Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 15, 2024

Many people believe that you can only judge the vitality of an institution by its success during its second generation of existence. At 25 years young, my Orthodox rabbinical school, YCT, is now officially in its second generation. YCT has made waves for its intellectually open approach to halakha. How are things going so far? Well, a great place to look at our success rate is in the rabbinic job market.

In the rabbinic worldwhere I residejob season is now upon us. Jews need direction; we need to hear the voices of strong leaders. Especially during this time amid a resounding amount of discord, now more than ever we need leaders who exhibit love for all of klal Israel, the Jewish community.

Even before October 7th, the Jewish community was struggling after the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology has isolated us from one another, and we find ourselves more likely to be connected to other social media followers than to our own real-life neighbors. We are craving for community, and our lack of connection with our own heritage furthers us from our shared sense of Jewish identity.

Becoming a rabbi was a way for me to start addressing these deep communal needs. Yet the common wisdom when I entered YCT as a rabbinical student four years ago was that I would never get a job after I graduated. I heard from my friends to the religious right of myself that my yeshiva was not recognized in the Orthodox world and that employment would prove challenging. To the left, certain of my friends said that YCT was too hardline-Orthodox on some issues. Yet anecdotally, I could see that YCT alumni were making a hugely beneficial impact on the communities where they were working.

Clearly I entered YCT with some reticence, but I knew that it would be a great learning environment and that the institution would foster my growth and development as a rabbi. As for the job market post-graduation, I have ultimately been very surprised to have been proven wrong about my employment prospects. This summer, I will be moving to Miami to begin serving as the Base Miamis rabbi.

The job market for YCT grads is improving as more people come to see the value that our rabbis bring to congregations. Last year, an unprecedented number of synagogues opened their rabbinic searches to YCT rabbis. Some Orthodox institutions went as far as changing their by-lines in their shul constitutions to accept YCT rabbis.

Why is this much-needed change finally happening now? After COVID-19 hit, it seems that many senior rabbis took the opportunity to declare their retirement all at once. Those on the fence about retiring also left their posts in larger-than-expected numbers as well. This surge of openings eventually led to an overwhelm on the system, meaning that the rabbinic profession became a rabbis market more than ever.

At the same time, rabbinical schools have seen a decrease in their enrollmentsthis phenomenon in non-Orthodox denominations has received coverage. So essentially, there are more job openings and fewer applicants for those roles, coupled with a deeper desire post-October 7th to find community. The confluence of all these factors means that being a rabbi is totally in-season.

This past academic year, my job search has been an exciting journey, with many plunges into the unknown. A week after graduation, I now have the time to reflect on what has been a terrifying but rewarding process. As an applicant, the act of walking into new communities and being asked to meet hundreds of congregants and board members is not easy. It is also a challenge to attempt to forge an imagined future at each synagogue where I have interviewed in the span of short weekend-long visits.

As a job applicant, I prepared meaningful sample sermons and uplifting classes, while trying to remember the details specific to members of each community. It is deeply fear-inducing to have your entire being, personally and professionally, scrutinized during the rabbinic job search. At the same time, it was in this headspace of chaos that I felt reaffirmed that being a rabbi is truly the best job in the world. No two days are the same, you are always learning and growing, and you wont find more fulfilling work.

When the dust settled, I was fortunate to receive multiple opportunities. I ended up accepting an incredibly vibrant position as the rabbi of Base Miami, an organization that provides community and educational programming for young professionals in a metropolis whose Jewish presence is only growing. Base was founded by two YCT rabbis. Of course it was!

YCT rabbis can be found at the top of federations and at flagship shuls. These rabbis are highly sought-after at Hillels and in classroom spaces. YCT rabbis have versatility, emotional intelligence, and depth, and they can speak to the next generation.

In some professions, you stagnate. You become good at a particular skill and then you coast for the next 30 years. Not the rabbinate. Its designed to be a space where youre constantly fishing for new ideas and reaching deep into the riches of our corpus for pearls of wisdom. YCT has been the perfect place for me to develop these skills as a rabbi and now to use them full-time as I graduate. So, who wants to sign up?

Dvir Cahana is enrolled at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He founded the Moishe House in Montreal and sat on their regional advisory board. Dvir received Jewish Weeks 36 under 36 recognition for launching The Amen Institute, where artists and rabbis come together to inspire the creation of sermons and art work.

More here:

Calling All Rabbis: You Are Needed More than Ever - The Times of Israel

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