News Highlights Hebrew College Rabbinical School Alumnae featured in NBC News New York
“For a lot of the younger generation, when they think of a rabbi, many of them, in their mind, the picture is a woman,” Weintraub said. “When I was growing up, when I would think of a rabbi, I’d think, man.”
On February 1, 2026, NBC 4 New York published an article about the Atra Foundation’s recent study on the rabbinate, “The ranks of U.S. rabbis grow more diverse, with rising numbers of women and LGBTQ people.” The article featured Hebrew College rabbinical alumni Rabbi Becca Weintraub`20 and Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum`13 reflecting on how the rabbinate has changed for women:
Rebecca Weintraub, associate rabbi of New York City’s B’nai Jeshurun congregation, has witnessed this generational shift in liberal Jewish spaces. She is one of several women serving the congregation as rabbis.
“For a lot of the younger generation, when they think of a rabbi, many of them, in their mind, the picture is a woman,” Weintraub said. “When I was growing up, when I would think of a rabbi, I’d think, man.”
Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum, director of congregational learning and programming at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts, recalled how nervous she was during her final year in rabbinical school. Berenbaum, who is Black and has done extensive anti-racism work in the Jewish community, was ordained in 2013.
“My Jewish experiences were pretty much all white,” she said. “It was time to go into the job market, and that’s when the voices really started to rise in my head: ‘Who’s going to hire a Black rabbi?’ Not ‘Who’s going to hire a woman rabbi?’”
“Some of the earlier rabbis were really thrust into the deep patriarchy, where they were accepted but not really accepted, or accepted but forced to mold themselves to a masculine view of what is a rabbi,” said Berenbaum, who is now one of three women rabbis in her congregation. “Whereas now women are able to just bring their full selves.”