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The U.S. and Canada are running out of Reform rabbis. Look who's taking their place

JL;DR SUMMARY A growing influx of Israeli-born Reform and Conservative rabbis is addressing a critical clergy shortage in North American synagogues. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski.

  • At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself.
  • This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude.
  • Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from.
  • But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
  • And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.
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Tags

Jewish DiasporaReform JudaismConservative JudaismLiberal JudaismHebrew Union CollegeRabbinical SchoolsNorth American SynagoguesIsraeli Born RabbisClergy ShortageEgalitarian Judaism

Places mentioned

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"Welcome to the Haaretz Podcast. I'm Alison Kaplan Sommer in Tel Aviv."
Israel
"Not long ago, the brand of Judaism and organized Jewish life that is most familiar to North American Jews—Jewish life that revolves around reform and conservative synagogues and institutions—was completely alien to the Jewish state."
United States
"But over the years, reform and conservative streams have taken root and grown in Israel."
Canada
"The U.S. and Canada are running out of Reform rabbis."
United Kingdom
"By Anglo, you mean coming from English-speaking countries like the United States, Canada, Great Britain?"

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This podcast episode was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 56860
Cairo Source ID 18
Retrieved 2025-07-15 05:30:18 UTC
Curated 2025-07-15 06:02:37 UTC