New City, NY - Dozens Cast Off Sins at Tashlich Ceremony

New City, NY - Camelot Lake was dotted with bits of bread and some rather contented geese yesterday afternoon as dozens gathered on its banks to observe the ancient Jewish tradition of "tashlich."

Yesterday's service was organized by Steve Gold, 52, and led by Norman Levine, 52, both of New City. Nearly 100 people attended the event. Gold's father, Auschwitz survivor Emanuel Gold, encouraged him to establish the Camelot Lake event, which is now in its eighth year, Gold said. His father believed that it was important to pass on traditions like tashlich to children to "keep that Jewishness alive," Gold said. Emanuel Gold died in 2002, but Steve Gold's mother, Ruth, 82, and aunt Gussie Rados, 90, both survivors of Auschwitz, were in attendance yesterday.
"You see that?" Gold asked, pointing to a group of youngsters standing along the lake. "All the kids — that was my father's dream."
"The people that sacrificed — in Auschwitz, in the Holocaust — they would want us to keep the tradition on," said Jared Kash, 13, Peter Kash's son.

Not all of the children at the ceremony fully understood the symbolism behind throwing the bread. "We're not getting very far with them yet," Stacey Solomon, said of her daughters, Hayley, 8, and Jayden, 5. "But it's something maybe they'll remember."

Yesterday's ceremony included a prayer read by a group of about 10 teenagers who recently celebrated their bar and bat mitzvahs, a Jewish ritual in which adolescents are ushered into adulthood.
The reading was organized by Gold's son, Griffin, 13. Griffin said he gathered the group for the prayer because "they're now adults and they're taking responsibility too."