Future Reform Rabbinic Leaders Grapple with Questions of Collectivity and Jewish Peoplehood
The HUC Mandel Fellows, a group of 8 HUC rabbinical students who just completed a special year of studies in Jewish education, spent an intensive three week seminar this summer grappling with the challenges of leading congregational communities in North America and connecting them to the Jewish people globally. Over the course of the seminar, which took place at the Mandel Leadership Institute and Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, participants explored a variety of themes and issues related to these challenges.
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The program of study included lectures by scholars and leaders, reflection exercises, site visits, art and music, and encounters with vision-driven institutions and community leaders. Grounded in the work of the program, the seminar culminated in a series of roundtable presentations, in which fellows presented basic convictions concerning the significance of Jewish life that could meaningfully guide their deliberations and activities as rabbinic leaders. Rabbi David Ellenson, President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, arrived in Israel in time to participate in the roundtable presentations. |
HUC Mandel Fellows in Jerusalem |
“Rabbi Ellenson’s participation not only added to the high quality of the discussions but conveyed his deep commitment to the importance of this initiative in preparing these future Reform rabbis for their leadership roles,” said Professor Sara S. Lee of HUC-JIR, who is project-leader for the HUC Mandel Fellowship Program, together with Prof. Dan Pekarsky of the Mandel Foundation.
The HUC Mandel Fellowship Program is offered annually to a select group of HUC Rabbinic students who elect to complete an MA in Jewish Education at HUC after their third year of rabbinic studies and before completing the last two years of study toward ordination. Anchored in the belief that vital congregations depend on exceptional leadership, the HUC Mandel Fellowship Program is designed to cultivate rabbinic leaders with the qualities, understandings, and competencies needed to achieve two inter-related aspirations: to establish inspiring congregational communities that meet their members’ needs, and encourage their Jewish growth; and to help foster a social reality in which Jewish peoplehood is universally experienced as a vital and seamless whole that transcends denominational and geographical boundaries.
According to the concept paper that has guided the unfolding of this project, “The goal of this initiative is to create the capacity in a cadre of future rabbinic leaders to guide 21st century Reform congregations toward a vision of a compelling community, infused with Jewish values, enriched by Jewish learning, and capable of enhancing and perpetuating Jewish identity.”
To read more about the HUC-JIR Mandel Fellowship click here
