Leadership
Officers 2025-2026
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Yale Freeman, President
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Seth Jacobs, 1st Vice President
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Linda Kaplan 2nd Vice President
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Craig Littauer, Secretary
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Charles Eagan, Treasurer
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Henry Luban, Past President
Shir Shalom Staff
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Michael Joseph, Rabbi
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Gracie Gibson, Office Administratoor
Trustees
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Corin Warinner
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Jonah Zinn
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Adela Beckerman
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Randy Kraft
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Jennifer Meiselman Titus
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Nancy Parks
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Sonya Stahl
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Lisa Zumberg
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Mark Zumberg
Mission Statement
Temple Shir Shalom is an inclusive Reform Jewish congregation located in Gainesville, Florida, home of the University of Florida. Our members and friends engage meaningfully with one another and the broader community through social events, worship, study and social action.
Rabbi Joseph
Rabbi Michael Lewis Joseph became spiritual leader of Temple Shir Shalom in July 2004 after previous service to congregations in Norfolk, Virginia, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Rabbi Joseph received his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1989.
Rabbi Joseph was born and raised in Port Washington, New York, oldest of three brothers. He graduated from Yale University in 1980, and worked for four years as a cook and chef in gourmet restaurants in Boston and San Francisco. He met his wife, Debbie, as a fellow first-year rabbinic student in Jerusalem in 1984, and they married in December 1986.
