Sunday, September 15, 2024

Modern Orthodox Rabbis Are Struggling — Even As The Community Gets Wealthier

 https://forward.com/news/394408/modern-orthodox-rabbis-are-struggling-even-as-the-community-gets-wealthier/

Modern Orthodox Rabbis Are Struggling — Even As The Community Gets Wealthier

9 comments :

  1. And why not? In MO communities, going into rabbi school isn't pushed like finance, law or medicine. How many MO shochtim are there? No push. In MO shuls the rabbi isn an employee under the thumb of the board and enough people think they can run the place without him anyway.

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    1. could be the economic model has changed. There used to be big congregations, where many members were not necessarily fru, but traditional. Nowadays there are smaller shtibls that are MO, but not big membership. So people join conservative for example. In UK they still have big Ortho shuls, where only 10-20% are actually frum, ie wouldn't drive to shul on shabbos.

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    2. There aren't too many yeshivish shochtim either.
      Even the Yekke hashgacha KAJ uses chassidic shochtim (they claim they vet for meshichist tendencies.)

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  2. Rabbi Elchanan Poupko bemoans the shrinking demand for Modern-Orthodox rabbis, and how Yeshiva University and other non-Chabad rabbinic training institutions need to have a serious conversation among themselves and with their students about the future of the American Orthodox rabbinate.
    https://vinnews.com/2024/09/11/rabbi-poupko-lost-millenial-rabbis/

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    1. The harbingers are Reform, which shut down its only "rabbi school" and JTS which closed its LA branch and struggles to fill its New York one.

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    2. Or the Detroit motor industry, which is plagued by cheap foreign imports. When self funded Chabad inclusive shuls are opening up everywhere, why pay for Mo pulpit rabbi?

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    3. They're not self-funded. Those shluchim are quite good at diveritng money from the community to the local Chabad Inc.

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    4. Garnel, why do you refer to Chabad rabbis raising money for their shuls and programming, as " diverting money from the community"?

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    5. In small communities, Lubavitchers tend to cooperate minimally with the regular community leadership. They attend only major community events and even then they usually bring a tefillin table to make it worth their time. If there are social events, they don't show up unless they're running it. The goal is to slowly replace the existing Orthodox leadership and convince folks that they are the authentic face of the community.

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