(JTA) - As night falls on the second night of Rosh Hashanah this year, Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet and two shofar blowers will ascend the 144-foot tower of St. Albans Cathedral, the 11th-century church that dominates the skyline of this city of the same name 20 miles northwest of London.

As members of Zagoria-Moffet's 200-family synagogue assemble - at a safe distance - in the large grassy area below, the blowers will sound the ram's horn meant to rouse people to repentance at the Jewish New Year.

"Catastrophe is absolutely the mother of creativity in Jewish life," said Zagoria-Moffet, a Phoenix...