Dr. Anne Lidsky, R.J.E., has served as Director of Religious Education at Temple Jeremiah since 1980.

Anne received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Northeastern Illinois State University and her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University. She taught in Chicago for several years and was a religious and Hebrew teacher for twelve years at Temple Emanuel and Am Shalom. Anne was principal at Temple Beth Israel and Director of Counseling at Solomon Schechter Day School in Skokie.

Since Anne joined Temple Jeremiah, she has become known in the Chicago Jewish community for her leadership as a workshop facilitator for the Community Foundation of Jewish Education and was designated as a Fellow of a newly created Principals Center. In 1990, Anne received her Reform Jewish Education certification, the highest degree of recognition that an education director can receive at the national level under the auspices of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ).

In 1994, Dr. Lidsky was honored by the Community Foundation for Jewish Education and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, when she received the Alexander M. Duskin Distinguished Educator Award. In addition, she was chosen as one of the 1998 recipients of the Covenant Foundation Award officially presented in Washington, D.C. Designed to honor outstanding Jewish educators, the Covenant Foundation is centered in New York and was established by the Crown Family Foundation in partnership with the Jewish Education Service of North America. The Covenant Foundation Award, sought after by over 400 applicants a year, is the most prestigious award that a Jewish educator can receive in the United States or Canada. Since only one to three individuals in North America can receive this award each year, most educators never attain this honor in a lifetime of devoted work. Anne is the first in Illinois to ever receive this award. She brings honor to this congregation and to the entire Chicago Jewish community.

Dr. Lidsky was honored for her 25th anniversary with Temple Jeremiah at a special Shabbat Dinner & Service: You Light Up Our Lives on March 10, 2006. Over 350 congregants, many of whom were former students, gathered to recognize her for this milestone.

For a copy of Dr. Lidsky's latest Covenant article, click here.