The Temple Or Olam Shmoozeletter

For information, please call 704.720.7577 or e-mail us.

If you're used to seeing the news from Havurat Olam in this space, you'll notice that we have a name change. Reflecting our growth from a Havurah to a fully operating Jewish congregation, we polled our members for suggestions on a new name. The winning name, Temple Or Olam, means "light of (or to) the world."

The next major step for our congregation will be to secure our own permanent location in Cabarrus County. Our building committee is hard at work, trudging down muddy paths, examining buildings, and debating over bagels and lox. As we settle into a new name, and, we hope, a new space, it's reasonable to ask: Who are we? What's important to us?

The core of Temple Or Olam is community. A sense of community permeates everything we do – from the Friday services where everyone really does know your name, to the karaoke parties where kids and adults (and one memorable gorilla) croon together without fear, knowing that they're among friends.

We value inclusiveness. Non-Jewish spouses feel comfortable. So do guests and friends of the family.  We welcome the gifts that every member can bring from his or her background. Our religious leader, Barbara Thiede, takes special care to make our religious services accessible and meaningful to everyone: Those raised Jewish, Jews by choice, and "friends and family" of Jews.

 One of the first questions many people ask about Temple Or Olam is "What is the congregation’s denomination?"

The answer: Jewish. We are one of a growing number of congregations throughout the United States and Canada that have chosen not to affiliate with any one denomination. Why? We want to be free to express our Jewishness in the ways that are most meaningful to our members, no matter what their background. While we honor and value the importance of each denomination, as the only congregation in Cabarrus County, we want to be a place where Jews of any background can find something familiar and feel comfortable.

Our services restore the spiritual vitality characteristic of the Hassidic movement of pre-war Europe through our involved and even exuberant prayer.  We engage in spirited Torah study. We also believe, alongside the Reconstruction movement, that Judaism is an evolving religious civilization. We do a lot of our praying in Hebrew, as Conservative Judaism does, and we emphasize social action and egalitarianism as Reform Judaism does.

Dr. Thiede, who teaches at UNC-Charlotte's Department of Religious Studies, is also studying for rabbinic ordination with the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, whose faculty includes ordained rabbis from every major Jewish denomination. So our services draw on the energy, musical variety, and joyous spirit of Jewish Renewal as well.

Maybe the best way to answer the question of who we are is with an invitation. Come and see for yourself! Please join us for one of our Friday evening services, and we will make you feel at home, and, we hope, help you begin your Shabbat with the sweetness it deserves.

When we prepare for Shabbat, we clean house, set things in order, create a space for rest.  When we prepare for Passover we do all those things big time.  (And Passover is just a week away!)

During this week’s service, we’ll ask our kids why it makes sense to create order of all kinds – in our prayers, in our souls, in our hearts, in our homes, and in our lives.  We’ll teach parents what we’ve learned about the order of our service, from Kabbalat Shabbat to Barchu and Shema, from Shema to Amidah. 

Join us as the kids from the Religious School show us that there is, in fact,  a prayer for each purpose and a purpose for each prayer.