Rabbi Jerry Seidler Divrei Torah Divrei Rabbi Jerry

Rabbi Jerry Seidler is a New York City native, having grown up in the Bronx, the only child of holocaust survivors from Vienna. In 2002, he was ordained and granted the MAHL degree by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he was an Eisenstein scholar. Rabbi Jerry earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from Vanderbilt University.

Having attended college under an Army ROTC scholarship, the Rabbi served on active duty for four years. The Army honored him with the Distinguished Service Medal for exceptional performance of duty as a military police platoon leader and as a judge advocate trial counsel.

Following military service, Rabbi Jerry engaged in the private practice of law with firms in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. His area of professional concentration during those nine years was complex civil litigation.

While in rabbinical school, Rabbi Jerry gained extensive experience in congregational settings, and in hospital, geriatric and military chaplaincy. He is branch qualified as an Army chaplain, and is credentialed in critical incident stress management (CISM) through the University of Maryland Baltimore County. In response to 9/11, Rabbi Jerry was a volunteer chaplain with his CISM team on behalf of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. After completing rabbinic studies, his first rabbinate was in rural Vermont.

Rabbi Jerry has sung at Lincoln Center, Boston Symphony Hall, and the Philadelphia Academy of Music. He was an Army officer, and a lawyer. He has officiated at happy life cycle moments, and has pastored people of all faiths during times of personal and family crisis. He is an engaging teacher to adults and children, and a very talented service leader and public speaker. He is a runner, and a lover of the outdoors. He is a spiritual seeker, and a real world doer.

Rabbi Jerry invites everyone to check out Temple Sinai. His vision of synagogue life is inspirational and fresh. Through the spirit of derekh eretz, he sees the synagogue as a community that can lovingly offer adults and children opportunities to explore and experience all things Jewish (religious, spiritual, cultural, social, Israeli, activist, intellectual and so on). To Rabbi Jerry, derekh eretz is a comprehensive network of relations to encounter others, the created world and all that is holy with respect, integrity, joy, compassion and justice. It is a way of reconstructing the traditions of torah that truly touches our contemporary souls, hearts and minds, and genuinely infuses our lives and relationships with meaning and Godliness.

Rabbi Jerry is married to his life partner, Kathy Bress. They have two daughters, Arielle and Lydia. They moved to Amherst in June 2005, and are very happy to be part of the Temple Sinai and Greater Buffalo communities

Updated: Saturday, October 08, 2005
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