Yeruchem Feldman

Now while there is a Shidduch Crisis in the Orthodox Jewish community, Conservative and Reform communities are experiencing a shortage in Rabbis.

According to an article in YNETNews.com, Reform and Conservative Jewish communities in the US are reporting a severe shortage of rabbis. Apparently, the baby boomers have reached retirement age and the admissions for rabbinical studies in non-orthodox institutions continues to decline. At the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, only seven people enrolled in their rabbinical studies center this year. Last year, there were 14.

The article further reported that Conservative movement has been seeking rabbis for some 80 of its congregations. Only a few of these positions have been filled. The Reform movement as well has reported a 30% drop in enrollments at Hebrew Union College’s three campuses, since 2008.

Now here is an idea: If any of these congregations are open-minded enough, why not experiment just for a year with getting rid of the microphones, adding drape mechitzos, and thinking about how to keep Shabbat better?

There is no question that doing so would drop the intermarriage rate and there would be plenty of candidates. All that is needed is a bit of open-mindedness.