He played a prominent role in the Jewish community of DC and the national Reform movement.
[4] He became an assistant rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation in 1935, a synagogue that had been in disarray and decline for several decades.
[5] On November 16, 1952, President Harry S. Truman attended the cornerstone laying at the Washington Hebrew Congregation's new synagogue building.
President Truman addressed Rabbi Gerstenfeld in his opening statement, who was in attendance.
[6] Rabbi Gerstenfeld was initially a vocal anti-Zionist, however, by 1948 he had come to support the State of Israel.