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CLAL's Rabbinic Internship Program Opens New Doors

By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs

Training emerging North American rabbis to build vibrant, pluralist communities remains at the core of CLAL's work. For fifteen years, CLAL's unique Rabbinic Internship Program has brought rabbinical students from all denominations together for ongoing study and open dialogue across boundaries.

With seventeen interns - CLAL's largest class ever - this year's program has continued to prove dynamic and inspiring in unexpected ways. Each week, two select groups of students from Yeshiva University (Orthodox), the Hebrew Union College Jewish - Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform), the Reconstructionist Rabbincal College, Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative), the Academy for Jewish Religion (non-denominational), Hovevei Torah (Orthodox), and Drisha (a non-denominational women's yeshiva) gather to learn from one another and to explore the changing landscape of American Jewish life.

An exciting change in this year's approach has been to pair interns with study partners from different movements. The partners meet four to five times a semester outside of the regular group sessions to study material of their own choosing. Many have taken it upon themselves to visit each other's seminaries for further enrichment and exposure to another facet of the Jewish world. Through this contact, new avenues for dialogue and bridge building have emerged.

"We have really deepened and expanded the program this year, and the quality of the dialogue reflects those changes," said Rabbi Jennifer Krause, who directs the program with Dr. David Kramer. "Just last week the interns had one of the most respectful and productive conversations about intermarriage that I have ever witnessed in American Jewish life. A few days beforehand, they led a group of fellow seminary students in an intellectually and spiritually engaging program on Torah and revelation that they spent weeks planning together. These future Jewish leaders are building a model of Jewish life based on possibilities and mutual trust, rather than on fear and suspicion."

Participants remain enthused and energized by their experience. Jewish Theological Seminary student Lauren Eichler observed, "I thought coming into this program I'd really learn more about others. But it turned out I learned more about myself. The program forces you to articulate your own convictions and commitments, and provides a safe, open space in which to do that."

She continued, "It also fills a major gap in the curriculum of many seminaries, namely thinking about religion in American society. It's one of the things we're not trained to do -- to explore the role of religion in a new way."

The program runs through mid-May. A new program will begin in September 2001.