Lifecycle Events
Life is filled with meaningful milestones, and at Temple Israel, we’re honored to be a part of your journey every step of the way. From joyous celebrations to moments of reflection and remembrance, our synagogue offers a variety of ways to mark life’s significant milestones in a meaningful and supportive environment.
Whether you’re celebrating a birth, a bar or bat mitzvah, a wedding, or a milestone anniversary, our synagogue provides a sacred space to honor these important lifecycle events. Our dedicated clergy and staff are here to guide you through the process, helping you create a personalized and meaningful ceremony that reflects your values, traditions, and beliefs.
Looking to commemorate a loved one’s life and legacy? Our synagogue offers compassionate support and resources for funerals, shivas, and other moments of mourning and remembrance. Our caring community is here to provide comfort, strength, and companionship during life’s most challenging times.
But lifecycle events at our synagogue are about more than just ceremonies—they’re opportunities to come together as a community, to celebrate, support, and uplift one another. Whether you’re hosting a simcha (joyous occasion) or seeking solace in times of loss, you’ll find a warm and welcoming community here at Temple Israel.
So whether you’re planning a joyous celebration or navigating a time of sorrow, consider Temple Israel your partner every step of the way. Together, we’ll honor life’s milestones, cherish our shared traditions, and support each other through every season of life.
Lifecycle Events
At Temple Israel, we honor life’s milestones together, cherish our shared traditions, and support each other through every season of life. From joyous celebrations to moments of loss, reflection, and remembrance, our synagogue community offers a variety of ways to mark life’s significant milestones in a meaningful and supportive environment.
Temple Israel offers sacred space to celebrate or commemorate life’s most important moments, with guidance from our clergy and staff. There is space to personalize each event, to reflect the values, traditions and beliefs of each individual or family within a Jewish context.
Both boys and girls receive naming ceremonies and both are welcomed into the Jewish covenant community. Our clergy is available to help plan and organize. More information can be found by reaching out to Rabbi Jeremy Fineberg.
This coming-of-age rite of passage is the culmination of a multi-year process of preparation and learning and the beginning of the lifelong Jewish adult journey. Much more information can be found here at the Bnei Mitzvah section of our website and each family will have multiple meetings with clergy and staff along the way.
Many TI members choose to celebrate or commemorate milestone events with the Temple Israel community. Passing through danger or personal trauma, recovering from illness, or personal journey milestones such as retirement, adult bnai mitzvah, or gender transition can also be honored with our synagogue community. Common practices include receiving an aliyah (going up to the Torah), other honor or participation in religious services, or sponsoring a kiddush (light celebratory meal after shabbat/holiday services). Consultation with the clergy to create personal ways to mark these occasions is encouraged as well!
Lifecycle events at Temple Israel are more than just ceremonies. They are opportunities for coming together as a community to celebrate, support and uplift one another.
*see the Rentals page for more information on renting event space in TI
Individuals interested in becoming Jewish can contact the clergy here for more information.
Couples interested in being married or having commitment ceremonies at Temple Israel should contact here for more information. Temple Israel welcomes LGBTQ+ couples and families. Even when the actual wedding takes place elsewhere, we have multiple ways to celebrate at Temple Israel, the most traditional of which is known as the aufruf, a special pre-wedding ceremony where the soon to be newly-weds come to the Torah on shabbat morning in a celebratory manner, including being showered with candy in a symbol of hope for a sweet life.
Perhaps more than any other time, the importance of community comes to the fore at the experience of a loss. We at Temple Israel support each other through the entire process, from the first clergy phone call, through the funeral, the shiva week (initial first week of intense mourning), and beyond. The daily minyan page and Hessed Committee page offer more information on this support.