Rabbi Theodore Midlarksy Lichtenfeld is the new spiritual leader of Congregation Agudat Achim. Rabbi Lichtenfeld begins his tenure on August 1. In addition to excellent educational and rabbinic training, the rabbi brings to Agudat Achim wide-ranging leadership and pastoral experience. This includes hands-on crisis response, geriatric chaplaincy work, continuing youth involvement in prayer, lay ritual participation and interfaith outreach programs.
As former rabbi at Shir Chadash Conservative Synagogue in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, LA, Rabbi Lichtenfeld played a central role in leading his congregation through the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. He kept in touch with congregants displaced from their homes, delivered inspirational sermons and pastoral support to members traumatized by their ordeal, and publicized the plight of flood victims to the media. He also taught several classes on topical issues in the Conservative Movement. He encouraged the formation of a social action committee. He counseled couples preparing for marriage and performed beautiful, meaningful wedding ceremonies
Prior to New Orleans, Rabbi Lichtenfeld served Congregation Beth Shalom in Pompton Lakes, NJ. There he was instrumental in restructuring congregational organization, revitalizing the board and creating administrative committees, and establishing a ritual committee. He refocused the Bar and Bat Mitzvah program, teaching the children to lead the service. He also ran family education workshops that stressed the importance of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs to modern Jews.
He has also worked with the elderly, having served as a chaplain at Parker Jewish Geriatric Center, New Hyde Park, NY. He is experienced in grief counseling, comforting the seriously ill and those in crises.
Rabbi Lichtenfeld was ordained in 2001 at the Jewish Theological Seminary, from which he also earned a Master of Arts in Jewish Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors and distinctions in Talmud. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University... He was a Fellow at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem in spring, 2002. He received an undergraduate Honors Scholarship from Jewish Theological Seminary in 1988 and a Crown Fellowship in 1992. He completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education from Episcopal Health Service, Garden City, N.Y., in 1999.
The entire Community welcomes the Lichtenfelds to our Congregation!
Rabbi Lichtenfeld comes to the area with his wife, Rabbi Miriam Midlarsky, and their two children, five-year old daughter Avital, and son Aryeh, who will be three in November.
Rabbi Theodore Lichtenfeld Assumes Pulpit
