Our rabbi, Akiva Herzfeld, graduated from Yeshiva University in 2000, with a major in classics and a minor in English. He received an M.A. in Jewish History from Columbia University in 2002, and ordination in 2007 from YCT Rabbinical School, the Open Orthodox Yeshiva. Rabbi Herzfeld is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and he has studied at schools around the world, including Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat, Israel, the Goethe Institute in Berlin, Germany, and the American Language Institute in Fez, Morocco.
 

Rabbi Herzfeld's life journey has taken him in a decidedly northeast direction, from Staten Island, New York, where he was raised as a child, to our community in Portland, Maine. He began his rabbinic career at the Stanton Street Shul of the Lower East Side. He next completed rabbinic internships at the Jewish Home for the Elderly in Fairfield, Connecticut, and at Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford, CT, where he trained under the direction of Rabbi Yitzchok Adler. His next stage of learning and teaching was one step further north, in Boston, where Rabbi Herzfeld worked together with Rabbi Aryeh Klapper of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership to develop programs for college students in the Boston region. Rabbi Herzfeld continues to work with college students in the Boston area, as he is currently the Harvard Hillel Orthodox Rabbinic Advisor. Rabbi Herzfeld's northeast journey stops at the community of Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland, Maine, a historically significant and vibrant Jewish community in the northeast corner of the United States.
 

Rabbi Herzfeld's experiences with Jews in America, Israel, and around the world have profoundly influenced his Orthodox Jewish perspectives. He is committed to working within the boundaries of Halakha to continue the traditions of the Shaarey Tphiloh Congregation. As the rabbi of the oldest and largest active Orthodox synagogue in Portland, Maine, he joins the congregation of Shaarey Tphiloh in welcoming all Jews, regardless of denominational background, into the synagogue to experience the beauty of our religious heritage through prayer and learning. At the same time, Rabbi Herzfeld values the teachings of Jews whose religious journeys do not always draw inspiration from within the four walls of a synagogue. Rabbi Herzfeld hopes to learn about the many roads of Judaism that are to be found amongst the Jews of Maine. He is ready to assist Jews of all ages, be they children, teens, young professionals, adults, seniors, and ageless wanderers - groups or individuals - to develop their Jewish journeys in a meaningfully inspired Jewish way.

 Rabbi Herzfeld's training in rabbinical school focused on the textual sources of our heritage and the religious inspiration to be drawn from textual study. Nevertheless, he believes that spiritual inspiration may also be found through experiencing the splendors of nature and art, in the city and the outdoors. Ultimately, this, as well as the human encounters and friendships established with the local Jewish Mainers, was what brought Rabbi Herzfeld to Portland, Maine. Rabbi Herzfeld hopes to develop his spiritual connection to God, alongside the Jews of the Shaarey Tphiloh community.

Rabbi Herzfeld can be reached via e-mail at rabbiherzfeld@gmail.com or at the synagogue at (207) 773-0693 or on his cell phone at 207-400-6820.