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RABBIS-TO-BE FROM EVERY JEWISH DENOMINATION MEET
FOR EVENING OF JOINT STUDY AND DIALOGUE

By Andrew Silow-Carroll, Communications Director

The British playwright Arnold Wesker once wrote that "Hearsay is the conduit for stereotypes."

Replacing hearsay with real conversation was the goal when forty rabbinical students representing the Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform and independent Jewish movements gathered in Manhattan for an evening of joint study and dialogue.

The event, held Sunday, Nov. 21, was the academic year's first CLAL Student Chevra. The Chevra represents one of the few times during their professional training when rabbinical students and scholars can meet with colleagues from across the denominations. The attendees included 15 Conservative, 8 Orthodox, 10 Reform, 4 Reconstructionist and 3 non-denominational students.

The event was organized by the 17 students participating in CLAL's Rabbinic Internship Program. These 17 students, men and women currently attending rabbinical schools representing every branch of Judaism, take part in weekly seminars conducted by CLAL.

The exercise for the three-hour event was a discussion of a series of " I believe" statements compiled by the Interns, including, "Women can be simultaneously distinct and equal," "The Torah is Divine," and "Jews are the chosen people." The students were asked to divide up by denomination and anticipate to what degree their colleagues in other movements would agree or disagree with the statements. After these discussions, the students were brought together into one room, to compare what they thought they knew about the beliefs of their colleagues with their actual answers. Finally, the students were divided up again, this time in mixed groups, for a discussion of the impact of the exercise.

In their breakout groups, the students expressed discomfort about making generalizations about their colleagues and their own movements. That, however, was exactly the point of the exercise, according to Rabbi Jennifer Krause. "What does it feel like to be stereotyped, or to stereotype the other?" asked Rabbi Krause, co-director of the Rabbinic Intern program with Dr. David Kraemer. "Acknowledging these stereotypes is the first step towards getting past them."

The surprise for many of the students was how little unanimity there was even within their own movements about basic "belief" statements. "The members of my group all attend the same institution, but there is nothing in theory we had to agree upon to be in the same group," said a student at Hebrew Union College (Reform). "You realize that people pick a seminary not only to answer what they believe, but out of a constellation of choices: affinity, location, role models, gender."

Others found their stereotypes challenged by their colleagues' answers. "I was surprised how the Orthodox group defined themselves," said a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative). "I had most of my pre-conceived notions dispelled."

As a closing exercise, the students were asked to compose a one-sentence statement beginning with "I believe…" The responses included:

"I believe in the Jewish people."

"I believe clal Yisrael is the most important goal, and that it is amazing that we are all searching for it."

"I believe that truth and pluralism can coexist."

"I believe pluralism is elusive, but we're all struggling for it."

"I believe that we are more similar than we are different."

"I believe that questions open the conversation, and answers end it."

"I believe we will all be better teachers of Torah through conversations such as these."

For one Orthodox student, who lives in Brooklyn among the Satmar Hasidim, his "I believe" statement was as simple as it was sometimes difficult to acknowledge: "I believe talking to each other is good."

For those concerned about the possibility of Jews bridging the differences between the movements, the statements offered a vision of hope. For the participants, the Student Chevra provided a taste of the yearlong process experienced by CLAL's Rabbinic Interns. The students in the one-year program, most in their senior year of rabbinical school, meet weekly at CLAL offices. A hallmark of their seminars is frank discussion about the issues that divide them as Jews and rabbis-to-be. Just as often, however, the students learn to see one another not as antagonists, but as partners in building Jewish communities.

The 1999-2000 class of Rabbinic Interns includes rabbinical students from Yeshiva University (Orthodox); Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform); Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative); Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (Reconstructionist); and the Academy for Jewish Religion (multi-denominational). Also participating are students from the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, an institution where Orthodox women scholars learn classical text.

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