Tagged Hebrew Union College

So you’ve decided to become a rabbi…

Newly ordained rabbis from Hebrew Union College's class of 2013 in Cincinnati celebrate with their ordination certificates outside the historic Plum Street Temple. (Janine Spang)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Dear Friend, I understand you’re thinking of becoming a rabbi. Mazel tov! Getting into a seminary shouldn’t be too hard. During the decade between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, four consequential new rabbinical schools opened in America: the liberal Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale, N.Y.; the Conservative movement’s… Read more »

Rabbinic sisterhood: 3 rabbis now in Chernow family

Rabbinic sisterhood: Three rabbis now in Chernow family (Jewish News of Greater Phoenix)

(Jewish News of Greater Phoenix) — When Ilana Mills was 16 years old she had an epiphany: “I want to be a rabbi.” At first, she worried the only reason she wanted to follow that career path was because her two older sisters had talked about becoming rabbis. “I… Read more »

Pulpit pioneer: Sally Priesand ordained as first female rabbi in U.S. 40 years ago

Rabbi Sally Priesand (Courtesy Sally Priesand)

(Cleveland Jewish News) — When Sally Priesand became the first woman to be ordained a rabbi in the United States on June 3, 1972, she had no intention of being a pioneer. “I didn’t think about breaking any barriers or championing women’s rights,” Priesand told the Cleveland Jewish News… Read more »

What’s in a word? For ‘ordained’ rather than ‘invested’ cantors, a lot

Josh Breitzer, left, is invested as a cantor by Rabbi David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. (Photo Courtesy HUC-JIR)

(JTA) — What’s the difference between investiture and ordination? Plenty, say officials at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, which has announced that for the first time since establishing its cantorial school in 1948, it will ordain rather than invest its graduating class of cantors. Six… Read more »