As the High Holidays approach, Chabad-Lubavitch centers around the world are urging Jews everywhere to participate in a season of spiritual awakening and personal reckoning bookended by Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Employing a trademark open-door policy – most centers offer free or fee-reduced prayer services – many locations are expecting upwards of thousands of visitors, while a directory on the Jewish website Chabad.org is connecting people to services in 469 cities across 41 countries.

The two-day holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins Wednesday night; Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins the night of Sept. 17.

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In Mumbai, India, Rabbi Chanoch and Leiky Gechtman – who arrived this summer as the new directors of the Chabad House targeted by terrorists in 2008 – are putting the final touches on a holiday calendar that includes a children’s program and catered meals for guests from all walks of life. They’re even taking last-minute drop-ins into account.

“In Mumbai, you cannot know how many people will come. Everyone is welcome at the Chabad house,” says Chanoch Gechtman, who over the past few days, hosted programs on the High Holidays for native Indians, Israeli travelers and visiting businesspeople over the past few days.

The couple, who took the reins of the Chabad House after terrorists murdered its previous directors, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, and four of their guests, is always on the lookout for more Jews.

“It feels like home here,” says Gechtman. “We want to share the warmth of the holidays with everyone.”

Across the globe in Montreal, Canada, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath, director of Chabad of NDG, is hoping his congregants will reap the benefits of an extensive pre-holiday lecture series aimed at making the High Holidays more meaningful.

Adam Spiro has been attending the rabbi’s series whenever possible.

“They’re fantastic,” he says of the weekly Monday and Wednesday classes, one focusing on utilizing the season for spiritual growth and the other exploring the extensive holiday prayers in depth.

“It’s very important to get ready for [the holidays] and learning what they’re all about,” says the 29-year-old lawyer, who will enjoy half of the holiday meals with his family and the other half with the Bernaths and their other guests.

For Rabbi Eliezer and Rochi Shemtov of Chabad of Uruguay, the High Holidays are always a special time: They officially celebrate their wedding anniversary the day after Yom Kippur, but always have a big cake baked by their children and community members at one of their Rosh Hashanah feasts. Each year, Rochi Shemtov is surprised.

“Every year I forget it’s coming,” she says. “And then there it is!”

The Shemtovs, however, will also host a different kind of celebration over the Jewish New Year: A post-wedding feast for a 23-year-old alumna of the preschool they started in Montevideo 25 years ago. The couple will hold holiday meals at their home in the capital, and will preside over a specially-catered reservation-only community meal at the Beit Jabad del Uruguay on Friday afternoon.

“Sometimes, it’s nice to not go to someone’s house,” acknowledges Shemtov. “People like to sit down and do their own thing.”

Out With the Old

Among those running High Holiday services in brand new buildings are Rabbi Benyamin and Fruma Ita Wolff, whose Helsinki-based Chabad House moved this year.

“It’s a very interesting time for us,” says Benyamin Wolffe, referring to the new building and to the recent arrival of two young women from abroad who will volunteer for a year at Chabad of Finland.

Chabad of Vietnam will also inaugurate its new, larger building on Sept. 8, the first night of Rosh Hashanah, with special holiday services followed by a dinner at the Chabad House in Ho Chi Minh City. The new location, more than double the size of Rabbi Menachem and Rachel Hartman’s first center, will house Chabad of Vietnam’s kosher restaurant, a synagogue and a small kindergarten for a local community of approximately 100 Jews.

In Manchester, N.H., meanwhile, Rabbi Levi and Shternie Krinsky are also trying something new. They’re hosting services in a 20-foot by 50-foot tent instead of at a nearby university. The school just started classes, and community members didn’t want to deal with the chaos.

“Hopefully the weather will hold up,” says Levi Krinsky.

For Yom Kippur, the rabbi says, the Chabad House will continue its annual custom of holding services in a hotel so that congregants don’t have to walk long distances on the fast day.

“People can check in before Yom Kippur, settle in and concentrate solely on the holiness of the day, prayers and fasting, followed by a break-fast and then end feeling spiritually satisfied,” he says.

Jonathan Schor has been spending the High Holidays with Chabad-Lubavitch of New Hampshire since its founding 20 years ago.

“It’s a nice homey service,” says Schor. “We have a good time, we sing, we learn, and it’s just a gentle, friendly type of service.

“At the end of Yom Kippur, we dance a little bit and just have a very pleasant experience,” he continues. “The prayer book is very straightforward. We don’t beat around the bush when we pray. It’s not slow or dull; it’s a participatory kind of thing.”