280 Graduate From Chabad Rabbi School
Chabad’s Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, N.J., plans to ordain 280 new rabbis at an event the movement is billing as the largest ordination class in the modern era.
The Sept. 9 program will feature former Israeli Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and other rabbinic dignitaries. The newly minted rabbis, some of whom are already serving in communities around the country and world, will represent Chabad in 14 countries and 23 states. They will take on the title Ambassadors of Judaism and serve in Chabad’s network of Jewish educators and social service organizations in 75 countries.
“We feel indeed privileged to bestow 280 rabbinical degrees – an unprecedented number,” Rabbi Moshe Herson, dean of the Rabbinical College, told JTA. “We are happy for our students that they will have the signature of Chief Rabbi Lau on their certificates for posterity.”
Lau is not a Chabad rabbi. The Chabad rabbinical college last held a mass ordination five years ago, when 100 rabbis were ordained. The institution was established in 1971 and has ordained thousand of rabbis, according to Chabad spokesman Rabbi Motti Seligson.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
