The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies

The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem is dedicated to the advancement of Conservative Judaism and religious pluralism in Israel and Europe. Schechter currently engages over 43,000 Israeli and European Jews in an open Jewish academic and educational discourse.

The Schechter Institute campus is home to four educational enterprises:

Schechter Rabbinical Seminary

The Conservative Movement's rabbinical school in Israel and host to many students from our seminaries in Europe and the Americas, the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary prepares spiritual and communal leadership for the Jewish people. Twenty students are enrolled in Schechter's new program, Mishlei, an innovative two-stage track of study designed to expand the student body and broaden the pool of students for the rabbinical program. This new framework, which is now in its second year, offers students a two-year program which meets two full days a week and combines study of Jewish sources in the Bet Midrash with academic courses leading to an MA in Jewish Studies from the Schechter Institute. Mishlei's 2012 curriculum synthesizes a variety of Jewish studies courses with a focus on Jewish social activism.

The second stage of the program will offer outstanding students who wish to become rabbis an additional two years of full-time study culminating in rabbinic ordination. Full scholarships and stipends will be available to those students who qualify for this second phase of study.

The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary runs academic programs for overseas rabbinical students from around the world. The Morris and Nellie Kawaler Year in Israel Study Program enables rabbinical students from The Jewish Theological Seminary to fulfill the requirement of spending a year studying in Israel. Similar programs are conducted for rabbinical students from the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano in Argentina and additional seminaries in Europe and North America.

The school is pioneering the first accredited Clinical Pastoral Education (Chaplaincy) Program in Israel together with the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. Most recently, Schechter is establishing Learning Communities throughout Israel in response to requests by nonobservant Israelis searching for Jewish meaning.

Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies

The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies is an Israeli graduate school dedicated to training educational leadership through a unique interdisciplinary Jewish Studies MA program that is recognized by the Council for Higher Education in Israel. Over 600 Israeli Jewish educators from all religious backgrounds specialize in fourteen Jewish studies tracks that combine art, women's studies, family and community studies, teaching, informal education, and classical Jewish disciplines such as Bible, Talmud, Midrash, and Jewish Thought. Most recently, three new MA programs in Contemporary Jewry, Sephardic Jewry, and Jews of Islamic Countries and Hebrew and Jewish Literature have been established. See the Schechter Course Catalog for a complete listing of courses.

The Schechter Institute has more than seventy full- and part-time faculty members, including some of the foremost scholars in the State of Israel.

Over 1,100 Schechter MA graduates are working in Jewish education throughout Israel in the Israeli school system, Ministry of Education curriculum and management positions, and the nationwide Community Center Association.

Research Institutes and Publications: Scholarship Working for Society

Three research centers bring the academic achievements of the Schechter Institute to the public at large.

The Institute of Applied Halakhah, which makes Jewish Law accessible to modern Jewish households around the world was established in 1997 in order to publish a library of Halakhic literature in Hebrew, English, and Russian. Since then, the institute has published twenty-four volumes of scholarly research for the Conservative/Masorti world. Recent publications include Torah Lishma: A Festschrift in Honor of Prof. Shamma Friedman, Kuntress Hateshuvot Hehadash, Vol. 1-4; Taking the Plunge: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to the Mikveh; and the second Hebrew edition of Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. A complete list of Schechter publications can be found at the Schechter Bookstore. Visit Responsa for Today, a site that features responsa written by Conservative/Masorti rabbis in conjunction with the institute.

The Center for Women in Jewish Law is devoted to researching, publishing, and educating the public on the rights of women from the perspective of the Jewish legal tradition. Through the publication of Za'akat Dalot (The Cry of the Wretched): Halakhic Solutions for the Agunot of Our Time and seven issues of Jewish Law Watch, the center is advancing Jewish law advocacy research in the area of 'agunot (chained women) who have not been able to receive a get from their husbands. A popular series, To Learn and to Teach, published in five languages, devotes each issue to a specific topic on the status of women in Jewish law. Five issues thus far have been published.

The Center for Judaism and the Arts was established in 2001 to enrich the cultural and educational life in Israel. Its MA track in Judaism and the Arts continues to be one of the most popular programs at Schechter. Most recently, the center, together with the TALI Education Fund, launched "Virtual Midrash," the first online fine and folk-art index of the Bible and its commentaries in Hebrew and English. The site has received positive feedback and is being used extensively throughout the world by schools and art educators.

TALI Education Fund

The TALI Education Fund (TEF), Hebrew acronym for "Enriched Jewish Studies," offers an enriched Jewish Studies program to 38,000 children in close to 200 Israeli schools and preschools throughout Israel. This rapidly expanding national school network today comprises over 10 percent of all public (secular) elementary schools in Israel. Founded in 1987, TEF is authorized by Israel's Ministry of Education to provide educational guidance and resources to all TALI schools. The professional lifeline for 2,000 TALI teachers and principals, TEF provides schools with textbooks, teacher training, school rabbis, and pedagogic counseling, all of which create a Jewish environment for the school community.

This year, Israel's Ministry of Education introduced a new curriculum, Tarbut Yisrael (Jewish Culture), which calls for two hours a week of Jewish studies for all public school grades six through eight. The program will eventually be expanded to include grades four through nine. Because of TALI's unrivaled expertise and experience in the field of Jewish education in secular schools, the Ministry of Education turned to TALI for assistance in the development of educational materials and to conduct teacher training for public school teachers throughout Israel.

Midreshet Yerushalayim: Israel, Eastern Europe and the FSU

Midreshet Yerushalayim is an education network established in 1990 to bring Russian-speaking Jews in Eastern Europe and Israel closer to their Jewish roots and religion. In the last two decades, tens of thousands of Jews have connected to pluralistic Judaism through studies taught in an academic and noncoercive environment.

Israeli programs include: Adult education centers from Karmiel to Eilat; the MILI Judaica quiz compettions for young adults; Land of Israel study courses combing classes and field studies; and most recently, Batei Midrash Learning Communities that are reaching out to immigrants as well as to the general Israeli public searching for meaningful ways to connect with Judaism. The newest Bet Midrash, the Neve Schechter educational campus, will open in Tel Aviv's Neve Zedek neighborhood. Neve Schechter will also be home to the new Masorti Kehila in Neve Zedek.

Programs in the Ukraine include: Chernowitz and Kharkov TALI Day Schools, Camp Ramah for teens and young families; Education and Culture Center in Kiev; Family Education Center in Donetsk; National teacher training seminar; Leadership training for students and young.

In Budapest, students at the University of Jewish Studies are taught by visiting Schechter faculty.