Celebrating the Exceptional Students in the Division of Religious Leadership
December 22, 2025
As we come to the close of 2025, we take this moment to reflect on, and celebrate, the exceptional students in the Division of Religious Leadership.
Enrollment in JTS’s Division of Religious Leadership has grown significantly in recent years, with 39 new students joining in the past two years.
Get a glimpse of the gifted rabbis and cantors they are becoming. Below you’ll find the Rabbinical School Senior Sermons from the first semester, along with a recording of the recent John Leopold and Martha Dellheim Senior Recital.
Sarah Rockford
Parashat Bereishit | October 16, 2025
“Though there is so much brokenness in the world, beauty grows tenaciously alongside it.”
Noa Rubin
Parashat Noah | October 23, 2025
“We need to uphold the essence of our Jewish and universal covenant, honoring our similarity by being open to our difference.”
Sara Birnbaum
Parashat Lekh Lekha | October 30, 2025
“We often imagine that faith means certainty, that to live with God is to live with answers. But the Torah tells us the opposite.”
Zachary Bernstein-Rothberg
Parashat Vayera | November 3, 2025
“Even in our struggles, the response must not be to walk away, but rather to walk together.”
Marc Szechter
December 8, 2025
Cantorial School student Marc Szechter headlined The John Leopold and Martha Dellheim Senior Recital.
Rachel Cohn
Parashat Hayyei Sarah | November 13, 2025
“What would it look like for you to start living your legacy today?”
Jacob Lipkin
Parashat Toledot | November 19, 2025
“As someone who’s named Jacob, you might expect me to identify strongly with the patriarch of this week’s parashah. But truthfully, I find I’m much more drawn to Esau as a character.”
Micah Cowan
Parashat Vayishlah | December 3, 2025
“We cannot move forward and grow if we are stuck focusing on what could have been, on the lives we could have lived.”
