The Board of Directors of B’Yachad, the joint religious school serving students from Congregation Ohav Shalom, Temple Israel and B’nai Shalom, announces that Rabbi Miriam Midlarsky Lichtenfeld is the new B’Yachad Education Director. The previous director, Ruth Malka, has stepped down from her position.
Rabbi Miriam has been in the area since 2008 and has worked with all of the clergy involved with B’Yachad. She was born and largely raised in Boulder, Colorado and received a degree in International Relations and Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She began her rabbinic studies at the Hebrew Union College and was ultimately ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2003. During rabbinical school, Rabbi Miriam met and married her husband Rabbi Ted Lichtenfeld, the rabbi of Congregation Agudat Achim (CAA.) They have three children, Tali, Ari and Shuli.
Prior to coming to the Capital Region, Rabbi Miriam led a religious school and taught adults and children in New Jersey, and adults in New Orleans. Since moving to Niskayuna, she has written the curriculum for and taught at CAA’s Hebrew High School, taught adult education classes, facilitated and run many programs for the Rosh Chodesh and Social Action committees and co-founded and co-runs a Tot Shabbat service at CAA. For the last two years, she taught middle school and fourth and fifth graders Judaic Studies at Hebrew Academy, where she also founded and ran a Middle School alternative prayer service.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rabbi Miriam to B’Yachad” said Libby Post, Chair of the B’Yachad Board of Directors. “We look forward to working closely with her to provide a Jewish education experience that will imbue our children with a love of Judaism and learning.”
Congregation Ohav Shalom, led by Rabbi Daniel Ornstein and Rabbi Rena Kieval, is a Conservative/Egalitarian Synagogue affiliated with The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
