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Brief biography:
April 1, 2002, Mitchell Chefitz became the rabbi of
Temple Israel of Greater Miami, an 80-year-old center-city
Reform congregation serving the entire region with creative
Jewish programming for adults and family education. On March 30th, 2007, he became Scholar in Residence.
He is the author of two novels, The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moshe Katan and its sequel, The Thirty-third Hour. The Seventh Telling, published in 2001 by St. Martin's Press, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. His story collection, The Curse of Blessings, has been translated into German, Korean, and Mandarin. His most recent publication is a digitally formatted novella, White Fire, available on Amazon-Kindle and other digital readers.
For twenty-two years beginning in 1980 he was the rabbi
of the Havurah of South Florida, a non-denominational
fellowship that created programming to fill the interstices
between synagogues and other established Jewish organizations.
The Havurah offered a variety of opportunities for learning
of Torah, Talmud, and Jewish spiritual discipline (Kabbalah)
in an egalitarian setting.
Mitch has served as chairperson of the National Havurah
Committee, editor of a nationally syndicated weekly
Torah column, and is a frequent teacher at Havurah institutes,
rabbinic conferences, and other gatherings with a focus
on Jewish renewal. He teaches on topics related to Jewish
spirituality, alternative religious community, and Jewish
family education. He is a past-president of the Rabbinical
Association of Greater Miami.
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