The Pastoral Counseling Program For Rabbanim

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Mr. Manny Wertman, COO of Ohel, speaks to the Rabbanim at the first session of the Advanced Mental Health Training Program (October 29, 2008)

Rabbinical Training Program Alumni

INTRODUCTION
As a new generation of American Orthodox Jews seeks rabbinic leadership from among our own community, there exists a growing need for an experience-based in-service training program for both advanced rabbinical students and practicing pulpit rabbis who are still relatively new to the field. The rabbinic field, in the American Jewish community today, requires a broad range of skills and techniques and experiences that are generally not an integral part of the traditional yeshiva program.

The rabbinate of the Young Israel movement is ideally suited to address this need. Young Israel rabbis are drawn from the broad spectrum of the yeshiva world. The Young Israel Council of Rabbis is the most inclusive segment of American Orthodoxy and the typical Young Israel synagogue provides the broadest range of family and community services.

The Young Israel synagogue has become the prototype of the successful American Orthodox community. It serves the needs of old and young, men and women with programs and services that convey the rewards of authentic Torah living, within the context of contemporary American society.

THE NEED

The contemporary North American Orthodox Jewish community is blessed with many bright, well-motivated and academically accomplished rabbinical students who are eager to pursue a life of service to the Jewish community. Unfortunately, their formal rabbinic education does not train them in the specific set of skills and knowledge that such a calling would require. Rabbinic students generally are not given the opportunity to actually practice, officiate at, or perform the primary rituals of the Jewish life cycle and/or the functions of the pulpit rabbi. The Rabbinic Training Program provides both the specific training and the experience that serious rabbis need to qualify for positions in the field and to turn their dreams of community service into a reality.

THE GOALS

The goals of the Rabbinic Training Program include:

• Providing specific training and reference materials in those areas of particular use to pulpit rabbis, the traditional rabbinic education received in most yeshivot today.

• Establishing a continuing support and resource network of experienced and successful pulpit rabbis for all participants.
• Presenting opportunities for direct observation and hands-on experience in performing the basic tasks and skills of rabbinic service.
• Creating a resource for placement for members of the program

DETAILS OF THE PROGRAM

• The Rabbinic Training Program meets on 15 evenings (usually on Thursdays), November  to June from 5:00 – 10:00  p.m. Some additional on-site demonstrations may be scheduled.
•  We will (BE”H) match each participant with a Young Israel rabbi to share their rabbinic experience and to offer advice and direction.
• The program will BS”D meet at Lander College for Men in Kew Gardens Hills (Queens), New York.
•  The Rabbinic Training Program is limited to a maximum of 40 participants. Each applicant will be contacted and letters of acceptance will be sent soon after the application is reviewed.
•  Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. A post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Rabbinic and Synagogue Administration from Touro College will be awarded to participants who successfully complete the Rabbinic Training Program.
• There is a one-time $400 non-refundable application fee. With your application, please include a check payable to Young Israel Programs and, in the memo, indicate Rabbinic Training.
• Follows the  program schedule for 5768.  It will give you an idea of the topics to be presented and dates of the sessions (all subject to change). Additional days may be added if a session is cancelled because of inclement weather and/or requests by participants for extra meetings.

Click on the above links for program details!

For more information contact Rabbi Binyamin Hammer, Director of Rabbinic Services

212-929-1525 x104, bhammer@youngisrael.org