In the last 30 years, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion has graduated 100 Israeli Reform rabbis. That’s an average of three rabbis per year. However, just this year, HUC-JIR admitted 10 Israeli students, and there is already interest by others eager to join the program.
“The opportunities are huge,” says HUC-JIR president Rabbi Aaron Panken. “We’re getting a lot more traction and creating a sizeable amount of Reform leaders in Israel.”
Last month, HUC-JIR received a $15 million grant from San Francisco-based Taube Philanthropies to update, enhance and beautify its Jerusalem campus, which opened in 1952. Its building was erected on King David Street in 1963 to serve North American rabbinical students who were studying abroad in Israel, a mandatory aspect of the school’s rabbinic degree.
The Israeli rabbinical program was started in 1975 by HUC-JIR’s then-president Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, who determined that an Israeli-born-and-educated rabbinate could best address the nation’s need for, and expanding interest in, liberal forms of Judaism.
However, for decades the Reform movement struggled to penetrate Israel’s Orthodox-dominated society. In the 1980s, when Panken was studying in Israel, there were approximately 10 Reform congregations in the entire country. Today, there are 45 and on the High Holy Days as many as 60 services.
While there is no definitive demographic study of pluralistic streams in Israel, a 2013 report by the Israel Democracy Institute found that around 7 percent of Israelis define themselves as Reform. And a February 2016 study found 61 percent of the Israeli Jewish public supports official state recognition of Reform and Conservative marriages.
Until the last few years, many Israeli graduates of HUC-JIR’s program sought work abroad after graduation — in North America, Eastern Europe or other locations where Reform rabbis are more eagerly accepted. This too, says Panken, is starting to change.
The majority of HUC-JIR’s Israeli graduates are now staying in Israel, employed by area schools, community centers and social service organizations, the army and other programs. Some find that if they exercise a little bit of entrepreneurship they can secure pulpits or even roles as prestigious regional council rabbis.
Take Yael Karrie: She graduated from the Israeli program nearly three years ago. Today, she is the spiritual leader of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council in southern Israel.
Karrie, who grew up in Haifa disconnected from her Jewish roots, says she discovered Judaism during her army service when she befriended several Orthodox comrades. As she learned more about her faith, she was attracted to it, but she couldn’t accept certain Orthodox beliefs that don’t jibe with her secular values, such as feminism and respect for the LGBTQ community.
After serving in the Israel Defense Forces, she completed a bachelor’s degree in comparative religion at a local university and started staffing Birthright Israel trips. On one trip, her co-counselor was an active member of the Reform community in the U.S. and he inspired her to look into becoming a rabbi.
“I started going to different Reform congregations and thought about this decision in a really deep way,” Karrie recalls. “It took me about a year to realize that rabbinics was my calling — combining my socialist and humanistic values with my love of Jewish texts and Judaism in general.”
She enrolled at HIC-JIR in 2009. Three years ago, she landed her job with Sha’ar HaNegev, just about the same time that Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that Reform and Conservative rabbis could be regional rabbis and receive money from the government for their services. In that first year, Karrie and two others were hired for such roles — and two more the next year. Today there are eight Reform regional council rabbis.
“I am confident it will grow as more regionals councils become aware that they can choose to have a Conservative or Reform rabbi,” Karrie says.
She admits that at first her constituency was confused by seeing a female rabbi: “It was a very strange concept.” Today, all the children and most of the adults call her their rabbi.
“This is something I never thought would happen in Israeli society, or at least I thought it would take more time,” Karrie says. “But it is happening.”
Karrie says the key for Reform rabbis in Israel is to understand the unique communities they serve; they cannot implement American Reform Judaism in Israel. She works hard to connect to Israeli society, for example, by integrating Israeli songs into her services. There are no sermons — Israelis don’t like long speeches, she says — but instead discussion groups. Since her community is composed largely of kibbutz members, she spends a lot of time talking about God’s presence in nature.
Galit Cohen-Kedem, who graduated from HIC-JIR in 2014, now heads the Kehillat Kodesh v’Hol community in Holon. “There is a lot of work to be done,” she says. “Jobs are sometimes up to us — to create the need for us, to forge coalitions, to start organizations and to make a way for what we have to offer to Israeli society.”
Six years ago, Cohen-Kedem started at 10 hours per week. Today, she is almost full-time.
“The circles of influence are growing from the bottom up,” she says.
“There is a large population in Israel that is loosely affiliated religiously speaking,” says Tad Taube, founder of Taube Philanthropies. “It is easier for them to find affiliation in a Reform context than in an Orthodox one.”
Adds Panken, “Our rabbis are filled with hope. At HUC-JIR we are building an inspiring class of leaders to make the Israeli Jewish community better. It is an exciting time to be a part of this community.”
This piece originally appeared at eJewishPhilanthropy.com.