Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

This January, Temple Shir Shalom of Oviedo celebrates a special b’nai mitvah: its own. January marks its 13th birthday, and they are excited to celebrate that special milestone with their congregants and the entire Jewish community. In 2001, six area families had a vision to build a congregation where everyone felt part of a larger family. TSS is a Reform, family-oriented congregation. Its membership is built from people with varied backgrounds—from a traditional Jewish experience with knowledge of Hebrew and ritual to interfaith marriage partners who may be experiencing Judaism for the first time and still others who are Jews that may not have been involved in Jewish life for many years.

Temple Shir Shalom will be celebrating its birthday with a special Shabbat service this month. Special blessings will be offered on behalf of its founding families and those members that were at the first service, as well as those celebrating a birthday or anniversary in January, or who have just joined the Temple. The community is welcome to join Temple Shir Shalom in celebration on Jan. 30, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. at University Carillon United Methodist Church, located at 1395 Campus View Court, Oviedo, FL 32765.

Temple Shir Shalom’s president, Aaron Sherman stated, “The significance of being a 13-year-old Jewish organization notwithstanding, it’s important that we mark this milestone each year. Think about this for a moment—we’re 13 years old! One could argue that we’ve accomplished the “firsts” we’re supposed to accomplish—we’ve graduated kids from our religious school, had b’nai mitzvah simchas for scores of our kids and have some events that are annual events that no longer have ordinal numbers with them. We are more integrated with the greater Orlando community and Beth (our cantorial leader) has helped us integrate with the larger URJ community as well... The significance of TSS’s birthday might mean more to you than others depending on whether you are a founding congregation member, someone who joined our family last month or someone who became a part sometime in between. For me, I am amazed to look back on the changes that have occurred in the eight years that I’ve been a member of the congregation.”

For more information about Temple Shir Shalom, please visit its website at http://www.templeshirshalom.org.