Lila Bernhardt bat mitzvah, January 14

The congregation is invited to celebrate with Lila Bernhardt and her parents, Jay and Sheryl Bernhardt, when she becomes a bat mitzvah at our Shabbat service on Saturday, January 14. The service begins at 10:30 am. Lila’s mitzvah project is to volunteer at the PIne Ridge Community Center After School Program through the Jewish Council of North Central Florida.  Lila is working with the children to promote reading and collecting children’s books for the center.  You can bring used children’s books to Lila’s Bat Mitzvah to support this project.

Shabbat schedule change coming in December

The Ritual Committee of Temple Shir Shalom has decided to change the standard starting time of Friday evening Shabbat services to 7:30 pm starting on Friday, December 9. The starting time for the service on the first Friday evening of each month will continue to be 6:30 pm. The intention of the change, according to Ritual Committee chairperson Linda Bensen, is to make participation more convenient to a broader range of Temple members, especially during the darker winter months. "Eight o'clock just seems so late in December and January," Bensen said. "We understand that some people may feel rushed to get to Temple by 7:30, but we hope that even more people will feel that it is just not too late to go out at all."

All Shabbat services are open to the public at Temple Shir Shalom; visitors and guests are always welcome. For further information, call the Temple office at 352-371-6399, or visit the Temple website at www.shirshalom.net.

Donate a prayerbook!

If you have attended any of our recent b’nai mitzvah services, or even some Friday nights, you know that we sometimes run short on prayerbooks. When Mishkan Tefilah, the new Reform Jewish prayerbook was first published, Temple Shir Shalom purchased 100 copies. A few of these have been borrowed and not yet returned -- if you have one at home, please bring it back, no questions asked! We have  also become busier as a congregation in the past few years, with great attendance at worship. Please consider the mitzvah of donating a prayerbook or two to Temple, inscribed in honor or in memory of a special person or event. Please contact Cori Roberts in the Temple office if you are interested. Fifty dollars will buy one book and make a nice little contribution to Temple in the process.

Dec. 2 Shabbat dinner with singing and stories!