Where Have All the Rabbis Gone? Understanding the Rabbi Shortage in America

Where Have All the Rabbis Gone? Understanding the Rabbi Shortage in America 
Wednesday, February 28 at 12:00pm Pacific Time | 3:00pm Eastern Time

Shira Telushkin explores why fewer Jews are choosing to become rabbis, raising questions about the future of Judaism in America.

Many synagogues across the country are struggling to find rabbis, leading to concerns about the future of Judaism in America. Shira Telushkin and Mark Oppenheimer will explore the reasons behind the rabbi shortage, the impact on synagogues, and potential solutions for ensuring a vibrant Jewish future.

Shira Telushkin is a reporter living in Brooklyn, where she covers religion, art, and the human search for beauty. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and many other outlets. For three years, Telushkin produced Unorthodox, the podcast of Tablet magazine. Her first book, How to Forsake the World, will be published by HarperCollins next year. Shira holds a B.A. in religious studies from Yale University, and an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School.

Mark Oppenheimer has been covering American religion and culture for 25 years. He holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale, and has taught at Stanford, Wesleyan, Wellesley, NYU, Boston College, and Yale, where he was the founding director of the Yale Journalism Initiative. He is now director of open learning at American Jewish University. From 2010 to 2016, he wrote the “Beliefs” column, about religion, for The New York Times, and he has also written for publications including The New Yorker, The Nation, GQ, Slate, and many more. He created Unorthodox, the world’s most popular podcast about Jewish life and culture, which during his tenure as host had over 7 million downloads. More recently, he created and hosted an eight-part podcast called Gatecrashers, about the history of Jews and antisemitism at Ivy League schools. He is the author of five books, including, most recently, Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood. His next book is a biography of the author Judy Blume. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, four daughters, one son, and two dogs.