With their call to introspection and atonement, the Jewish High Holy Days have always challenged rabbis to find avenues into the consciences of their congregations  on personal matters, and worldwide issues like war and peace.

But in synagogues around New York this year, rabbis are confronting an unusual quandary as they prepare their sermons: whether to wade into a local cultural war over plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero.

Jews have been deeply divided in their response to the proposal, and some rabbis are reluctant to broach a subject that might split their congregations  or seem to violate the holiness of the occasion.

In group e-mails among rabbis and in private discussions, there have been heated debates in recent weeks on the various talking points of the conflict, including religious freedom, cultural sensitivity, the relationship between Islam and terrorism, and whether the issue has the requisite gravity and universality on which to base a sermon for the High Holy Days, which began at sundown Wednesday with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on Sept. 18.