A building and cars burnt in an attack by Israeli settlers. February 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

i24 News — The chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, condemned Tuesday’s settler attacks against Palestinians and IDF soldiers in the West Bank on Wednesday morning.

During these attacks, dozens of masked settlers beat Palestinians, burned their property, and clashed with IDF troops near the villages of Deir Sharaf and Beit Lid, leaving multiple injured and causing property damage amid escalating West Bank tensions.

“The reality in which anarchist fringe youth act violently against innocent civilians and against security forces is unacceptable and is extremely serious. It must be dealt with firmly,” Bluth said during a conversation with commanders in the sector.

In October, 86 “nationalist crime incidents” were recorded in Judea and Samaria, a sharp increase compared to the previous olive harvest when 25 nationalist crime incidents were recorded, according to a report released Wednesday by the IDF.

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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President Donald Trump has made official a suggestion that he first issued on the floor of Israel’s parliament: that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be pardoned preemptively for his alleged crimes.

Trump made the case in a letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Herzog’s office released on Wednesday. In it, Trump calls Netanyahu a “formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister” and characterizes his prosecution as “lawfare,” a term that when used pejoratively refers to the misuse of legal systems to achieve ideological ends.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has stood tall for Israel in the face of strong adversaries and long odds, and his attention cannot be unnecessarily diverted,” Trump writes. 

He adds, “While I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli Justice System and its requirements, I believe that this case against Bibi, who has fought alongside me for a long time, including against the very top adversary of Israel, Iran, is a political unjustified prosecution.”

The letter represents the kind of insertion into Israeli domestic politics that would have drawn ire in the past but have become relatively commonplace during Trump’s norm-busting second term. It follows Trump’s successful push for Israel to strike a ceasefire deal with Hamas that freed the Israeli hostages and suspended the two-year war in Gaza, and comes as Trump is seeking to safeguard the peace. Trump says in the letter that Netanyahu’s leadership is essential for allowing Israel to move forward.

“Now that we have achieved these unprecedented successes, and are keeping Hamas in check, it is time to let be reunite Israel by pardoning him and ending this lawfare, once and for all,” Trump concludes, ending with one of his signature signoffs. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Unlike in the United States, where Trump has pardoned a number of political allies, including this week, Israel does not typically grant preemptive pardons. Netanyahu has not been convicted of any crimes.

Netanyahu has three legal cases open against him, on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. They relate to allegations that he accepted lavish gifts in exchange for political favors and that he used his position to secure positive media coverage. The trial in the cases began in 2020 and has proceeded in fits and starts, with hearings routinely canceled as Netanyahu attends to Israel’s affairs, including the multi-front war and a protest movement that Netanyahu and his allies allege has been stoked through foreign interference.

Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, dismissed both the prospect of a pardon and Trump’s letter. On X, he said that Israeli law required those receiving pardons to admit guilt and show remorse — neither of which Netanyahu has yet done. In the Knesset, he said, “We are a sovereign state. There is a limit to intervention.”

Herzog’s office issued a statement praising Trump’s efforts in the Middle East but emphasizing that requests for pardons must come through Israel’s official process, which requires that people directly implicated in the case, or their immediate family members, must file a formal request.

“The president holds great respect for President Trump and repeatedly has repeatedly expressed his appreciation for Trump’s unwavering support of Israel and his tremendous contribution to the return of the hostages, the reshaping of the Middle East and Gaza, and the safeguarding of Israel’s security,” the president’s office said in a statement. “Without detracting from the above, as the president has made clear on multiple occasions, anyone seeking a pardon must submit a formal request in accordance with the established procedures.”

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