T’ruah is seeking a full-time Manager of Rabbinic Education to enhance the skills and knowledge of the 2,300 rabbis and cantors in our network so that they can have a bigger impact on their communities’ ability to address pressing human rights issues.
The ideal candidate is a skilled Jewish educator with an organizer’s mindset and a proven ability to impact learners and activate them on human rights issues, and who is enthusiastic about engaging publicly with rabbis and cantors in pastoral and coaching modalities.
This is an exciting time to join T’ruah at an incredible moment of growth. In 5782 we launched six communities of practice, a new educational model for us. We plan to expand our staff and our capacity over the next few months. We are in the midst of an ambitious five-year plan to grow our organization and budget substantially; you have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
Who We Are
T’ruah trains and mobilizes more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism, together with all members of the Jewish community, to act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.
To learn more about our work, visit www.truah.org or find us @truahrabbis on Twitter and Facebook.
What You’ll Do
The Manager of Rabbinic Education, who reports to the Director of Leadership and Learning, is responsible for the following:
- Create, recruit for, and implement a strategic calendar of ongoing professional development opportunities for rabbis and cantors to deepen their skills and knowledge related to T’ruah campaigns and their ability to be effective moral leaders. These will include, but are not limited to, communities of practice, short class series, one-off webinars, and in-person gatherings.
- Create resources to support rabbis/cantors in teaching their communities about the human rights issues on which T’ruah works, both in North America and in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Examples of prior resources include “A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism” and holiday-related short texts.
- Assist in planning for and teaching in the Summer Fellowship in Human Rights Leadership for rabbinical and cantorial students.
- As an active member of the Leadership and Learning team, contribute to other projects as needed.
If you were here right now, you would be:
- Facilitating or coordinating six Communities of Practice (each with 10-15 clergy) in various stages of completion, including evaluation and data collection.
- Serving as a thought-partner to the Director of Leadership and Learning in developing curriculum for this year’s summer fellowship.
- Organizing a webinar for rabbis and cantors on anti-BDS legislation.
- Recruiting rabbis and cantors for a one-day excursion to the West Bank this summer.
- Beginning to brainstorm what next year’s calendar of programming should look like.
In addition to your supervisor, you will collaborate regularly with:
- Director of Organizing and local organizers
- Director of Strategy
- Director of Campaigns
Who You Are & Keys to Success
To be successful in this job, you will be or have:
- Rabbinic or cantorial ordination strongly preferred. Candidates with other relevant degrees and extensive experience in the field would also be considered.
- A minimum of 3 years experience in a congregation, Hillel, community organization, or equivalent setting, for a lived experience of the challenges facing a working rabbi or cantor.
- Coaching and organizing mentality: You help others grow. You use coaching, training, and feedback to develop others and support problem-solving. You see mistakes as learning opportunities. You seek and engage well with feedback. Your work at T’ruah will not be as an organizer with responsibility for specific campaigns, but you speak the language of community organizing and are able to train leaders in ways that merge seamlessly into T’ruah’s organizing work.
- Skilled Jewish educator: You design curricula to fit the needs of program participants. You can design Jewish educational resources that can be used by rabbis/cantors and other Jewish educators in a variety of contexts (e.g., sermons, adult ed, teens programs, day school, etc).
- Reliable project manager: You plan forward from a project’s inception, and backwards from the anticipated launch date, and involve stakeholders. You are able to juggle competing demands and prioritize without sacrificing quality. You bounce back from setbacks. You ask for help when needed and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders enthusiastically..
- Relationship-oriented pastoral presence: You are enthusiastic about meeting and engaging publicly with rabbis/cantors. You are able to build trust with clergy, whatever their age, level of seniority, gender, Jewish movement/denomination, geography, type of rabbinic position/setting, and other identities, and are ready to be a listening ear and an accompanying presence for their struggles and concerns. You seek to connect people with each other based on shared interest, type of work, stage of career, etc.
- Racial equity and inclusion values and skills: You understand the historical context for racial inequity and its present-day implications. You recognize ways that race and other identities intersect in social justice work, especially with communities of rabbis and cantors. You are comfortable talking about identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, ability, or gender in plain, specific terms. You identify decisions, policies, or practices that have disparate impacts based on identity, and you’re driven to make changes in systems and practices to operationalize equity.
The following are plusses but not requirements:
- Experience with T’ruah’s campaign areas, including human rights for Israelis and Palestinians; worker justice; ending mass incarceration; democracy; immigration; anti-racism; countering antisemitism.
- Strong background in classical Jewish texts.
Systemic inequities in hiring have caused many women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. If you have some but not all of the qualifications listed above and believe you would excel in this role, we encourage you to apply for this job. In your cover letter, be sure to explicitly highlight how your experience, skills, and personal qualities have set you up to succeed in the role.
What Else You Should Know
Status
This position is full-time.
Salary
This position is in T’ruah’s $60,000 – $85,000 salary band. Rabbis and cantors start at $70,000 and those with a different relevant degree start at $65,000. We set salary within this band through a collaborative process using a standard rubric based on years of experience.
Location
The job location depends on where you reside: If you live anywhere other than the New York Metropolitan Area, the position is remote. Those living in the New York Metro Area will have our New York City office at their disposal, and some amount of in-office work may be required in the future.
Travel
Currently due to COVID no travel is required, but in the future we’d expect the ability to travel to occasional in-person meetings in various US locations.
Benefits include:
- 100% coverage of your medical insurance premium and 50% coverage for one family member
- Automatic employer-side contributions of an amount equal to 5% of your salary to your 403(b) retirement account beginning one year after the date of hire – whether or not you choose to make employee-side contributions
- 10 vacation days a year in your first year of employment, increasing to 20 days a year after three years
- 34 holidays a year, which includes Jewish and most Federal holidays, Summer Fridays, and a floating holiday
- Paid leave of up to 12 weeks for the birth or adoption of a child
Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
T’ruah is committed to DEI at every level of our organization, including our Board of Directors. For the past several years we have been actively working on becoming an antiracist organization. We recently published a set of organizational values reflecting this commitment.
Equal opportunity employer
T’ruah isn’t just an equal opportunity employer. We are actively seeking to build a diverse and inclusive team with a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. T’ruah does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, personal appearance, family responsibility, political affiliation or any other status protected by applicable law. Women, transgender people, veterans and people of color are encouraged to apply.
How to Apply
- Complete the informational form located here.
AND
- Send a cover letter and resume to jobs@truah.org. Please write “Manager of Rabbinic Education” in the subject line. Resumes without a cover letter will not be considered.
Our Timeline
Applications will be accepted through April 20. Interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis. Our ideal start date for this position is July 1.
