Is the Economy Killing off the Rabbinate?
JP seems to think so. Marvlin Henry of the Jerusalem Post writes that the money woes at JTS and HUC seem to be foretelling a crisis in American Judaism – of course, everything is a crisis in American Judaism these days, but okay, so what’s up?
He starts off with this hold-on-to-your-hats:
It is a precipitous moment for Jewish religious leadership in the US.While the problems are primarily financial, their impact appears to threaten the future of American Judaism.
Reform and Conservative seminaries – the institutions charged with providing the overwhelming majority of affiliated American Jews with their religious and educational leadership – face budget cuts so severe that their missions may be imperiled. The congregational arms of their movements also are in grave financial straits, and American rabbis generally face a shortage of jobs.
He throws in a mix of comments about Newsweek’s “hot rabbis” list, which some how takes us to HUC and the fact that it’s likely that they will cut their Cincinnati, Ohio campus, they are clearly about to, “sever [themselves] from [their] historical roots.” Nevermind that he ought to be looking at the story behind the story here… yes, there are some money problems with HUC, but HUC has been trying for decades to rid itself of Cincinnati, because the fact is that they’ve been for years, having to bludgeon students into going there. In various places in Ohio, there are some great opportunities for Jewish life (okay, well, really we’re talking Cleveland, but okay). No one really wants to go there. The faculty is aging (because most faculty don’t want to go there either), most of the students who go there are going there because they didn’t get their first choice location (NY or LA), and academically, old-style Reform rules the roost there. It’s much more likely that in fact, HUC is taking an opportunity to do something that they’ve wanted to do for ages, and kudos to them for it. Far from being a gasp from the dying, this is the move of a healthy organization that is looking to move forward and change. We reported all this before .
SO, then how about JTS? Well, it’s true that JTS is having some financial problems, they have frozen salaries, had to let some people go, and similar – on the other hand, does this foretell the death knell of American Judaism? Well, sure everyone is hurting, but AJU (back when it was UJ) had to make similar moves some time ago, and did they collapse? As a matter of fact, no. IN fact, while no one can argue that laying people off is a good thing, the evidence is that AJU survived the Time of Difficulty and appears to be thriving. It is, in fact, not even mentioned in the article, most likely because it isn’t at the moment having to make any of these kind of moves.
So what about the claim that all this is the death knell of AmJ? Well the argument seems to be this: there are fewer positions for rabbis in pulpits and day schools (I’m not sure the latter of this is true, but he asserts it), that despite the fact that American Jews depend upon these large institutions for leadership, they don’t recognize that they do, and he closes with this:
There need to be communal provisions that treat seminaries as essential to American Jewish life. They need to be safeguarded in stormy financial times. Instead, we have left the seminaries to sink or swim like any other Jewish organization, competing for donations in the Jewish “marketplace.” What a mistake.
Ever since the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, we have heard that the American Jewish future is in jeopardy. Every survey since has confirmed the fears.
There is something both sad and unnerving that the few institutions charged with reinvigorating and protecting American Jewish life by producing the next generations of rabbis, Jewish educators and philosophers are so vulnerable, when they are uniquely deserving of Jewish communal support.
The seminaries’ mission is sacred. Not only must their future be assured, but so must their ability to deliver stellar education to their students. If we fail to educate the future religious leaders and teachers from all streams of Judaism, we have no future as an American Jewish community.
Aside from the facts that we keep hearing -that JTS and HUC are the backbone of Judaism in the US ( certainly a part, but would Judaism really collapse without them? or would new institutions of a different form come to take their place?) is that all? IS there any reason we need to assume that the way we have done things so far is the best way, and it doesn’t keep on being just like that, the whole Jewish world will collapse?
The implication seems to be quit yapping about who gets to be a rabbi, there’s something really serious going on here! Just buckle down and get some more money to the institutions. BUt the truth is, if the institutions matter – which I believe they do- they will find ways to restructure and rebuild. And certainly there are a lot of people who think they matter – the number of people attempting to become rabbis through these (and other liberal denomination programs) isn’t shrinking.
If there are fewer jobs now, that isn’t necessarily either a permanent situation, or if it is, then maybe rabbis need to think more broadly about what it means to be a rabbi.
In traditional communities, rabbis weren’t full- (or really far more than full- in our world) time paid employees. They show up on shabbat, sure, and give a drash, but they don’t lead the service. They aren’t the only person responsible for visiting the sick, performing funerals and being all of the holy societies that have now been narrowed to the chevre kadisha for the dead – and the rabbis. They give a couple of shiurim a week, do a lot of studying and answer questions about Judaism. They have time to have full-time jobs doing something else on the side -usually teaching, but other things too. Why can’t we go back to that model? Why does the rabbinate need to be a 24-7 job?
The answer my friends, is exactly what the independent communities represent. I don’t know if all the hot and heavy reportage about the new phenomena or whatever this weeks panting coverage calls it has actually made that connection, but those independent communities don’t require the 1950’s style rabbis at all – maybe that’s what has people so upset. But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for rabbis – au contraire, lots of rabbis love to daven in and be a part of these communities too. And there are also lots of rabbis who aren’t necessarily taken up by the idea of sacrificing all their lives -and their families- to the kind of public life that this modern notion of rabbi – borrowed from the Christian ministry model- requires.
Folks, Judaism isn’t dying, it’s just growing. Can we stop worrying and get on with it?
“They have time to have full-time jobs doing something else on the side -usually teaching”
As a soon-to-be-minted rabbi who is moving back from Israel and applying for positions in the US, I have to say, even for rabbis who “think outside of the box,” it can be difficult. A local day-school has expressed a lot of interest in me, but I was shocked when I heard their salary range. I mean, for what they were offering, there’s no way that one could raise a family, much less afford to send one’s children to Jewish schools or camps. When I look at who’s currently teaching at this particular school, it’s no wonder that there are no rabbis on the faculty aside from in administration. A rabbi simply can’t afford to take that kind of salary unless s/he is single or has a working spouse. Where is the community support for providing salaries that rabbis in the community can actually live on to the people teaching our children about Judaism?
While I agree with much of you said, I think your conclusions near the end on independent communities are flawed. While there are exceptions, many (most?) independent communities haven’t figured out ways to replace full time rabbis (or other staff). They just don’t fill those roles at all. How many independent communities have organized groups for visiting the sick or running funerals? Even in the cases where they community has a formal structure, how many just have so few elderly community members that there are fewer sick people to visit. How many independent communities educate their own children without relying on neighboring synagogues or day schools?
There is value to rethinking the role of the rabbi and the roles other community members should play, but independent communities with minimal or no full-time staff is not a viable large-scale model.
There isn’t money to ensure that Yaakov teaches in day schools….but there is money to build mosaliums (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform–it’s the same problem)….what a tragedy.
Yaakov,
A rabbi simply can’t afford to take that kind of salary unless s/he is single or has a working spouse.
On the exceptionalism of rabbis, why do they have the right to earn enough money to support a family on the single salary, which is something a good portion of middle class or even upper/middle white collar workers can’t do? You didn’t state the actual salary range, but if your school led you to believe you’d earn enough money to fully support a family immediately after smicha, then either they lied to you or your definitions of livable salary are different.
My local Conservative shul is offering 130,000 with no other benefits for a senior rabbi position. The job has been available for months. The position has yet to be filled. In fact only one rabbi was brought in for a weekend tryout. Are we being cheap?
Who would want that kind of job? And how many Jews under 45 are actually interested in these kinds of synagogues?
Kishkeman,
Depends, what city are you in? In NYC or San Francisco, yes, in LA, probably, anywhere else, maybe, maybe not. But there are lots of other factors that rabbis pay attention to when they look at positions:: is there a day school nearby? Can I afford it on my salary? Do I get health for my whole family or just me? Does the Jewish community support a rich Jewish life, or are we going to be the only people celebrating shabbat -alone, in our house after shul- each week? Are there colleagues anywhere nearby that I can study with? If the rabbi is single, they might want to know if there are other shuls nearby where they can meet persons of the appropriate sex to date that aren’t tied in to their own congregation….Can my spouse find a job here/ if not, can we manage on one income? Etc.
And that’s just for pulpits, which, as I note, isn’t necessarily something that most young rabbis want because it’s a job that never ends 24/7, and can be very hard on the family in so many ways.
I don’t feel I can name the city because I am too close to what is going on, but I would think any Conservative rabbi could figure out the city and shul by contacting the RA.
Lot’s of jobs that jews in the pews have these days have a 24/7 feel. And in IMHO the rabbis that shy away from that aspect of a job in the rabbinate then why are they needed? Those rabbis can pay off their loans by working in Barnes and Nobles or flipping burgers. I could care less.
And while I agree that in many ways Jewish life is growing and not dying, IMHO a big albatross that gets in the way of Jewish life growing is that so many communities are stuck with their huge amounts of bricks and mortars – shuls, schools – hospitals perhaps etc. The old guard feels the need to feed these beasts. Many of them are those that control a lot of communal dollars and feel a strong commitment to keep their buildings open instead of doing the prudent thing that more of the younger generation wants which is to merge buildings and their mostly common causes.
In addition if rabbis want to feel needed by the community and they want regular shlubs like me who do have jobs that have a 24/7 feel to support you in compensatory way to your many years of schooling then you need to lead by creating communities that make financial sense. To me that can start by merging the Reform and Conservative movements and their shuls and schools today. Philosophy shouldn’t stop you. Only old money and old ideas do.
Kishkeman and KRG,
Your words seem to really ring true. Why is it, then, that more communities aren’t taking some of the steps you’ve both listed?
Is it that the leadership is really so out of touch with the younger generation?
Merging rabbinical schools across movements makes no sense. There are fundamental differences in entry criteria and curricula beyond movement philosophies. There is a marketable value to being able to say that a graduate of a specific school knows A, B, & C and can do X, Y, & Z. If that is lost then the merged school would be less valuable to its graduates than the sum of its parts.
As long as all schools find students who want to enroll, teachers who want to teach, and enough money to fund the school (even if times are sometimes tight), what’s the point of closing down a school? You might as well take any 2 colleges and say they should merge because they can.
As for buildings, I have complaints about some entrenched communal values, but a synagogue is a bunch of rooms. If you want to create a community use those rooms to create the community you want. If you don’t use communal dollars to build indy minyans, you don’t need community dollars to become a voice for change in synagogues. Whining from the outside and calling them mosaliums is immature and pointless.
I’ve been part of a synagogue that did a lot of the things you’re asking communities to do and I’m now part of one that tries and is working to be supportive of future generations. Talking about how all synagogues do X is as ridiculous as talking about how all indy minyans do X.
I don’t have experience with reform/conservative/orthodox shuls (if you don’t consider chabad orthodox), but this whole equation seems strange to me.
The job of a Rabbi as I understand it is to build community, to increase shabbos observance, to increase learning and mitzvos and to build Jewish institutions where they are needed. Looking for a community that already provides all these institutions and already has a large shabbos/kashrus observant membership seems very… entitled? What is the job of a Rabbi who enters such a model community? A dvar torah once a week and two weekly classes? That’s what you get paid $130k for?
dd – I don’t think that Rabbis are in any way exceptional, but in a city where the living wage for a single adult is over $10/hr, a full-time teacher in a Jewish day school is being payed $30,000 year. I’m not saying that rabbis are any more deserving of a decent wage than anyone else, but if our schools are trying to attract rabbis who have invested 4 years in an undergraduate education, plus an additional 3-6 years in rabbinical school, we’re going to have to offer a bit more that $30k/year if we want to have our children taught be acceptable, much less excellent teachers.
On the other hand, $130,000 for a rabbi of a shul seems a bit absurd.
$30K is low. $30K plus family health insurance is low but livable. $30K plus health insurance, but very reduced or free tuition for children in the school (a common perk) is low but reasonable. Don’t know your specific situation, but that school sure sounds like it needs to pay more if it wants good teachers.
$130K is a typical rate (at least according to a rabbi’s union) for rabbis leading medium synagogues (greater than 300 families). That cost might include a parsonage (a house or tax-free income for renting). The job can generally occupy 80 hours per week and includes many tasks that require working in the evenings or sudden things that require changes to personal plans.
Tasks include coordinating or leading services, teaching, visits to the sick, funerals, working with potential converts, counseling, staff management and synagogue governance. Even in synagogues with active lay leadership jobs like service organizing/leading might fall to others, but other parts like counseling and management might be larger. If this interests you, perhaps you should contact Kishkeman.
Firouz,
Most non-orthodox Rabbis do not want to be community builders/organizers. They want a built in community (congregation, school, elder care facility, etc)to serve. The job does require a lot more than you seem to realize, and is generally a more than full time career.
“The job of a Rabbi as I understand it is to build community, to increase shabbos observance, to increase learning and mitzvos and to build Jewish institutions where they are needed.”
Also:
-fund-raising
-marriage counseling
-weddings
-circumcisions
-bar/bat mitzvah preparation
-chairing committees
-community service/engagement
-funerals
-visiting sick and elderly
-conversion prep
-conflict mediation
-millions and millions of administrative tasks
-etc.
keep in mind that paying rabbis in schools more means that tuition goes up- which makes jewish education more expensive for families. which brings us back to the underlying conversation about the costs of jewish living…
keep in mind that paying rabbis in schools more means that tuition goes up- which makes jewish education more expensive for families. which brings us back to the underlying conversation about the costs of jewish living…
Maybe the community could spend less money on building holocaust museums, sending people on tours even if there’s no evidence they’ll ever do anything else ever again, spend money on the same singles events that produce no couples., buying gigantic buildings that people move away from and have to be sold at a loss…. If we took all that money and spent it on Jewish education, there’d be a lot more Jewish education at a better price. Cleveland seems to be able to manage it, why not the rest of the country?
How about quality serious education taught in after school programs or even after-school talmud torahs. It’s unquestionably a whole lot cheaper to send people to public schools for the secular subjects than hire people to teach these subjects in private schools. This idea has been abandoned for full day private schools at great expense to the community and to the detriment of the thousand of families who aren’t sending their children to private schools. If you’re attacking gigantic buildings that have trouble keeping up with fluid community demographics, you can’t exclude the entire concept of private day schools from criticism.
While some gigantic buildings are abandoned, few people built this buildings expecting such rapid demographic changes. The flight to the suburbs was unexpected and the moves back to cities was also unexpected. Hindsight is nice, but it can’t be used for long-term planning.
How about quality serious education taught in after school programs or even after-school talmud torahs. It’s unquestionably a whole lot cheaper to send people to public schools for the secular subjects than hire people to teach these subjects in private schools. This idea has been abandoned for full day private schools at great expense to the community and to the detriment of the thousand of families who aren’t sending their children to private schools. If you’re attacking gigantic buildings that have trouble keeping up with fluid community demographics, you can’t exclude the entire concept of private day schools from criticism.
Hear, hear!
Vague thought: If rabbis can’t find jobs, perhaps they could make their own?
What kind of enterprise could an entrepreneurial rabbi start?
A few thoughts on rabbis in the US:
I’m not sure why we actually need rabbis. Other than as halachic decision makers (something not mentioned above and only concerning a very small proportion of the community) none of the tasks listed above require a rabbi. It is not “the rabbi’s” job to visit the sick, give sermons or educate our children etc. These are obligations upon the community and don’t need to involve a rabbi.
Americans give far too much credence to the title of rabbi. A teacher will be paid more if they are a rabbi, even if they are less qualified than a ‘non rabbi’ teacher, which to me seems silly.
Daniel,
Who will teach others how to do all of the tasks that don’t actually require a Rabbi? The community has all kinds of obligations and not everyone can be a teacher/Rabbi. How we treat these people says a lot about who we are as a community. This could apply to the Jewish community as well as your local municipality.
Actually, Daniel’s point is well-taken. Halakhically speaking, a rabbi is required for very few things; weddings, for instance, which are the only close contact many Jews will ever have with a rabbi, don’t actually require a rabbi. Things like shul administration could, theoretically speaking, be taken care of by good administrators, as opposed to people with the title “rabbi.”
I guess I can see both sides of this. On the one hand, it seems like most Jewish communities can’t get it together to do the things that pulpit rabbis generally do. On the other hand, maybe if said communities didn’t have rabbis to depend on to do everything, they would get it together and provide these things for themselves.
It’s interesting how certain shifts – like the shift from rabbi-as-posek to rabbi-as-pastoral care provider – end up shifting the whole concept of what a good rabbi is. Many of the HUC rabbis I’ve met, for instance, seem significantly better at the administration/counseling/bikkur holim stuff than they are at, say, Gemara. And in their current situation, that’s not really bad, insofar as their congregants want weddings and sick visits and etc much more than they want Gemara. And this overall shift seems to affect the kinds of people who want to be rabbis; if your chief interest was lifelong engagement with textual sources, you’d probably go get a PhD in rabbinics, rather than go to rabbinical school.
So, I don’t know. But this is an interesting discussion.