Rabbi Richard Polirer has been the spiritual leader
of Congregation Beth Hillel of Margate for the past five years.
He has served as a pulpit rabbi since 1978. The following is the
curriculum vitae, the professional progress of the rabbi:
Richard Polirer attended Crown Heights Yeshiva and
the Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Brooklyn. After graduation
in 1969, he took his Bachelor’s Degree in English and History
at NYU (1972) and earned his Master’s Degree in History at
Hofstra University (1974). He began to attend Seminary classes and
received his Semicha (ordination) from Bais Midrash Tiferes Yisrael
in Brooklyn, New York (1977).
Rabbi Richard Polirer has served a number of congregations
in different professional capacities over the years. Starting in
1969, while still a college student, he was the Torah Reader (Ba’al
Keriah) at Congregation Derech Emunah in Rockaway, New York (1969-72),
and the Bell Park Jewish Center in Queens Village, New York (1972-73).
While in Rabbinical School, he was Assistant to the Rabbi at the
Rockwood Park Jewish Center in Howard Beach, New York (1974-1977),
where he tutored 122 B’nai Mitzvah and functioned as the Ritual
Director. During this time, he also studied Cantorial Arts under
the personal tutelage of Cantor Bernard Beer, now-director of the
Cantorial Training Institute at Yeshiva University. After being
ordained, Rabbi Polirer was elected to the pulpit at Beth Israel
Congregation in Fayetteville, North Carolina (1978-79). Moving up
north to New Hampshire, Rabbi Polirer served Temple Israel in Manchester
for the next 17 years (1979-96), relocating to Florida in the summer
of 1996. Here, he assumed the pulpit of Congregation Kol Tikvah
in Parkland (1996-1998) before taking on his present position at
Beth Hillel.
Outside his Temple role as mara d’atra, teacher
of the community, Rabbi Polirer has taught as adjunct faculty at
a number of secular and religious colleges, as well. A true Renaissance
Man, teaching a wide range of subjects, from American and World
History, to Economics, Geography, Social Sciences, Psychology, Learning
Skills, Comparative Religion, Bible, Holocaust, and College English,
the rabbi has provided students with quality scholarship and pedagogy
at Southern New Hampshire University, Hesser College, and Notre
Dame College. Since coming to Florida, he has discovered the challenging
world of Elderhostel, and remains to this day a popular instructor
in that realm.
Today, Rabbi Richard Polirer focuses his energies
on teaching B’nai Mitzvah from his home office in Parkland,
bringing over 25 years of pulpit experience and pedagogical skill
to his craft. A consummate teacher, he is still learning –
a lifelong pursuit.
Won’t you let
him share that learning with you?
(If all this sounds formidable, don’t
let it scare you away. After all, who ever said that a scholar has
to be a stuffed shirt? Read on: About the Rabbi – A Tongue-in-Cheek
Biography. J )
Copyright
© 2004
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