AUBURN – The Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh Hashana, which begins Friday evening, Sept. 22, will kick off Temple Shalom Synagogue’s 25th anniversary year.

Services for Rosh Hashana will include, for the first time, a service for families with young children, on Friday at 5:30 p.m. This will be followed by another new Temple Shalom event, a “family” holiday dinner for those who don’t have Jewish family in the area with whom to celebrate the special day.

Traditional prayer services for the holidays will be on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m.

“Our theme for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is the same as our theme for this entire 25th year celebration,” said Rabbi Hillel Katzir, spiritual leader of Temple Shalom.

“Psalm 90 asks God to ‘teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’ Our theme rephrases the psalm: ‘Counting our days, making them count.’ The Jewish High Holy Days are about each of us looking inward, to see if we are getting wiser with the passage of time, or just getting older.”

Rabbi Katzir noted that we all count our days – with birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and so on. “But the more important question is, are we making those days count? Are we doing all we can to make this a better world for all of God’s children?”

More information about attending any of the High Holy Days services and events is available by calling Temple Shalom at 786-4201.