Reflecting on the growing shortage of Conservative and Reform clergy, Rabbi Joshua Rabin argues that the problem is unlikely to get any better. At its root, he explains, is the diminishing number of “potential non-Orthodox Jews”—that is, children attending synagogues and educational programs—of whom only a small percentage will go on to become rabbis. The solution, therefore, can’t be to change rabbinical seminaries, but to focus on synagogues, schools, and youth programs:
We cannot innovate our way out of this problem by creating another cohort, fellowship, or conference, nor can we hope that some new paradigm will emerge to replace all existing institutions. . . . The only way to address this problem, which has enormous implications for the Jewish world, is to stop ignoring the infrastructure and legacy institutions and give them the resources they’ve always deserved but rarely received.
In Bava Batra 21a, our sages credit Joshua ben Gamla with ensuring the vibrancy of Torah learning when he decreed that Jewish children should begin their studies at age six. . . . Non-Orthodox Judaism operates in an environment similar to the one Joshua ben Gamla encountered: there is institutional decay coupled with a Jewish populace largely deficient in Jewish literacy.
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