Alumni & Career Placement:
Become a Rabbi

Hebrew College offers inspiring rabbinic education, vibrant community and professional opportunities.

Our graduates currently serve as congregational rabbis in affiliated and independent congregations, Hillel rabbis and executive directors, hospital chaplains and organizational innovators in institutions across the country. Having successfully placed nearly all of our graduates in the rabbinate, Hebrew College is a thriving enterprise in rabbinic education.

Placement Support

At Hebrew College, you are not alone in your search. Our faculty and staff work with studentss and graduates to help them prepare for and find the rabbinic position that is right for each of them.

• Individualized Placement Support: We will provide you with highly individualized support during your job search to enable you to find the right opportunity.
• Job-Search Skills: Our staff, along with other professionals with whom we work, help with drafting resumes and cover letters, preparing for interviews and negotiating contracts.
• Alumni Resources: We continue to provide these job-placement resources to alumni of the rabbinical school.

Placement Partners in the Hebrew College Internship Program

Our students serve as rabbinic and cantorial interns in the Greater Boston area and beyond.

Meet Two Rabbinical Interns

Read about rabbinical students Giulia Fleishman (above) and Ryan Lezner, who are deepening their rabbinical training and connecting with community members as part of their rabbinical internship training.

Recent and Current Student Internships

Here are some of the synagogues and organizations where our students serve:

Congregations

• Asiyah Jewish Community, Somerville, MA [Renewal]
• Betenu, Amherst, NH [Reform]
• Beth Tzedec Congregation, Toronto, Canada [Conservative]
• Congregation B’nai Jacob, Woodbridge, CT [Conservative]
• Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Newton, MA [Reconstructionist]
• Kehillat Israel, Brookline, MA [Conservative]
• Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue, Jamaica Plain, MA [Independent]
• Temple Aliyah, Needham, MA [Conservative]
• Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley, MA [Reform]
• Temple Beth Sholom, Framingham, MA [Conservative]
• Temple Beth Zion, Brookline, MA [Independent]
• Temple Israel, Boston, MA [Reform]
• Temple Sha’arey Tefila, Glens Falls, NY [Conservative]
• Temple Sinai, Brookline, MA [Reform]
• Temple Tiferet Israel, Winthrop, MA [Independent]
• Romemu, New York, NY [Independent]
• Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley, MA [Reform]
• Temple Beth El, Portland, ME [Conservative]
• Temple Emanu-El, Haverhill, MA [Reform]
• Temple Emunah, Lexington, MA [Conservative]
• Temple Israel, Boston, MA  [Reform]
• Temple Sinai, Brookline, MA [Reform]
• The Boston Synagogue, Boston, MA [Independent]

Hillels

• Brown/RISD Hillel, Providence, RI
• Northeastern University Hillel, Boston, MA
• Boston College Hillel, Chestnut Hill, MA
• Tufts Hillel, Somerville, MA
• Boston University Hillel, Boston, MA

Community Organizations

• 2Life Communities, Brighton, MA
• Bronfman Fellowship, White Plains, NY
• Center for Small Town Jewish Life, various communities in Maine
• Hebrew College Prozdor, Newton, MA
• Hebrew College Teen Beit Midrash, Newton, MA
• Hebrew SeniorLife, Brookline, MA
• Hebrew SeniorLife, Randolf, MA
• Jewish Learning Collaborative Metro West, Framingham, MA [Independent]
• Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikvah, Newton, MA
• MetroWest Jewish Day School, Framingham, MA
• The Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership at Hebrew College, Newton, MA

When I was Keshet’s* intern, I was the person anchoring the justice work. I was primarily working with them on a ballot initiative campaign here in Massachusetts that was aimed at repealing public protection that was enshrined into law for transgender people. We were working with a coalition of different organization and movements trying to maintain the laws that we have now. Keshet is organizing the Jewish community to be involved.

– Mimi Micner, Former rabbinical student (ordained in 2020) and Campaign Specialist Intern at Keshet, Boston, MA. Keshet is a national grassroots organization with offices in Boston, New York, and the San Francisco Bay Area that works for the full equality and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Jews in Jewish life.

Teaching Experience

Rabbinical students also have the opportunity to hone their teaching and curriculum building skills as instructors in Hebrew College’s young adult community learning program, Eser (Ten). Learn about the experience from two past Rabbinical School instructors.

Where Our Alumni Serve

“The jobs that members of our graduating Class of 2022/5782 are taking truly reflect the diversity of interest which makes Hebrew College such a compelling place. The positions include: a director of pastoral care at an elder care facility; a teen educator; the assistant rabbi for the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue; the new BASE rabbi for Berkeley, California; a text teacher at a Jewish day school, etc. It is an immensely talented group of graduating students, and they will make a significant mark on the Jewish world in very different ways. Each of them will be bringing the combination of textual knowledge and community-building skills which are core to the Hebrew College program.” — Rabbi Dan Judson, Hebrew College Graduate Programs Dean & Chief Academic Officer

Humans of Hebrew College

For Those Working in Pulpits

• 24% work in synagogues affiliated with the Reform movement
• 34% work in synagogues affiliated with the Conservative movement
• 32% work in Independent Synagogues
• 10% work in synagogues affiliated with the Reconstructing Judaism movement

Hillel/College Chaplaincy

• Jordan Braunig ’14, Jewish Chaplain, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
• Misha Clebaner, ’19, Campus Rabbi, University of Pennsylvania Hill, Philadelphia, PA
• Getzel Davis ’13, Conservative Minyan Advisor, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
• Jevin Eagle ’19, Executive Director, Boston University Hillel, Boston, MA
• Jeremy Fierstien ’11, Executive Director & Rabbi, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
• Aaron Fine ’09, Executive Director, University of Massachusetts Hillel, Amherst, MA
• Jessica Goldberg ’20, Chaplain for Jewish Life, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
• Justin Held ’21, Director of Jewish Education, University of Minnesota Hillel and Herzl Camp, Minneapolis, MN
• Steven Jablow ’15, Director of Campus Ministry, Hillel Director, Jewish Chaplain, & University Lecturer, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI
• Emma Kippley-Ogman ’10, Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN
• Bryan Mann ’18, Rachlin Director of Jewish Student Life & Assistant Director of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practices, Vassar College, Arlington, NY
• Rachel Putterman ’20, Associate Chaplain & Director of Hillel, Trinity College, Hartford, CT
• Stephanie Sanger-Miller ’19, Associate Director, Brandeis University Hillel, Waltham, MA
• Daniel Schaeffer ’18, Interim Director for Jewish Life, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
• Micah Shapiro ’17, Rabbinic Innovation Fellow & Campus Rabbi, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
• Lisa Stella ’14, Director of Religious Life, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
• Seth Wax ’13, Jewish Chaplain, Williams College, Williamstown, MA

Jewish Arts

• Adina Allen ’14, Co-Founder & Creative Director, The Jewish Studio Project, Berkeley, CA
• Adam Lavitt ’12, Director of Program Design and Facilitation, The Jewish Studio Project, Berkeley, CA
• Rabbi Micah Shapiro ’17, Musican-in-Residence (remote), Mishkan Chicago, Chicago, IL

Jewish Communal Leadership

• Julia Appel ’11, Director of Innovation Training and Curriculum, CLAL, New York, NY
• Elyssa Austerklein ‘11, Rabbi & Founding Director, Ivrim Jews Without Borders, Akron, OH
• Laura Bellows ’18, Director of Spiritual Activism and Education, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
• Minna Bromberg ’10, Founder and President, Fat Torah, Jerusalem, Israel
• Nate de Groot, ’16, National Organizer, The Shalom Center, Philadelphia, PA
• Ayalon Eliach ’18, Senior Advisor, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, Brooklyn, NY
• Shoshana Friedman ’14, Director, Artists Beit Midrash, Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA
• Gita Karasov ’20, Director of Admissions and Student Life, Hebrew College, Newton, MA
• Avi Killip ’14, Executive Vice President, Hadar Institute, New York, NY
• Daniel Klein ’10, Dean of Students, Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA
• Elie Lehmann ’17, Director of Hadar Boston, Cambridge, MA
• Amalia Mark ’21, Director of Programs and Partnerships, Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh, Newton MA
• SAM Luckey, ’20, Rabbinic Program and Community Builder, Kehilla Community Synagogue, Piedmont, CA (Independent)
• Lev Meirowitz Nelson ’13, Director of Leadership and Learning, Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, New York, NY
• Matt Ponak ’20, Co-Founder, Teacher & Somatic Spiritual Guide, Mekorah Institute, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Margie Klein Ronkin ’11, Executive Director, Essex County Community Organization, Lynn, MA
• Avi Strausberg ’15, Director of National Learning Initiatives, Hadar Institute, Washington, DC
• Sarah Tasman ’12, Director of Jewish Journeys and Engagement, The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Silver Spring, MD

Jewish Education

• Benjamin Barer ’18, Jewish Text Faculty, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Rockville, MD
• Tiferet Berenbaum ’13, Rabbi of Congregational Learning and Programming, Temple Beth Zion, Brookline, MA (Independent)
• Elizabeth Bonney-Cohen ’18, Rabbi for Outreach and Family Engagement, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, Overland Park, KS
• Shahar Colt ’12, Hebrew Instructor, Hebrew College Rabbinical School, Newton Centre, MA
• Batya Ellinoy ’22, Upper School Director, Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley, MA (Reform)
• Dena Glasgow ’21, Jewish Studies Faculty, Gann Academy, Waltham, MA
• Hillel Greene ’14, Jewish Studies Faculty, Gann Academy, Waltham, MA
• Stephanie Kennedy ’22, Rabbi Educator, Jewish Gateways, Albany, CA
• Talia Laster ’22, Judaics Instructor, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School, Watertown MA
• Noam Lerman ’20, Associate Clergy, LAB/SHUL, New York, NY (Independent)
• Sara Meirowitz ’13, Jewish Studies Department Chair & Associate Dean of Jewish Education, Gann Academy, Waltham, MA
• Gray Myrseth ’17, Rabbi Educator, Kehilla Community Synagogue, Piedmont, CA (Independent)
• Shayna Rhodes ’08, Co-Director of Beit Midrash & Faculty Member, Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA
• Shani Rosenbaum ’21, Co-Director of Beit Midrash & Faculty Member, Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA
• Jordan Schuster ’18, Director of Mekorot & Faculty Member, Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA
• Shira Shazeer ’10, Learning Center Teacher, Gann Academy, Waltham, MA
• Becky Silverstein ’14, Faculty, Co-Director, Trans Halakhah Project, SVARA
• Alyson Solomon ’09, Rabbi Educator, Temple Beth Israel, Eugene, OR (Reconstructionist)
• Jamie Stolper ’21, Educator, Temple Emanuel, Newton Centre, MA
• Rebecca Weinstein ’18, Mashgicha Ruchanit, Lower School Jewish Life Coordinator, Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston, Newton, MA

Non-Pulpit Community Rabbis

• Ezra Balser ’17, Rabbi of BASE Loop, Chicago, IL
• Joel Goldstein, ’19, Based in Ann Arbor, MI
• Sarah Mulhern ‘17, Rabbi of BASE Lincoln Park, Chicago, IL
• Frankie Sandmel ’22, Rabbi of BASE Bay Area, Oakland, CA
• Ilana Zietman ’19, Rabbi, Gather DC, Washington, DC

Pastoral Care

• Joel Baron, ’14, Interfaith Chaplain, Orchard Cove, Hebrew SeniorLife, Canton, MA
• Michael Cohen ’08, Director of Rabbinic Services and Pastoral Care, The Legacy Senior Communities, Dallas, TX
• Israel de la Piedra, ’13, Hospice Chaplain, AccentCare, Norwood, MA
• Judi Ehrlich ’08, Rabbi Chaplain, New Bridge on the Charles, Hebrew SeniorLife, Dedham, MA
• Giulia Fleishman ’22, Director of Spiritual Care, 2Life Communities, Brighton MA
• Janie Hodgetts, ’09, Chaplain, St. Elizabeth Medical Center and Dana Farber Cancer Institute at St. Elizabeth Medical Center, Brighton, MA
• Rachel Kaplan ’21, Hospice Chaplain, Hebrew SeniorLife, Dedham, MA
• Rick Kline ’16, Spiritual Health Practitioner & Chaplain, Banff Mineral Springs Hospital, Banff, Alberta, Canada
• Jim Morgan ’08, Rabbi Chaplain, Hebrew SeniorLife, Brookline, MA
• Dick Rudnick ’11, Rabbi Chaplain, The Jewish Health Care Center at University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA
• Mona Strick ’19, Chaplain, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA
• Dena Trugman ’19, Palliative Care Chaplain, UCLA Health – Santa Monica Medical Center, Santa Monica, CA

Pulpits

• Leora Abelson ’17, Rabbi, Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue, Jamaica Plain, MA (Independent)
• Alison Adler ’08, Rabbi, Temple B’nai Abraham, Beverly, MA (Independent)
• Alana Alpert ’14, Executive Director & Rabbi Congregation T’chiyah, Oak Park, MI (Reconstructionist)
• Aliza Berger ’17, Rav Hazzan, Temple Emanuel, Newton, MA (Conservative)
• Dan Berman ’10, Rabbi, Temple Reyim, Newton, MA (Conservative)
• Yosef Berman ’10, Rabbi, New Synagogue Project, Washington DC (Independent)
• Brian Besser ’10, Rabbi, Congregation Beth Shalom, Bloomington, IN (Reform)
• Sam Blumberg ’21, Rabbi, Temple Beth Am, Framingham, MA (Reform)
• Sara Blumenthal ’22, Assistant Rabbi, Congregation Agudath Israel, Caldwell, NJ (Conservative)
• Josh Breindel ’09, Rabbi, Congregation Beth El, Sudbury, MA (Reform)
• Phillip Bressler ’18, Rabbi, Beit Am Mid-Willamette Valley Jewish Community, Corvallis, OR (Independent)
• Oksana Chapman ’09, Rabbi, Temple Emmanuel of Chelsea, Chelsea, MA (Reform/Conservative)
• Eric Cohen ’12, Rabbi, Flemington Jewish Center, Flemington, NJ (Conservative)
• David Cohen Enriquez ’10, Rabbi, B’nai Israel Synagogue, Pensacola, FL (Reform)
• Rogerio Cukierman ’11, Rabbi, Congregacao Israelita Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil (Independent)
• Tyler Dratch ’21, Rabbi for Tefilah Leadership & Director of Youth and Family Education, Beth Am Synagogue, Baltimore, MD (Conservative)
• Max Edwards ’21, Assistant Rabbi, Temple B’nai Abraham, Livingston, NJ (Independent)
• David Fainsilber ’14, Rabbi, Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, Stowe, VT (Independent)
• David Finkelstein ’14, Rabbi, Temple Beth Israel, Waltham, MA (Independent)
• Ari Lev Fornari ’14, Rabbi, Kol Tzedek Synagogue, Philadelphia, PA (Reconstructionist)
• Rabbi Moshe Giventhal `17, North Shore Temple Emanuel, Sydney Australia (Independent)
• Joey Glick ’22, Interim Assistant Rabbi, Shir Tikvah Congregation, Minneapolis, MN (Reform)
• Bekah Goldman ’16, Rabbi, Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation-Emek Shalom, Simsbury, CT (Reform)
• Mónica Gomery ’17, Rabbi & Music Director, Kol Tzedek Synagogue, Philadelphia, PA (Reconstructionist)
• Genevieve Greinetz ’22, Assistant Rabbi Educator, Peninsula Temple Beth El, San Mateo, CA (Reform)
• Elie Herb, ’16, Rabbi, Temple Beth Sholom, Salem, OR (Reconstructionist)
• Eliana Jacobowitz ’10, Senior Rabbi, Temple B’nai Brith, Somerville, MA (Independent)
• Suzie Jacobson ‘15, Associate Rabbi and Director of Congregational Learning, Temple Israel, Boston, MA (Reform)
• David Joslin`22, Rabbi, Temple Beth Israel, Plattsburgh, NY (Reform)
• Randy Kafka ’08, Rabbi, Temple Kol Tikvah, Sharon, MA (Independent)
• Chaim Koritzinksy ’08, Rabbi, Congregation Etz Chayim, Palo Alto, CA (Independent)
• Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg ’17, Rabbi, Shir Tikvah Congregation, Minneapolis, MN (Reform)
• Jessica Lowenthal ’19, Rabbi and Education Director, Temple Beth Shalom, Melrose, MA (Reform)
• Tamar Magill-Grimm ’10, Rabbi Educator, Beth Jacob Congregation, Mendota Heights, MN (Conservative)
• Mimi Micner ’20, Rabbi, Temple Beth Torah, Holliston, MA (Conservative)
• Sarah Noyovitz ’20, Interim Rabbi, Woodstock Jewish Congregation, Woodstock, NY (Independent)
• J. Hannah Orden ’10, Rabbi, Congregation Beth Hatikvah, Summit, NJ (Reconstructionist)
• Allison Poirier ’19, Rabbi, Temple Beth Sholom, Framingham, MA (Conservative)
• Ken Richmond ’21, Co-Senior Rabbi, Temple Israel, Natick, MA (Conservative)
• Scott Roland ’13, Rabbi, Shaarey Tikvah Congregation, Beachwood, OH (Conservative)
• Ma’ayan Sands ’16, Rabbi, Temple B’nai Shalom, Braintree, MA (Independent)
• Hal Schevitz ’13, Associate Rabbi, Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, Indianapolis, IN (Conservative and Reconstructionist)
• Philip Sherman ’13, Senior Rabbi, Congregation B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim, Deerfield, IL (Reform)
• Michael Silbert ’12, Rabbi, Temple Beth David, Rochester, NY (Conservative)
• Stephen Slater ’18, Rabbi, Congregation Agudas Achim, Bexley, OH (Conservative)
• Talia Stein ’20, Associate Rabbi, Temple Sinai, Brookline, MA (Reform)
• Lila Veissid ’11, Regional Rabbi – Emek Hefer, Israel Reform Movement, Jerusalem, Israel, Israel (Independent)
• Josh Weisman ’18, Rabbi, Temple Beth Sholom, San Leandro, CA (Independent)
• Becca Weintraub ’20, Assistant Rabbi, B’nai Jeshurun, New York, NY (Independent)
• Yael Werber ’22, Assistant Rabbi, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, New York, NY (Independent)
• David Winship ’17, Rabbi, Temple Beth David of the South Shore, Canton, MA (Reform)

By Location

NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Israel

Hire Our Students and Alumni

Hebrew College has ordained over 100 hundred rabbis and cantors who are powerfully impacting the Jewish world. Our immersive program is rooted in the understanding that a strong spiritual leader is steeped in tradition, while at the same time engaged in the emergent needs of Jewish communities in the 21^st century. Hire our students as interns or our alumni as leaders for your community.

How to Post a Job

To post a full- or part-time job with us, please email a job description and salary range to jobsboard@hebrewcollege.edu. If you would like to discuss our program or placement process, please include a phone number where we can reach you.

>> Learn more 

Meet Our Alumni

Nobody Can Make It Out there Alone

Rabbi Suzie Schwartz Jacobson`15, rabbi at Temple Israel of Boston, offered this teaching for Hebrew College’s Elul Together 5780 Project.

Jewish Approach to Climate Change

Rabbi Josh Weisman`18 is a Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at Kavana Cooperative in Seattle, WA, where he “is thrilled to be working” because the organizations reflect his approach to Jewish community. Rabbi Weisman recently help organize the 2020 Seattle Jewish Climate Festival around Tu BiShvat with 16 organizations, and 18 events. Prior to rabbinical school, he worked for 12 years in non-profits, mostly as a grass-roots organizer. During that time, he worked for several years as a congregation-based community organizer—where he experienced the power of religious communities to transform the world and transform themselves in the process—and later helped launch a Jewish start-up.

Read more about his work with the Seattle Jewish Climate Festival 

Sweetness in Elul

Jewish chaplain and beekeeper Rabbi Suzanne Offit`09 offered this teaching on cherishing the small moments for Hebrew College’s Elul Together 5780 Project.

In the Field

In this Elul Together video by Rabbi Elisha Herb ’16, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Salem, OR , he takes us into the field, with wind and rain in the background, for a short Torah teaching.

A Chavruta for Jewish Learning

Rabbi Sarah Tasman`12, is the founder and CEO of the Tasman Center for Jewish Creativity which offers in-person and online resources for those seeking meaningful, accessible, and personalized Jewish learning, community classes & gatherings, and private spiritual coaching and rabbinic support. While in rabbinical school, she found herself exploring the questions: “What makes a meaningful Jewish learning experience? How is Jewish learning a spiritual practice?  How can you connect Jewish spirituality, learning, and creative expression? That experience deeply impacted her work as a trans-denominational rabbi, creative spiritual educator, and Jewish entrepreneur. “My work embodies “Jewish creativity,” one of Hebrew College’s core values. ‘Creativity,’ inspired the name of my organization,” she says. Today, she incorporates experiential Jewish learning, Jewish mindfulness, creative expression, and ritual in her work.

Read more about Sara

From The Piano to the Pulpit

After a prominent role in Roman Polanski’s acclaimed 2002 Holocaust film ‘The Pianist,’ Jessica Kate Meyer`14 was poised for a screen career. But that star turn ultimately sent her in a very different direction.” She became a rabbi, serving at Romemu in New York City and currently serves as rabbi/chazzan at The Kitchen in San Francisco, CA. Watch her creative musical prayer leadership style in this video.

Watch Jessica in action
Read more in this The Boston Globe story

Capacity to Love

Rabbi Philip Sherman`13, rabbi at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, MA, offered this teaching for Hebrew College’s Elul Together 5780 Project, asking, “Where can we make space for love and learning in our busy lives?”

Building Connected Communities

Rabbi Phil Bressler`18 is the spiritual leader of Beit Am Jewish Community in Corvallis, OR (in the Mid-Willamette Valley), where he is helping to grow the congregation and, he says, is “inspired by young people engaging with Judaism — particularly those who are active in politics and in social justice work.” Among his many goals for his congregation and its relationship with the community, he hopes to cultivate a new generation of leaders with vision for this place. “Part of that is education, part of that is empowerment….to make Beit Am the best possible version of Jewish community in Corvallis,” he says.

Read more about Phil

Finding Judaism

Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum`13 found Judaism nearly a decade after she started practicing. She began observing Shabbat when she was 11 — because she thought it made sense to rest on Saturday and work or shop on Sundays — and she could never understand why her Catholic school teachers told Bible stories out of order. She also developed her own system of kashrut…

After several years leading Temple Har Zion in Mt. Holly, NJ, in the summer of 2019, she will return to the Boston area as Director of Congregational Learning and Programming at Temple Beth Zion (TBZ) in Brookline, MA.

Read more

Music and Chesed

Rabbi David Fainsilber`14, spiritual leader of The Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, VT, uses music to bring chesed to his congregation, The Jewish Community of Greater Stowe, VT.

The Teshuvah of Missed Connections

Rabbi Gita Karasov`20, Hebrew College Director of Ordination Program Admissions, asks how we can work to mend our missed connections in this teaching for Hebrew College’s Elul Together 5780 Project.

Illuminating Life of Campus

As rabbi and educator at Harvard Hillel, my goal is to regularly interrupt people’s lives with moments of meaning, connection, and liberation. That could mean teaching classes with clever names like Shal-Om and Jew Curious, or counseling students in need. The work is most rewarding, he says, when he helps students “take risks to aid in their own growth and to strengthen the good of the world.

– Rabbi Getzel Davis`13, Rabbi and Educator, Harvard University Hillel.

Read more

Blending clinical and spiritual approaches to work

As a child in Long Island, Margot Meitner`14 planned to be the first Jewish female supreme court justice. The grandchild of Holocaust survivors, Margot wanted to study law so she could help oppressed and marginalized people, indulge her passion for public speaking and her love of learning, and make a difference in the world. But after Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, young Margot decided on a new career plan: Rabbi.

Read more about Rabbi Meitner

Combining Prayer and Art

Entrepreneur Rabbi Adina Allen`14 and her husband Jeff Kasowitz founded the Jewish Studio Project in 2015 in Berkeley, CA. “Engagement in Jewish text, ritual and tradition in this nonverbal way helps me access ideas and feelings and concepts — internal wisdom that the art-making can tap into,” says, Rabbi Allen. According to Allen, it feels like praying when groups come into the studio to work with paint: “We ask for what we want, need, need to discuss, and then we need to let it go and see what gifts come back.”

Read more  in this The Jewish Telegraphic Agency article

Extending the “Magic” of Hebrew College

When Rabbi Jordan Schuster`18 first came to Hebrew College, he experienced “a unique kind of magic.” At the time, Schuster, then 33, was managing a yoga studio in San Francisco, while taking time off from his doctoral work on Yiddish and Hasidic Literature at Columbia University. He was searching for his path, and while he had contemplated rabbinical school since college, he had doubts about his own ability to support and care for a community as a rabbi, since he had felt alienated from the Jewish community for much of his childhood…

“My relationship to Judaism was mostly solitary up to that point. My prayer-life was entirely individual, be-yahid,” said Schuster, who grew up attending a non-denominational day school and reform and conservative synagogues in Milwaukee. “Growing up, I was an awkward, extremely flamboyant gay kid. I didn’t feel like Jewish communal life had a place for me. Nor did I feel like Jewish communal life did a great job of making me feel like I had a place in it. So I steered away from participating in formal Jewish community…”

Read more about Rabbi Schuster

Courage Coach

In addition to being the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego, CA, Rabbi Alyson Solomon`09 is also part of a growing group of independent, private practice rabbis. In addition to her official rabbi duties, Rabbi Solomon offer courage coaching — helping people whether they are “about to climb a mountain, bury a friend, write a novel or have a baby.”

Read more

Second-Career Rabbis

Rabbi Sonia Saltzman`08
Former microfinance executive at ACCION International and spiritual leader of Congregation Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, MA.

Rabbi Sonia brings an uncommon level of wisdom, coupled with a refreshing and non-egotistical, down-to-earth approach to her rabbinate. She is very easy to relate to. As a result, she has touched people in so many ways. Rabbi Sonia fills so many of the positive qualities that you think of when you think of a rabbi. She is sincere. She is caring. She practices what she teaches and she believes it.

– Len Davidson, Past President, Temple Ohabei Shalom

Joel Baron“14
Hospice Chaplain, Hebrew SeniorLife, Dedham, MA
Former Publisher, New England Journal of Medicine

What makes Joel special is his genuine and his honest caring of other human beings. Some people can fake it really well. Joel is not faking it. What I felt from his affection and his warmth was real, and I never felt like he was telling me the things I needed to hear. It felt like he was really speaking to me personally and to who I was and what I was going through…His knowledge and spirituality also makes him unique. He never pushed it on us. He offered it. He spoke of it. And he let us take what we needed from it.

– Helen Rodar. Rabbi Baron was a hospice chaplain for her mother.

Rabbi Dan Berman `10
Former attorney and current spiritual leader at Temple Reyim, Newton, MA

Rabbi Berman genuinely cares about every member of our congregation. He is wise, and thoughtful, and seeks to build connections within the Reyim community as well as with the wider Jewish community and beyond. I feel privileged to have him as our rabbi.

– Leslie Sherman, Temple Reyim member

Alumni Music

Listen to “Amar Amar” from the Rabbinical School’s 10th Anniversary CD Galeh. Jessica Kate Meyer (producer, vocals), Micah Shapiro (producer, recording engineer, cajon), Matt Schwartz (electric guitar), Noah Aronson (producer, mixing). Based on music by Moishe Oysher. Text from Talmud Bavli Brachot 64a.

More Than a Decade Young

The Rabbinical School was founded in 2004 and now has over 100 graduates serving communities all over the world. This video was created in 2014, in celebration of the Rabbinical School’s 10th anniversary. Then Rabbinical School Dean, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, is now President of Hebrew College.