More than 6,000 people filled the South Mountain Reservation in West Orange, N.J., for this year’s Jewish Renaissance Festival, by far the annual event’s biggest turnout. Aided by the beautiful weather, the two-day event was “a tremendous success,” stated organizer Rabbi Mendy Kasowitz, associate director of the Chabad-Lubavitch Center of Essex County.

According to organizers, hundreds of attendees helped create a giant unity mural emphasizing the bond Jewish people of all backgrounds. The festival, which for the second year in a row featured carnival-style rides, also included several workshops and displays centered on the Jewish traditions.

Towards the end of each day of the two-day Labor Day Weekend extravaganza, the popular children’s entertainer Uncle Moishe took the main stage to perform for the crowds.


A young attendee of the 31st annual Jewish Renaissance Festival in West Orange, N.J., takes in the view from his father’s shoulders. All told, more than 6,000 people filled the South Mountain Reservation over the space of two days for the Labor Day Weekend concert and carnival.


Families from across the Tristate area took advantage of the festival’s workshops and other attractions for attendees of all ages.


Parents and children relax as the band prepares for a late afternoon concert.


Over the course of the festival, hundreds of Jewish men donned tefillin at a special booth set up to teach people about the holy objects.


Rabbi Boruch Klar, director of the Lubavitch Center of Essex County, blows a ram’s horn in observance of a daily custom followed during the month before Rosh Hashanah.


Children’s entertainer Uncle Moishe energizes the crowds by singing about the upcoming Jewish holidays, love of a fellow Jew and the importance of keeping kosher.


Among the projects available to children was the chance to make their own candlesticks and charity boxes decorated with sand art. Visitors could also make their own ram’s horns for the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah.