August 16, 2001

Contact:

Sarah Ray

802-443-5794

sray@middlebury.edu

Posted: August 16, 2001

MIDDLEBURY,

VT - Rabbi Ira J. Schiffer has been named to the

position of associate chaplain at Middlebury College. His

responsibilities will include promoting Jewish life on

campus and, in conjunction with the College chaplain,

providing pastoral care and support to the College

community.

“I’m

excited to work at Middlebury and to serve as the College’s

first non-Christian clergy in the chaplain’s office,” he

said.

Schiffer

joins an inter-religious team of leaders providing ethical

and religious guidance on campus. In addition to his work at

Middlebury College, he will serve as director of education

for Havurah: The Addison County Jewish

Congregation.

Schiffer

brings more than two decades of rabbinic experience in

congregational and community work to the position. He and

his family recently returned to the United States following

a five-year period living and working in the Northern

Galilee region of Israel. Prior to his time in Israel,

Schiffer was congregational rabbi at Beth Am Synagogue in

Baltimore, Md. He is a past president of the

Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.

Schiffer

received his rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist

Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, Pa., and holds a

master’s degree in religion from Brown University in

Providence, R.I.