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Why Should You Get Involved?
The Chefitz Learning Project
Five years ago Rabbi Chefitz joined our Temple Israel Family. He brought with him a sense of spirituality and love of learning that sparked new vitality and a deeper connection to Reform Judaism at Temple Israel.
As we enter a new phase in our history, our hope is to both continue and expand this rich learning experience for years to come. It is in that spirit that we announce the creation of The Chefitz Learning Project.
A Time To Honor Where We Are And Where We Are Going.
Your participation in the Chefitz Learning Project is vital.
It is a unique opportunity to build on the energy which has attracted and inspired so many at Temple Israel.
Funds raised will support the Chefitz Learning Project now, and in the future.
Opportunities for Giving:
Giving today helps to ensure that Temple Israel remains a center for Jewish learning for the future.
Take an offering only from those whose hearts are so inclined –
Each giving according to his or her will and capacity – whether it be gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, crimson, or fine linen – E x o d u s 2 5
Those who can give gold $10,000
Those who can give silver $5,000
Those who can give bronze $2,500
Those who can give blue $1,000
Those who can give purple $500
Those who can give crimson $250
Those who can give fine linen $100
All are necessary for the maintenance of the Temple. Without gifts in each category, the Temple cannot stand.
Please send checks to Temple Israel, or for donations up to Crimson $250, you may use our secure credit card processing through Google Checkout. (If you make an online donation, please send an email to Amy Mallor (info at templeisrael.net) indicating your name and any "in honor of" or "in memory of" notations.)
Rabbi Mitch Chefitz
Did You Know...
When Mitch was a teenager in Boston, his mother told him he might be a good rabbi, but his facility with language Latin and French) was so bad, she thought he would ever be able to learn Hebrew. So he decided to be a doctor, like his father.
At the Roxbury Latin School he excelled at soccer, was an editor of the literary magazine, and graduated 19th in his class. 19th out of a class of 20, second from the bottom. An unconventional student even then, he applied to M.I.T. and received early acceptance.
At M.I.T. he studied math, chemistry, physics, and biology, still intent on following in his father’s footsteps. Uncertain of his path, he took a semester leave to work in surgical research with Boston University Medical School. There he trained as a surgical technician and learned he wasn’t cut out to be a physician. He began to write poetry.
When he returned to M.I.T., he shifted his courses from science to humanities. He won a prize in literature and was told, if he wanted to pursue a literary career, M.I.T. was not the place to be. He applied to the writer’s workshop at the University of Iowa and the creative writing program at the University of California at Berkeley. When he visited Iowa City, the temperature was 103 degrees Fahrenheit. So he went to Berkeley.
At Berkeley his academic major was English and Creative Writing, but mostly he rode motorcycles, edited the humor magazine, and rock-climbed in Yosemite. He received his BA degree in 1964.
Wandering
His aspiration was to write the great American novel, but he had nothing to write about. His favorite books were about the sea, so he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, two weeks before the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
The Navy sent him to Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. After five months of marching and bathroom floor polishing, the Navy commissioned him and sent him for additional training to be a combat intelligence officer and air controller. He served two tours of duty in the Gulf of Tonkin aboard a destroyer, making certain that only American planes returned from missions over North Vietnam to land on the Navy’s aircraft carriers.
When he chafed at the senselessness of the Vietnam War, he asked for different duty. The Navy sent him to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, just in time for the Six Day
War
After completing his active duty, he holed up in a garret apartment in Andover, Massachusetts, to write the great American novel. He coached soccer at Andover High School and was encouraged to try out as a place kicker for the AFL Boston Patriots. He walked into the team camp, but, when he saw the size of the players, he kept on walking.
After a year he had completed a novel. Not a great novel, not one even worthy of publication. but one that would serve a purpose.
Stirring
Mitch returned to Berkeley to re-engage his friends and found a community that had shifted during his time away.
Stability and direction became precious entities, and he had precious little of either. So he began to search through synagogues and encountered Rabbi Harold Schulweis. The rabbi's teachings were brilliant, but too profound to grasp.
Mitch resolved to go to Israel to search for stability and direction, and to gain the foundation to learn at depth what the rabbi had been teaching.
Mitch had virtually no formal Hebrew training or religious school experience as a child. He was tutored for his bar mitzvah at Roxbury’s Conservative synagogue, Mishkan Tefilah. After his bar mitzvah, his family joined Boston’s Reform Temple Israel where he met and became friends with Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn. During his high school and college years he maintained that friendship.
In Israel Mitch attended the ulpan at the World Union of Jewish Students Institute in Arad, in the Negev desert near Beer Sheva. That’s where he met Walli. He invited her to read his novel. She did and was impressed. So, even though never published, that novel proved its worth.
Learning
Mitch and Walli were married in New Orleans. They returned to Israel for a year of study in Jerusalem, then to New York where Mitch studied the next four years at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. There he began to explore the transition from priestly to rabbinic Judaism. He was curious about transitions, how civilizations moved from one paradigm to the next. That study introduced him to the Kabbalah and the mystical manuscripts of the early rabbis.
During his four years at the New York school, he taught occasionally at Rabbi Chaim Stern’s congregation in Chappaqua. He had a High Holiday position in Cranston, Rhode Island. He taught in the religious school and confirmation programs in Clifton and Livingston, New Jersey. And he had a solo pulpit in New Milford, Connecticut.
Walli studied toward a master’s degree in Occupational Therapy at New York University. A child, Walter, emerged in the middle of her studies, so she hadn’t completed her degree when Mitch was ordained. Miami was among the few places offering a congregational position for Mitch (Temple Beth Am, associate to Rabbi Herbert Baumgard), and a university (F.I.U.) where Walli could finish her degree out of residence. So, in 1975, they came to Miami. Their second son, Josh, was born during Mitch’s tenure at Beth Am, and a third son, Adam, soon after Mitch had begun the Havurah of South Florida.
Teaching
During his five years at Beth Am in Kendall (now Pinecrest), Mitch supervised the bar mitzvah and confirmation programs, adult education, managed his share of the pastoral work, and created an internal network of havurot (fellowships) following in the footsteps of his mentor, Harold Schulweis. He saw more growth and joy in those fellowships than in any of the other programs he supervised.
In 1980, when his service at Beth Am was complete, he chose to leave the pulpit and create an outreach program into the unaffiliated Jewish population of Dade and Broward counties. That became the Havurah of South Florida, a network of home-based fellowships. It grew into a community of nearly 400 souls with an intense program of learning and religious service. He worked with that community for 22 years, and was also a leader in the national Havurah community.
Writing
In the late 90’s Mitch began to write again, another novel. This one didn’t have to be great. That made writing easier. Before the manuscript was complete, he and his family had a scare, his encounter with bacterial meningitis that nearly took him from the world. As he recovered, he completed the novel, The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moshe Katan. It was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2001 and made the best-seller list of the Los Angeles Times. It was followed by the sequel, The Thirty-third Hour, also published by St. Martin’s Press.
Mitch began to travel the country as author, scholar-in-residence in Kabbalah, consultant in Havurah formation and family education. As he withdrew from leadership of the Havurah of South Florida, he imagined writing and travel would occupy him for the remainder of his career.
Then, on book tour for the second novel, he came through Temple Israel.
Another Beginning
The rest is history, our history. After many hours of intense discussions, Mitch and the Temple signed a five year agreement. The energy and depth of learning he had introduced in the Havurah is now implanted firmly within Temple Israel.
Mitch chose to work with us rather than complete his third novel. Temple Israel seemed a worthy challenge, and we’re happy he chose our direction.
What will his next five years bring?
He has produced a collection of stories, The Curse of Blessings (Running Press, 2006) and has a sequel nearly ready. That third novel is still there, not quite ready for the marketplace. But his attachment to the temple family is such, he hopes never to leave, to keep Temple Israel as his anchor in the world, and continue learning with us. As for us, we hope to continue learning with him.
A few of the favorite experiences with Rabbi Chefitz these past five years:
• High Holyday workshops for hundreds.
• Family education for our religious school.
• Adult learning with overflow crowds.
• Adult Purim celebrations.
• Innovative, personalized bar / bat mitzvah and lifecycle services.
• A Shabbat morning experience that has grown from two tables to four to six.
• Holyday services that overpowered a hurricane.
• A Good Friday and a Selichot with the Coral Gables Congregational Church.
• Restoration of Faith-in-the-City, the consortium of downtown congregations.
What we hope to experience in the next five years:
• More learning.
• More celebration.
• More innovation.
• More of everything listed above, and much that will be new.
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