As Coral Springs has grown from a small town with a rural feel, Temple Beth Orr has kept up the pace.
Twelve families showed up for the temple’s first organizational meeting in August 1972. This year, 650 families gathered recently for the Reform congregation’s 30th anniversary at a dinner dance.
The children celebrated with a birthday party and cake following the rededication of the Helene & Steve Weicholz Playground at the religious school.
During the dinner, the congregation honored Cantor Susan Weiss of Hillsboro Beach, who recently received her certification as an invested cantor, and Linda Kassof of Coral Springs, immediate past president of the temple. Kassof received the temple’s Bernice and Maurice Goldstein Spirit of Judaism Award for her commitment to the temple, Torah and Judaism.
Rabbi Mark Gross, Beth Orr’s spiritual leader since 1986, said this anniversary is one for the books.
“There’s a mystique about round numbers,’ he said, pointing to the millennium celebration as an example. “Thirty years ago there was not much going on in Coral Springs. At that time, the idea of a local home for the Jewish community was a very innovative idea.”
The fledgling congregation celebrated its first High Holy Day services in 1972. Four years later, the Coral Springs Hebrew Congregation was renamed Temple Beth Orr, Hebrew for house of light.
“We started symbolically with 12 households,” said Gross, referring to the 12 tribes of Israel.
Weiss, the daughter of a cantor from Ormond Beach, has a history of music under her belt — a soloist in the choir of Temple Sinai in North Miami Beach, and an uncertified cantorial soloist at Temple Beth El in Fort Myers; Temple Israel in West Palm Beach, Temple Emanu-El in Fort Lauderdale and Temple Beth Orr. She has worked at Beth Orr on and off for 11 years, including a stint as associate cantor. Weiss also teaches the adult choir and coordinates the temple’s b’nai mitzvah program.
Kassof is chairwoman of the temple’s membership outreach and nominating committees, as well as liaison to a committee that builds leadership skills of members of the board of trustees.
She also is chairwoman of the Torah guild, which encourages adults to read the Torah. The guild has helped parents participate in their children’s bar and bat mitzvahs, and has worked to increase adult participation during High Holy Day services.
“It’s really special when the adults do it,” Kassof said. “Some kids read from the Torah only at their bar and bat mitzvahs and then they never do it again.”
Last year Kassof was certified as a para-rabbinic fellow by the Hebrew Union College Institute of Jewish Religion in Cincinnati, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis in New York City. She plans to become certified as a synagogue associate next year.
“We are still the only full-staff, full-service congregation in Coral Springs. We will do a little more building to meet our members’ needs. Ultimately, our plan is to continue to do what we are already doing — to be a second home for the Jewish community here,” Gross said.
