Community:
Become a Rabbi

There are currently 83 students enrolled in the Hebrew College Rabbinical School. The program has a full slate of classes, ranging from Mekorot (preparatory) through the fifth and final year.

Age

Average: 30
Range: 23-66
Median: 29

Family Background

Jewish Educational Background

Country of Origin

United States*: 77
United Kingdom: 1
Australia: 1
Canada: 3
France: 1

*States represented:

Degrees Attained Prior to Attending Rabbinical School

J.D., Washington College of Law, American University
M.A., Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University
M.A., Jewish Studies, Columbia University
M.A. in Peacebuilding, Hartford Seminary
M.B.A., Harvard Business School, Harvard University
M.Div., Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University
J.D., Harvard University
M.A., Jewish Studies, Hebrew University
M.B.A-M.A., Jewish Professional Leadership, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, Brandeis University
M.A. in International Relations, Kings College, London
M.B.A., Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.A., Religious Studies, Naropa University
M.A. in Policy, Organization and Leadership Studies, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
M.B.A., Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
M.A. in Security Studies, Tel Aviv University
M.Ed.,, Tufts University
M.A. in Higher Education and Organizational Change, UCLA
M.Div., University of Chicago Divinity School
M.A. in Voice, University of Michigan
M.S.W., University of Minnesota
M.Div., Yale Divinity School, Yale University

Colleges and Universities Attended*

Organizational, Educational and Work Experience Prior to Rabbinical School*

All are Welcome

Our learning and community is infused with a commitment to welcoming and affirming Jews of all races, sexual orientations and genders. We strive to hear and lift up the voices of marginalized communities to help create a more whole Jewish community. In addition to our strong and growing alliance to LGBTQ Jews and causes and anti-racism work, we also offer a mentorship program for LGBTQ students, pairing them with LGBTQ alumnae for regular discussion and support around challenges of navigating the rabbinate and world as an LGBTQ rabbi.

Student Cohorts

In addition to engaging with others in the Beit Midrash and classroom as we learn, each week we gather as a school to celebrate the successes and share the challenges people are experiencing.

Class cohorts also meet weekly to take the measure of their studies and their lives. Beyond the school week, we cultivate a joyous collective responsibility for one another, celebrating Shabbat, holidays, and other s’machot (joyous occasions) in one another’s homes. We call our cohorts: Mekorot, Shanah Aleph, Shanah Bet, Shanah Gimel, Shanah Dalet and Shanah Heh.

Kavanot in 60

Visit our Kavanah in 60 page  to view “short teachings” (~60 seconds) by our rabbinical students coinciding with Jewish and secular holidays.

Meet Some of Our Students

Alyx Bernstein, From British Orthodoxy to American Conservative Judaism

Born and raised in London (and a proud adopted New Yorker), Alyx (she/her) spent her last two years at The Jewish Education Project, where she supported and enriched Jewish educators and education across North America. Alyx is a graduate of Barnard and JTS, where she received dual degrees in Comparative Literature and Talmud, otherwise described as “books” and “more books but in Aramaic.”

Her Jewish journey has taken her from British Orthodoxy to American Conservative Judaism, through Keshet, Hadar, and SVARA. She serves on the board of Keshet and is a two-time member of SVARA’s Teshuva Writing Collective. Her favorite things about Judaism include abstruse halakhic deep-dives, reading the Tanakh in Greek, Jewish food, and the Jewish people. Alyx’s other loves include sci-fi/fantasy, spy novels, Eurovision, baking, and Liverpool Football Club.

Hannah Gelman, Urban Farmer

Hannah (she/her) was born and raised in New Orleans where she worked as an apprentice on an urban power farm. After graduating in 2022 with undergraduate degrees in Religious Studies & Judaic Studies, she worked working on farms and wineries in Italy, training as a yoga teacher in Greece, and hiking 500 miles across northern Spain — finding several Jewish spiritual and learning homes along the way —studying for a semester at Pardes in Jerusalem, working at Lehrhaus and Dorshei Tzedek in Boston, and recently participating in the Adamah Farm Fellowship. She loves song-led davening and rituals oriented towards hiddur mitzvah, and is interested in how Jewish wisdom intersects with the Torah of the natural world,and what that can teach us about how we can more compassionately inhabit our communities. In her free time, you’ll find her baking cakes and/or touching grass.

Aaron Berc, Community Organizer

Aaron  (he/him) hails from Minneapolis, MN, where he’s spent most of his life—aside from four years at the University of Kansas studying environmental studies, physics, and college basketball. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! The Rabbinate is Aaron’s third career. He comes to Hebrew College after a five-year stint in corporate regulatory compliance at Ecolab Inc., and another five years as a community organizer with Jewish Community Action. Recently, Aaron’s organizing work helped win a Rent Control Ballot Initiative in Minneapolis after five years of movement cultivation helping the Twin Cities Jewish Community make an impact on issues facing renters, fighting gentrification, and seeking equitable community development. Aaron has long chased the next transformative Jewish experience; from Jewish summer camp to USY, and from Jewish organizing to The Adamah Fellowship—he finds value in sharing experience, song, food, and love. He recently completed a Certificate in Jewish Ethics and Social Justice from The Jewish Theological Seminary, and is excited to continue to deepen his Jewish learning & practice over the course of the next six years. Most recently, he was the Rabbinic Community Engagement Intern at Shir Tikvah Minnesota. Aaron is motivated by seeking harmony—harmony of the soul, harmony in relationships, harmony between all living things, & harmony on high.  Aaron likes the Minnesota Timberwolves, playing basketball & ultimate frisbee, going for a run, hiking, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and many other items of pop culture ephemera he can make meaning out of.

Elly Bovarnick, Fiber Arts & Jewish Ritual

Elly (she/her) was born and raised in Florida, but this is not her first time facing the harsh Boston winters. Life has taken her from Tampa, FL to Israel (Jerusalem and Kfar Hasidim); Sarasota, FL; Cambridge, MA (where she became obsessed with Veggie Galaxy); Sarasota again; a solo backpacking trip around Asia and Europe; then finally to Spain where she lived for four years in Madrid, Granada, and Leon. She graduated from New College of Florida with a degree in Art and Art History and completed her Master’s degree in Textile and Surface Design in Madrid at the Instituto Europeo di Diseño. She owns her own business (Elly Bovarnick Studios) where she makes and sells a variety of art, but primarily tallits and other related fiber art. Elly is passionate about art, designing new ways to think about Jewish ritual, hosting people in her home, cooking yummy food, learning languages, travel, along with many more hobbies.

Carrie Watkins, From Pardes to Hebrew College.

Carrie (she/her) started Hebrew College in Jerusalem in fall 2021. Her laundry list of educational institutions looks something like this: Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies (2 non-consecutive years), Hadar, Romemu Yeshiva (two mind-altering summers), MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (Master’s degree in City Planning), Brandeis University (undergrad). Professionally, she spent several years in Boston managing a large team in a fast-growing solar start up. She has since slowed way down and currently works part time with Or HaLev Jewish Spirituality and Meditation. Carrie delights in wild adventures. In another life, she would probably be one of those people who lives in a van and surfs and/or climbs all day.

Daniel Brot, Historian

Daniel (he/him) is excited to be want to bring his passion for modern history and Judaism to his rabbinate. While doing undergraduate at William & Mary he studied the Sunday Sabbath movement for his Religious Studies degree., and then researched the roots of Cultural Jewish identity in America for hisy Masters degree at Oxford. He wants to keep finding, sharing, and making historical knowledge relevant to today. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, he credits summer camp at OSRUI for fostering  his brand of Reform Judaism. When he’s not waxing poetic about Judaism or history, he loves to play board games, Ultimate Frisbee, read and play guitar.

Saffie Kaplan, From Coast to Coast

Saffie (she/her) has lived all over the country, from the beaches of Santa Monica to the mountains of North Carolina to the hills and valleys of Texas. She majored in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin (hook ‘em!) where she wrote her thesis about midrash on the story of David and Batsheva. In Austin she was a committed member of Congregation Agudas Achim where she frequently leyned and led services; her proudest achievement was organizing three highly successful Pride Shabbats during her time at CAA. Outside of Jewish life, she loves to read, sing, make art, play video games, and look at pictures of her dogs. Her proudest non-Jewish achievement is having a New York Times crossword streak of over 1,000 days.

Hannah Limov, Land-based Judaism

Hannah (they/she) spent the vast majority of their 20’s oscillating between the venn diagram of environmental education, Jewish education, and social work in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in and around Asheville, NC; working as a wilderness therapy field instructor, fighting and advocating against domestic and sexual violence, and learning deep Torah from religious school students at multiple synagogues, among other things. She additionally sunk deep into the world of land-based Judaism through the Adamah Fellowship, serving as a Teva educator, and spending a season living, working, and building community at Yesod Farm + Kitchen in Fairview, NC. They received their BA in Environmental Studies and Cultural Anthropology from CU Boulder, their Master of Social Work from Western Carolina University, and have additionally loved learning with SVARA. Having spent the past several months living at home caring for their 100-year old Grandmother (who is still thriving and trying to get rid of her walker every chance she gets), Hannah has learned the never-ending value of family stories, the magic of libraries, and a good hot dog. You can often find them digging their hands deep into the soil tending to plant babies, hiking/backpacking in the woods listening to the song of the blackbirds, singing joyously and off-key with friends, or cuddling and obsessing over her kitties Lily and Padfoot.

David Malamud, Recovering Academic

David (he/him) fell in love with Hebrew College while transitioning out of a PhD in Religion at Boston University, working on a dissertation on ancient Jewish crap (yes, he wrote about excrement, ask him about it). Over the course of a brutal global pandemic and comprehensive exams, David decided to do something meaningful with his time and learn Talmud instead. As a recovering academic, David has spent summers bouncing around institutions, learning at JTS and Hadar. Previously, he completed his Bachelor’s of Arts degrees in Jewish Studies, History, and Classics from the University of Maryland, College Park. Starting last year, David has worked as the Rabbinic Intern at Boston College Hillel. He loves guest lecturing in classes, working in multi-faith spaces, and of course, getting free coffee with students! In his spare time, David enjoys reading, tending to his balcony garden, and terrorizing the local turkeys of Boston with his trusty companions Lilah (dog) and Rebecca (wife).

Becca Heisler, Outdoor Educator, Folk Herbalist, Youth Mentor

Becca is an outdoor educator, ritualist, caregiver, youth mentor, and folk herbalist who loves to be outside, and loves to laugh. Originally from the homelands of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations (the Chicago area), she has spent the past 5 years making home in Lisjan Ohlone territory (Berkeley/Oakland, CA). During this time, she has been facilitating Jewish outdoor education programs and guiding earth-based rites of passage for youth K-12 and adults of all ages with Wilderness Torah. She has spent the last year committed to the work of Jews on Ohlone Land, organizing the Jewish community in solidarity with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. Becca just finished a 6,000-mile cross-country road trip, swimming in every lake, river, pond, and ocean she encountered. She’s excited to greet the waters that flow through Boston & the surrounding area!

Tim Motz, “Brit” in Boston

Tim (he/him) is a self-proclaimed “Brit,” transferring from London to Hebrew College to begin his rabbinic studies. His Jewish learning so far has taken him to Jerusalem and London, and is excited to join Hebrew College’s pluralist community. He is part of the UK Masorti movement, where he plans to return after his studies. He’s also studied as a ba’al tefillah with the European Academy of Jewish Liturgy, and is passionate about traditional nusach (prayer-chanting). Previous jobs have included government (UK/EU), social enterprise, tech, and as as a pianist. He likes cycling—and as a social democrat approved deeply of the cycle lanes when I visited Cambridge. He’s also a fan of outdoors swimming, hurling himself into very cold water in the middle of winter!

Talia Young, Earth-Based Judaism

Talia Young (she/her) began learning in Shanah Aleph in fall 2021. She headed to Boston with homes in the Bay Area, the Twin Cities, and Falls Village, CT. As a Teva Educator at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Talia fell in love with earth-based Judaism and building community through immersive experience. From her work facilitating brave spaces to the communal home she shares with twenty people, she’s committed to radical interdependence. She loves spontaneous kitchen conversations and learning from the wisdom of plants.

Or Levinson, Performance Artist

Or (Laura) (they/them) is an artist, organizer and antiracism facilitator working at the nexus of culture, deeply rooted politics, and spirituality. They have been based in Minneapolis for the past decade. Their most recent staged work, DOIKAYT: a velt mit veltlekh, was commissioned as part of Red Eye Theater’s Isolated Acts series. Past workshops and performances have included DOIKAYT: gedenktentz, an interactive outdoor performance featuring klezmer music, Yiddish folk dance, and themes of Jewish diaspora and the search for home, belonging, and solidarity on Dakota land; DUMPSTER FIRE: An Evening of Queer and Trans Performance at Franconia Sculpture Park; and Swimming Home, a workshop co-created with Palestinian-American choreographer Leila Awadallah and following the threads of diaspora, ancestry, and body-as-homeland. For seven years, Or worked with Don’t You Feel It Too?, a public movement project transforming peoples’ relationships to body, land, and history through immersive art experiences. For the past two years, they have thoroughly enjoyed working in the Youth and Family Education department at Shir Tikvah synagogue, and have taught 9-12 graders in the dance and theater departments at the Saint Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts. They are a minimally but enthusiastically practicing herbalist, and can be found wandering in the woods whenever time allows.

Rayden Marcum, Tikkun Olam

“I’m Rayden Marcum (he/they), from Northern California. Having grown up in a lay led congregation, I started leading services at age five, and I am eager to begin my formal training to become a better community resource and leader. I graduated from Humboldt State University in 2017 with a BA in Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a passion for community outreach and education about trans and queer issues. I did advocacy work during high school and college and then spent the better part of three years traveling and living abroad to learn more about the world and cultivate a sense of the world that decentralizes my own experiences. In my travels, I dedicated myself to learning Spanish (mostly in Ecuador) and Hebrew (nearly a year in Israel). In my down time and more settled moments I love learning new crafts, snuggle time with my birds, baking, rock climbing and spending time outdoors both in my garden and exploring wild spaces. I enjoy living spontaneously and use my love of photography to help me slow down and notice the small things.”

Rachel Steinberg, Music & Advocacy

“I’m Rachel (she/her). I’m originally from northern New Jersey but then I went to Brandeis for undergrad and never left the Boston area. I grew up Reform and was active in NFTY, acting as songleader and then a regional board member. I can play four instruments (piano, guitar, ukulele, flute) and speak four languages (English, Hebrew, Spanish, American Sign Language). I recently married a huge nerd at the Museum of Science, and we love to play board games and DND together. I love learning new things, making PowerPoints, and disability advocacy.”

Julian Cohen, Hebrew Linguistics Fan

Julian (he/him) grew up in Arlington, VA before moving to Appleton, WI to study Music and Gender Studies at Lawrence University. He was very involved with Hillel and, after a brief stint in an evangelical coffee shop, decided to reenter the Jewish professional world. Julian has spent the last two years living in Jackson, MS working for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, serving communities across the deep south, tutoring students for their b’nai mitzvot, eating lots of good barbecue and learning the proper time to use ‘y’all’ in a sentence. He’s thrilled to once again live somewhere with public transit and snow! Julian loves long hikes, bikes, and will gladly chat about the benefits of solar and wind technology. He’s fascinated with Hebrew linguistics and the antics of Talmudic rabbis. On a day off you can find him reading, playing horn, or baking something in the kitchen.

Boston’s Jewish Community

Hebrew College is located in Newton, just outside Boston, one of the leading regions of Jewish innovation and entrepreneurship.

“I didn’t think I would love Boston this much. Hebrew College has its fingers in so many Jewish and other institutions around Boston—synagogues, social justice organizations, musical spaces—that I can go almost anywhere and find a friend or connections.” – Rabbinical student from Pittsburgh

Home to the progressive federation Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Boston is blessed with a wide array of Jewish religious and social-justice institutions. Congregations — both affiliated and independent, established and start-up — abound. Day schools and supplementary Jewish schools are on the forefront of Jewish education. Hebrew College has developed strong ties with many of these institutions, giving students ample opportunities for internships during school and career options upon ordination.

Home to more than 60 colleges and universities, Boston has earned a reputation as the nation’s premier academic hub. With its myriad arts and cultural offerings, thriving nightlife and scenic beauty, the city is a great place to live and learn.

Boston is great for lovers of nature who want to spend time in the nearby mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont and the beautiful beaches of Cape Cod.