Shalom Hartman Institute is opening a multi-denominational rabbinical program that will ordain men and women from all denominations to work as rabbi-educators in community Jewish high schools across North America.
Those ordained in this program will receive the title of "Rav Mechanech" (Rabbi-Educator).
The decision, says Shalom Hartman Institute co-director Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, comes from the need to produce outstanding rabbinic educators who are able to communicate a compelling vision of Judaism for today’s American Jewish teenagers.
"Jewish high schools need rabbinic figures who have been specifically prepared to work as leaders in schools, rather than for the congregational pulpit," he says. "Through this program we will offer the field a cadre of new educational leaders."
Part of Melamdim
Shalom Hartman Institute is a pluralist, multi-denominational institution, whose world-renowned faculty includes some of the finest scholars of our generation. Its rabbis will be prepared to function in all communal denominational contexts.
The four-year ordination program is part of Shalom Hartman Institute’s
Melamdim teacher education program.
Melamdim – a two-year Master of Arts program in partnership with Tel Aviv University – prepares teachers for Israeli and North American high schools of all denominations.
Melamdim is the only Jewish education program in the world in which both Israeli and American students from across the religious spectrum study a curriculum that is built around the specific needs of high school teachers.
The new program will provide students with a degree that includes rigorous graduate-level Jewish studies, extensive training in educational theory and practice, and ongoing mentored field experience. Program participants who enter the rabbinic-educator track will spend a total of four years of intensive study at Shalom Hartman Institute.
Click
here to read a detailed article on the program, including an interview with Donniel Hartman, from the Jewish Week of New York.
The Jewish Standard of Teaneck, New Jersey, also has published an
extensive article about the program.
