Lay Leaders

Sheldon Skurow, Spiritual Leader of Temple Shalom

What has kept the Jewish religion alive and thriving even after millenniums of persecution and pogroms? One thing is the ability of Jews everywhere to worship without a building or a Rabbi. Even the most Orthodox among us require only ten Jewish men for a service and in Reform congregations Jewish women are counted as well. The Villages' Temple Shalom has grown to over 700 members but still relies on our Lay Leader, one of the founding members, to conduct the services.

I had never heard of a Lay Leader until a few years ago and I certainly would not have imagined such a large congregation relying on one for all spiritual and ritual activities. Yet, like every other Temple Shalom congregant, I fear the day when our Spiritual Leader, Sheldon, chooses to step down from the Bema and turn the reins of leadership to someone else. He is primarily a Cantor, leaving weekly sermons (actually commentaries on the weekly Parsha) to various members of the congregation who all do a fabulous job. His love of the services and the songs is oh-so-evident. You can see he relishes his "job".

But he is not the only Lay Leader that keeps our Temple going. There are so many beautiful voices in the choir and many of them could conduct the service themselves I'm sure. We also have several members who can read the Torah (even women!) which is unusual as I hear other congregations struggle to find even one.

Like many others, Sheldon started down the path to Lay Leader during his service in the military.  Due to the unavailability of a Rabbi, he led religious services aboard the USS Coral Sea and the USS Randolph. How I admire anyone who will step up to serve the needs of our military personnel and their families at a time in their lives when they probably need it the most.

Thank you Sheldon.  May you have many more years on the Bema.

;-)