Stephen Listfield of Atlanta is our part-time rabbi. He officiates at High Holidays services, and he spends seven weekends with us during the year, leading us in study and prayer and in the furtherance of our Jewish communal life.
Stephen Chaim Listfield was ordained as a rabbi in 1974 by the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was the class valedictorian. He is a graduate of Rutgers, phi beta kappa and magna cum laude. Rabbi Listfield spent 50 years leading Conservative congregations before retiring in 2014. He happily came out of retirement the next year in order to work with, as he puts it, “the wonderful people of Etz Chayim.”
Rabbi Listfield’s non-pulpit rabbinic service included teaching undergraduates at The American University in Washington, and teaching senior rabbinical students at the Seminary. While leading Adugath Israel Etz Ahayem Congregation in Montgomery, AL, he also accepted the assignment as Jewish chaplain at the Federal Prison in our capital city.
Rabbi Listfield says that the greatest lesson he learned in his years of rabbinical leadership is that the more we love our fellow Jews, the more we love all of humanity. Love always starts at home but it spreads its wings infinitely.