I think that is the way. And that was, you told me that that was how you were greeted at Shul this year. So that's, that's, you know, it's indicative of how

a lot of his values feel, I think. I thought so. I mean, it is a very pragmatic, realistic state of mind. And the minute you hear it, you go, yeah, of course. It's too much to ask for a good year. As long as it's just better, that will be enough. So that captures in a way some of the mood, I think. I mean, you know, as last year,

the discussion around the place that the Jewish world finds itself, the place Israel is in,

just dominates, and it was there at Rosh Hashanah dinner tables. One thing I noticed, I had several conversations in the lead-up to the New Year with rabbis,

communal leaders, who said to me, they just didn't know what they were going to say this time,

that they had been working on their sermon for weeks and weeks and weeks of weeks.

We had something of this from Rabbi Angela Bookdale last week, but I really heard it echoed. It just

happened. I had three or four conversations with communal leaders in the lead-up, and that was

what they were really wrestling with. What do you say? Because for one part of the congregation,

whatever you say will be too much. You'll have criticised Israel too much. And for another

part, it won't be

nearly enough. And sometimes it's generational. Sometimes it's, you know, interestingly, not always

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