In developing the pastoral counseling program at YCT, I am able to fuse my experience in psychiatry and my passion for the Jewish community. The more my students come to know themselves, the more open they can be with their own congregants, and, ultimately, they will represent a compassionate and halakhic Judaism.
Dr. Michelle Friedman, Chair, Department of Pastoral Counseling
For the hale and hardy residents of Portland, Maine, the young bearded man standing in front of the downtown branch of Starbucks must have been quite an unusual sight. Wearing a black velvet yarmulke and wrapped in a long, flowing tallis was Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld, who had recently been hired as the spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh, the oldest active Orthodox synagogue in Maine.