For Rabbis

Rabbis Without Borders connects rabbis who are creatively engaged in making Jewish wisdom meaningful and accessible to all. We offer a community where you can develop new ideas in a supportive environment, learn new ways of communicating, and build your religious leadership capabilities.

Are you – or do you want to be – a Rabbi Without Borders?
If so, we have a variety of learning opportunities available for you.

One on One Conversations
RWB Seminars across the country
RWB Fellowship
Frequently Asked Questions

One on One Conversations

Many rabbis are already working as Rabbis Without Borders. Others may want to improve their skills and abilities to talk with and teach a variety of different audiences. All rabbis are welcome to contact us and begin a conversation about your work and your goals.

To set up an in-person meeting or phone conversation, please contact Rabbi Rebecca W. Sirbu at rsirbu@clal.org.

Together we will discuss your passions as a rabbi and explore ways to strengthen your skills and knowledge. After one or more conversations, we will tailor a learning experience that draws upon your strengths and enables you to articulate your passion to as many people as possible.

To build the network, we will also connect you with other rabbis who have similar areas of interest so that you can support each other, learn from one another, and work together.

RWB Seminars

RWB offers seminars for rabbis in various locations nationwide and on the web. We believe that there are various skills and methodologies you can learn to aid you in teaching without borders.
The seminars offer training in a variety of areas including:

The sociology of the American religious and spiritual landscape (ie. what Americans really believe about God, trends and practices in American spiritual life, knowledge of other religious traditions);
The theory and practice of pluralism (ie. why hearing different viewpoints strengthens our society, what kind of religious voices do Americans consider authentic and why);
Innovative methods and pedagogies for translating Jewish wisdom and practice into useful contemporary idioms (ie. how we need to change our vocabulary to be understood by contemporary Americans Jews and non-Jews and ways that they can apply Jewish wisdom to their lives);
Using technology and media to communicate your message to a broad audience (ie. how to use tools such as blogs, the internet, media and other technology more effectively in your work.)

RWB Online Learning

The goal of RWB is to build a national network of rabbis who share a common vision to make Jewish wisdom an accessible resource to help people across religious and cultural borders in America enrich their lives.

We will build the network by connecting rabbis who have areas of interest with each other in order to foster collaborative thinking and projects. This non-competitive environment will enable rabbis to speak honestly about the best ways to implement this vision. See our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rabbiswithoutborders forour latest blog posts and on going conversation.

Fellowship

Clal's Rabbis Without Borders (RWB) is a pluralist, interdenominational network of rabbis who are able to make Jewish wisdom and traditions relevant and meaningful to anyone seeking greater meaning and purpose in their lives. The RWB Fellowship helps rabbis develop and communicate a Judaism that can compete in a globalized, networked world in which identities and communal boundaries are increasingly permeable. By participating in the RWB Fellowship, rabbis learn how to use Jewish wisdom to speak to contemporary American issues, how to use language that is open and inclusive to reach a larger audience, and how to use Jewish wisdom to add meaning to people's lives.

Applications are now being accepted to become a Rabbis Without Borders Fellow for 2013-2014. RWB fellows will gather in New York for two days, four times during the year to meet with leading thinkers in the fields of media, politics, business, and explore trends in contemporary religion and spirituality. By learning with these experts, rabbis will be better able to appreciate and contribute to the American religious landscape, especially beyond the borders of their respective denominations, institutions and communities.

Fellows will engage in text study related to these topics and will be challenged throughout the year to think creatively, and express themselves in new ways. Continuity will be maintained between in-person gatherings through selected readings and online conversations. Fellows will incorporate the ideas presented into their work as concrete projects.

The ideal candidate is a rabbi who believes that the teachings of Judaism can help navigate every aspect of modern American life. This rabbi seeks to have an impact both within and beyond his or her individual congregation or organization. Creativity and an ability to think outside the box are valued qualities.

All travel and hotel costs will be covered.

To apply to be a RWB Fellow, please answer two questions: What is the most creative thing you have done as a rabbi or would like to do? And why would you like to be an RWB Fellow? Limit your answers to each question to one page a piece. Please include your name, current position, address, and email address. Applications should be sent in one Word or PDF document to Rabbi Rebecca W. Sirbu at rsirbu@clal.org no later than May 10, 2013.

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Rabbi Without Borders:

1. Deeply pluralistic and always aware of the partial truth in a view with which we deeply disagree.

2. Sees/experiences Jewish tradition and personal faith as a public resource and expresses them as such – at least a significant part of the time.

3. Speaks in the 1^st person singular without being self-absorbed or narcissistic.

4. Recognizes that people always trump ideology.

5. Being good is more important than being right, or for the more precise among us, being good (loving, nurturing, compassionate, etc.) is a crucial piece of our understanding of what it means to be right.

6. Doesn't worry, at least not very much, about dilution or work from a narrative of erosion.

7. Places other peoples questions before their own answers, without shying away from the answers to which they are passionately committed.

8. Engages seriously with tradition and appreciates the necessity for strong ties/kinship/community in order to be happy and secure.

9. Is animated by a love of what they do and to those ideas and practices which animate their lives.

10. Is relatively fearless (because of "faith") of the future and of the new - be it technology, ideas, possibilities, innovations while appreciating the importance of fear in heightening awareness.

11. Places limited importance on boundary questions and realizes that they are personal, more than policy issues. We all have and need boundaries (even borders!), but they exist because of our need, not because of some absolute and independent necessity.

12. Embraces doubt and questions alongside answers and certainty. Appreciate that neither should ever hold sway over the other – at least not for very long, and not without revisiting the conclusion.

13. Privileges the question of to what they might contribute, as opposed to what they must resist or correct.

14. Is personally evolving and experiences that evolution as a coherent process, not as a betrayal of past conclusions. Coherence emerges from something larger than observable constancy.

15. Presumes that most dichotomies are false, at least ultimately, and relates to them and to the use of them as such.

16. Tends to learning about self, text, and world, based more on making connections than on making distinctions.

Do I need to make a financial commitment?
No. We have many generous funders who enable us to make CLAL's staff and other resources available to you at no charge.

Is RWB for both pulpit and non-pulpit rabbis?
Yes. What is important to us is not where your office is, but whether you have a passion and a vision that ought to be shared on a larger scale.

Do I have to be a member of a particular denomination to participate?
No. We welcome rabbis and rabbinical students from across the denominational spectrum.

By joining this network, how will I as a rabbi change?