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First-ever empirical study of US rabbinate finds ‘shortage’ is more about fit than numbers
For years, synagogue leaders have said they can’t find enough clergy to fill their pulpits, leading to warnings of a nationwide rabbinic shortage. At the same time, openings for campus rabbis at Hillel chapters draw an average of 19 applicants each.
This mismatch between what rabbis want to do and the kinds of jobs available is among the many findings in the first-ever empirical study of the American rabbinate across denominations, released this week by the Atra Center for Rabbinic Innovation.
The study also examines the so-called “rabbinic pipeline” — the concern that declining enrollment at seminaries means too few people want to become rabbis. Here, too, the findings challenge conventional wisdom.
Surveying 450 people who considered the rabbinate but chose other careers, the study finds that lack of motivation was not a deciding factor. The most common barriers cited were the cost and duration of rabbinical school, the need to relocate, and concerns about the practicality of such a career.
In addition to these “would-be” rabbis, researchers surveyed nearly 1,500 others — including working and retired rabbis, current students, and seminary dropouts. They also interviewed leaders of rabbinical schools and associations, along with representatives of a wide range of rabbinic employers, while collecting recruitment and enrollment data.
Almost as notable as the findings is the diversity of those who took part. Participating organizations include every rabbinic institution from Reconstructionist and Reform to Conservative and Modern Orthodox, as well as all major non-denominational programs. Participation also came from umbrella groups representing Jewish summer camps, community centers, federations, and Hillel chapters. (Haredi Judaism was outside the study’s scope.)
“It’s a groundbreaking effort because there’s never been a comprehensive study of the rabbinate before, but it didn’t take much persuasion to get broad participation,” Atra’s executive director, Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein, said in an interview.
She described an eagerness to get involved that was motivated by years of debate about the issues addressed in the study. In one breakthrough, Atra convened dozens of leaders of institutions and programs that cultivate Jewish leaders and ordain rabbis, spanning the denominational range, for a brainstorming session about tackling the rabbinic pipeline.
“Everyone’s been trying to address the problems and the challenges, and we haven’t actually had any shared good information and data to help us do that,” Epstein said. “People actually want to work together on this, because they recognize that no one can do it alone.”
The study does not offer hard and fast solutions, instead positioning itself as a “mirror and a map” for collective action. Here are some of the highlights.
1. Only about half of all rabbis work in synagogues.
Those who do tend to find their job overly stressful and exhausting. Other kinds of rabbinical jobs offer much higher job satisfaction.
About 56% of rabbis are in pulpit jobs. The rest work for nonprofits, as chaplains, for day schools and universities or as independent entrepreneurs. The researchers spoke to 222 people who have held jobs in both categories. They said that working for a synagogue pays better but that, by every other metric of job satisfaction, working outside the synagogue is significantly better.
The study highlights this difference but also notes with a tone of reassurance and awe that 97% of all rabbis said their jobs are rewarding/meaningful.
2. After years of decline, rabbinical school enrollment appears to be stabilizing.
The widespread perception that the major denominational seminaries are graduating fewer students while newer and non-denominational schools are growing is validated in the study. The latter are now producing slightly more rabbis than the former. Over the past five years, enrollment declines at Conservative and Reform seminaries have stopped, suggesting that they’ve reached a new normal.
3. Most rabbinical students are women and most are LGBTQ. Many are converts.
Rabbinical students today reflect a far more diverse cohort than in the past. According to the Atra report, 58% identify as women, 30% as men, and 12% as nonbinary.
An estimated 51% identify as LGBTQ, a contrast made starker with survey data collected in the same study showing that only 15% of rabbis ordained 10 to 20 years ago are LGBTQ.
Meanwhile, 16% of rabbinical students are Jews by choice and 12% identify as a race other than white.
Both Atra and the researchers they commissioned to carry out the study caution against drawing sensational conclusions about the growing diversity. “There’s no data-driven evidence as to why it’s happening and what the implications of it are yet to be known,” Wendy Rosov, the study’s lead researcher, said in an interview.
4. Views about Israel or Zionism don’t factor heavily into decisions about whether to become a rabbi.
The past few years have seen some students drop out of rabbinical school in protest of what they say is anti-Zionism in the student body and dozens of students signing on to petitions that are harshly critical of Israel.
Atra didn’t collect data on how current and future rabbis feel about Israel. But it did check how whatever view they held factored into their motivation for the job. Only a small minority said they wanted to become rabbis as a way to promote Israel and an even smaller minority said they were worried of being silenced regarding their criticism of Israel.
The motivating factors people most often checked often were “a desire to serve others,” “I felt called by my love of Judaism,” “An interest in deepening their knowledge of Jewish text and traditions,” and “a desire to teach.”
5. A wave of rabbinic retirements is looming.
The Atra report estimates there are about 4,100 rabbis currently working across congregations, schools, nonprofits, campuses, and chaplaincies. But the profession is getting older only 6% are under 35, while a quarter are over 65.
With most rabbis ordained in their mid-30s and many staying in their roles for decades, the report warns that retirements may soon outnumber new entrants unless younger Jews are drawn into the field.
The report closes on a note of cautious optimism, calling for collective action rather than quick fixes. It outlines nine areas where collaboration could make the biggest difference — from easing the financial burden of rabbinical training to modernizing education, expanding non-congregational careers, and improving mentorship. Epstein is hopeful that the collaborative spirit embodied in the summer gathering could translate into shared solutions.
“This is a surmountable challenge,” she said.
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Rashida Tlaib Introduces Resolution ‘Recognizing Ongoing Nakba’
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Thursday reintroduced a congressional resolution recognizing the 78th anniversary of what she described as the “ongoing nakba,” using the Arabic term for “catastrophe” deployed by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
The resolution, introduced on the anniversary of Israel’s independence, accuses the Jewish state of carrying out “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid,” and “genocide” against Palestinians, language that many pro-Israel lawmakers in Congress and advocacy groups strongly reject as inflammatory and inaccurate. The measure also calls for renewed US support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), an agency that has faced mounting scrutiny from Israel and several Western governments over allegations that employees participated in or supported Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
In a statement announcing the resolution, Tlaib argued that the so-called nakba “did not end” with the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and continues today through Israeli military operations and settlement expansion.
“War criminal Netanyahu and his cabinet have repeatedly threatened to ethnically cleanse the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, annex the land, and permanently occupy it. Today, they are extending these same threats towards southern Lebanon,” she said, referring to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military operations against US-designated terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. “As we mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, we honor all of those killed since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began and all those who have been forced from their homes and violently displaced from their land.”
Activists often invoke the term “nakba” when discussing the displacement of some 750,000 Palestinian Arabs following Israel’s War of Independence, many of whom left the nascent state for varied reasons, including that they were encouraged by Arab leaders to flee their homes to make way for the invading Arab armies. At the same time, about 850,000 Jews were forced to flee or expelled from Middle Eastern and North African countries in the 20th century, primarily in the aftermath of Israel’s declaring independence.
Tlaib’s resolution is co-sponsored by several prominent progressive Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Ayanna Pressley (MA), and Summer Lee (PA).
The move is likely to draw fierce criticism from pro-Israel lawmakers and Jewish organizations, many of whom argue the resolution ignores the historical context surrounding Israel’s founding and the 1948 war. Israel accepted the United Nations partition plan in 1947 to create two states, one Jewish and one Arab, while neighboring Arab states rejected it and launched a military invasion after Israel declared independence.
The resolution also calls for a so-called Palestinian “right of return,” a demand insisting that potentially millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees should be able to return to the land of Israel, a step that, according to proponents, would result in the abolition of the world’s only Jewish state.
“This immense trauma, including the loss of their loved ones and connections to the communities they grew up in, needs to be repaired. True peace must be built on justice and the inalienable right of return for Palestinian refugees,” Tlaib said in her statement.
While refugees are generally defined as those who flee a country out of credible fear of persecution, UNRWA uniquely defines Palestinian refugees to include all descendants of those who left the land, regardless of where they were born.
Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of the US Congress, has emerged as one of Israel’s loudest critics on Capitol Hill, repeatedly accusing the Jewish state of genocide and drawing rebuke from fellow lawmakers.
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Toronto Sees 50% Drop in 2025 Hate Crimes, Yet 82% of Religiously Motivated Attacks Target Jews
A member of law enforcement personnel works at the scene outside the US Consulate after shots were fired, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 10, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. Photo: REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo
Even as Toronto recorded an overall decline in reported hate crimes last year, newly released data shows the city’s Jewish community continued to face disproportionately high levels of targeted antisemitism and violence amid an increasingly concerning social climate.
On Thursday, Toronto Police released its annual hate crime statistical report, showing that Jews accounted for 82 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes in 2025, compared to 14 percent targeting Muslims.
Even though the Jewish community makes up less than 3 percent of Toronto’s population, officials now warn that Jewish residents are 14 times more likely than other residents to be targeted in a hate incident.
With 81 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded, Jews and Israelis were the targets of 35 percent of all reported hate incidents in the city.
Despite a 50 percent overall decline in reported hate crimes, from 443 in 2024 to 231 in 2025, Toronto has seen a 40 percent increase in such incidents so far this year compared with the same period last year.
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw noted that, even with the overall decline, the Jewish community continued to be the primary target of hate-motivated offenses.
“We are steadfast in our commitment to confronting hate in all its forms and making it easier for people to come forward and report incidents of hate,” Demkiw said in a press release.
Because police-reported hate crime data only includes incidents that come to the attention of authorities and are later confirmed or suspected to be hate-driven, official figures likely underestimate the true scale of such incidents.
Over the past two years, Toronto authorities have expanded law enforcement capacity and resources to investigate hate crimes by establishing a Counter-Terrorism Security Unit and increasing specialized training for officers, while also strengthening Holocaust education initiatives and introducing digital literacy programs for youth aimed at countering online radicalization.
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs Vice President Michelle Stock called the latest statistics “deeply alarming,” warning of a broader reality of hostility that Jewish families across the city are confronting on a daily basis.
“Toronto prides itself on being a city where people of all backgrounds can live openly, safely and without fear. Those values are undermined when any community no longer feels secure expressing its identity in public,” Stock said in a statement.
“From synagogues to schools to public displays of Jewish identity, blatant attacks against the Jewish community are becoming more frequent and more brazen,” she continued. “Jewish Canadians are being targeted simply for who they are. No one should have to think twice about wearing a kippah, attending synagogue, sending their children to Jewish schools or participating openly in Jewish life.”
The city’s figures reflect a broader nationwide rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility, with the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada reporting a record high in anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2025 for the second consecutive year, documenting 6,800 such cases across the country.
According to the latest report, antisemitic incidents nationwide increased by 9.3 percent last year, surpassing the previous record total of 6,219 set in 2024.
With an average of 18.6 incidents per day, this figure represents a 145.6 percent increase from 2022, before the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Early 2026 data already indicate the country is now on track to see its most violent year against the Jewish community in recent memory, with more violent antisemitic attacks recorded so far this year than during all of 2025, B’nai Brith Canada reported.
In total, 11 violent antisemitic incidents have already been recorded across the country since January, surpassing the 10 violent cases documented during all of last year
“These brazen attacks on Jewish Canadians are a sign of a crisis of antisemitism that has spiraled out of control,” Simon Wolle, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada, said in a statement.
“Violence such as this, which has escalated from targeting synagogues to targeting Jewish people directly, does not occur in a vacuum. It is what happens when governments fail to act despite mounting evidence that antisemitism is becoming more normalized and dangerous,” Wolle continued.
Last week, a group of Jewish worshippers standing outside the Congregation Chasidei Bobov synagogue in Montreal was targeted in a drive-by shooting, leaving one person with minor injuries.
A week earlier, three visibly Jewish residents were targeted in a separate antisemitic attack when suspects opened fire with a gel-pellet gun, causing minor injuries.
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Israel, Lebanon Extend Ceasefire by 45 Days as Washington Talks Conclude
Smoke rises following explosions in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, April 27, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Shir Torem
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire that has tamped down the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, as two days of talks facilitated by Washington concluded on Friday with an agreement to hold further meetings in the coming weeks.
“The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on X, adding that the talks aimed at settling decades of conflict between the two countries were “highly productive.” The ceasefire was set to expire on Sunday.
The Lebanese and Israeli delegations issued positive statements about the talks, their third meeting since Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on March 2, three days into the US-Israeli war with Iran. Israel‘s bombing campaign and ground invasion into Lebanon’s south displaced some 1.2 million people, before US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire last month following initial talks between the two countries’ ambassadors in Washington.
Hezbollah and Israel have continued to trade blows, with hostilities focused in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces are occupying a self-declared security zone.
LEBANON WANTS HOSTILITIES TO CEASE
The US-led mediation between Lebanon and Israel has emerged in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ending the US-Iran conflict. Iran has said ending Israel‘s war in Lebanon is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict.
Lebanon’s delegation, which is attending despite objections from Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah, has prioritized a cessation in hostilities in the talks. Israel says Hezbollah, which openly seeks the Jewish state’s destruction, must be disarmed as part of any broader peace agreement with Lebanon.
The Washington meetings, the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades, have evolved to include security and military officials. Pigott said on X that a new “security track” of the negotiations would be launched at the Pentagon on May 29, while the State Department will convene the two sides again June 2-3 for a political track of negotiations.
“We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border,” Pigott said.
Lebanon’s delegation said in a statement that it wanted to turn the momentum from the ceasefire into a lasting peace agreement. “The extension of the ceasefire and the establishment of a US-facilitated security track provide critical breathing space for our citizens, reinforce state institutions, and advance a political pathway toward lasting stability,” the delegation said.
Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said the talks were “frank and constructive.”
“There will be ups and downs, but the potential for success is great. What will be paramount throughout negotiations is the security of our citizens and our soldiers,” Leiter said on X.