The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary Holds 31st Ordination Ceremony

19/01/2022

The next generation of the Masorti movement in Israel: young, talented, driven and inspiring.

On Thursday, December 30th, 2021, the 31st Rabbinic Ordination was held for the Schechter Beit Midrash. During the ceremony, Rabbi Nava Brenshtin Meiersdorf, Rabbi Danny Weininger, Rabbi Eitan Krul, and Rabbi Amirit Rosen joined the 102 rabbis previously ordained at Schechter. 

Nava B. Meiersdorf, originally from a Haredi Zionist family in Petach Tikva, discovered liberal Judaism while spending time in the US. Nava found The Schechter Institutes while searching for a way to dive deeper into active religious life and started her path to ordination. With her partner, Rabbi Yerach Meirsadorf, she has established a community in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, that brings residents together for spiritual and learning events. Rabbi Nava Meiersdorf teaches in the Israel Defense Forces’ NATIV conversion course.

Rabbi Danny Weininger made aliyah from the United States 10 years ago, where he grew up in a Conservative community in Westchester, NY. Even though Danny did not always hold fast to the religious way of life, he has always been deeply involved with community work. He has served in the IDF, worked as a guidance counselor at the Hartman Institute and then also as the head of the Beit Midrash for their pre-army program. After being heavily impacted by his older brother’s journey as a Conservative rabbi in Minneapolis, Danny rekindled his connection with observance and realized that the rabbinate was also a path for him. Today he is the campus rabbi of the Kivunim Gap Year Program; and works at the Jewish Agency’s Israel Education Lab, Makom, as the program manager for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict course. He met his wife Shani in Israel and they married during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Rabbi Eitan Krul grew up in a secular household in Tel Aviv, and at the age of 13 started growing closer to religion. After the army, he discovered the Reform movement and liberal Judaism, while working at an American Jewish summer camp. When he came back to Israel, he joined the Beit Daniel community in Tel Aviv. He has a master’s degree in child development and worked as a teacher and advisor in the education system. Rabbi Krul is a proudly gay single father to a son that is now five years old. They live in the Ezra neighborhood of Tel Aviv. . In their home, he hosts the religious community “Your Home in GadishTA”. “My home has transformed into a hub that embraces those that religion often excludes: LGBT+ families, single parents, and those without family.” Rabbi Krul’s hope is to bring the Jewish discourse in Israel to a conversation that is inherently pluralistic.

Rabbi Amirit Rosen was born to a rabbinic family in Ireland (her father was Ireland’s chief Rabbi). She grew up in Israel in a Modern-Orthodox Zionist home “that was bound to social justice as a religious and educational mission to promote interfaith discussions that dealt with ignorance and stereotyping of those from different religions. Out of these beliefs, my family and I took on a vegan lifestyle.” Today, Rabbi Rosen serves the Moreshet Avraham synagogue in Armon Hanatziv, Jerusalem, where she is co-rabbi alongside her partner, Rabbi David Goodman.

On the momentous ordination ceremony Rabbi Avi Novis-Deutsch, Dean of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, said “these four new rabbis that were ordained, represent the pulsating spirit of liberal Judaism that is growing daily: tolerant, pioneering, egalitarian, and brave. The spiritual Jewish journey that they travelled in the Beit Midrash is unparalleled in its uniqueness. Each one of them came from their own world, and found a home here, they built spiritual homes and communities that they are leading in their noble way. Each one of them is inspiring and I am hopeful that more rabbis like them will pass through our hallways in the coming years.  The State of Israel will benefit from people like them.”

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