United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, UN ambassadors from several countries and Jewish community leaders took part last Monday in the Tashlich ritual cetemony to cast away their sins before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonment, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

This was the first time the UN held the ceremony organized by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the U.N. as part of its campaign to have Yom Kippur recognized as an official U.N. holiday.

“As we mark 70 years since the founding of the UN, this is an opportunity to reflect on the objectives of this institution and to let the voices of reason and of tolerance to reclaim the public space, so that the UN can reestablish its rightful role as a bastion of freedom and as a temple of peace,” outgoing Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor said at the event.

Ban and ambassadors from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ukraine, Brazil, Norway, Palau, Ireland and Argentina joined Jewish community members and threw pieces of bread into the East River, symbolically casting away their sins.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, who conducted the ceremony, noted that "both Judaism and the U.N.'s founding fathers share the understanding of the importance of forgiveness," evoking Yom Kippur's dominant theme of asking for and granting forgiveness.