You’ve heard of the rabbi shortage, but have you heard of the untapped rabbinical talent pipeline? From my vantage point leading Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy, there are clear solutions in recruiting, cultivating and elevating untapped talent. 

My thinking is shaped by my time as a corps member and staff member at Teach for America. It is also deeply influenced by my experience with parallel education institutions that have built incredible systems for finding and elevating untapped and underrepresented talent — solutions our Jewish education ecosystem can learn from. 

From left: Rabbi Bobbie Rosenberg, Rav Tiferet Berenbaum and Rabbi Heather Miller in an undated photograph. Nehemiah Brent/Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy

Ammud follows in some of the same ideological footsteps that institutions like Teach for America, Posse Foundation and Management Leadership for Tomorrow have figured out long ago: Unique programmatic support systems must be built to ensure top and underrepresented talent reach their full potential.

As the 2020 Pew Research Center report on American Jewry highlights, 15% of Jewish people under the age of 30 are multiracial. Multiracial Jews, also known as Jews of color (JoCs), are not widely represented in Jewish leadership roles; this is due to a myriad of factors, outlined by the Jews of Color Initiative’s groundbreaking “Beyond the Count” study. Ammud is in relationships with talented JoC rabbis and rabbinical students seeking support, as well as Jews who dream of being rabbis, striving to provide bespoke resources to further their impact in serving our Jewish community and ensure that our spiritual and communal leadership represents the growing number of Jews of Color.  

One pillar of Ammud’s expansive portfolio of initiatives to support Jews of color in accessing Torah and Jewish community is the JoC Educator Support pillar. There are three main levers Ammud uses within this pillar: high-quality coaching and professional development; affinity-space creation for JoC rabbis rooted in Ammud’s culturally  sustaining Torah methodology; and campaigns to elevate the public profiles of JoC rabbis. 

Bespoke executive coaching and professional development uniquely catered to JoC rabbis has been an essential lever in our work of empowering JoC rabbis and continuing to invest in their career trajectories in the years to come. Taking inspiration from LEE (Leadership for Educational Equity), a partner organization of Teach for America that offers ongoing one-on-one executive coaching for alumni who are senior leaders, career coaches for alumni and resources for professional skill building, Ammud works to do the same with JoC rabbis. Ammud’s pilot executive coaching program has made strides in supporting JoC rabbis during the job search process and growing their skill sets to thrive in their current roles.  

A large variable in advancing one’s career and reaching full potential in any sector is based on non-obvious rules. Certain valuable skills, such as learning the STAR method (a system that many employers base interview rubrics on, often without candidates’ knowledge), telling your personal history as it connects to your professional trajectory in a concise way and building your professional network through 20-minute informational interviews, are not widely taught. If one doesn’t have the benefit of a mentor or family member to teach these types of skills, it can be easy to be at a professional disadvantage. To be clear, the disadvantages of unfamiliarity with these skill sets are not unique to Jews of color in the workforce; but since it is our mission to support Jews of color, we specifically work to support this particular community in advancing themselves in the job market. 

Similarly to Management Leadership for Tomorrow — which, according to their website, aims to provide “the know-how, navigation systems, and network to ensure talented underrepresented minorities are able to get on and stay on the path to senior leadership,” especially through their MBA-prep programs — Ammud is building pilot “rabbi prep” programs to support talented JoC leaders in moving along their path to reach their dreams of serving our Jewish people as rabbis. Our goal is not only to encourage them to see this as a path for themselves but to also support them along their professional journey. To that end, Ammud’s growing suite of programs invests in JoC rabbis to ensure they are resourced to thrive while serving our Jewish community. A lot of that happens through intentional affinity and cohort-based community building for JoC rabbis, rooted in Ammud’s culturally-sustaining Torah methodology. 

Belonging to a community supports resilience. Every professional in a leadership position should be so fortunate as to have the space and time to develop deep and close relationships with professional colleagues who are in similar lines of work and share varying layers of affinity, with whom they can share similar struggles and wins. Relationships and deep community building are essential to building a resilient workforce in our Jewish professional ecosystem.  This is especially important considering the unique challenges JoC rabbis face. 

W.E.B. Du Bois — Black writer, sociologist, historian and one of the most important American intellectuals of all time — elevates this challenge when outlining the concept of “double consciousness.” DuBois specifically discusses the experiences of Black Americans and highlights that one of the challenges of navigating racism is seeing oneself through the eyes of others. Ammud’s entire model, which has attracted over 750 JoC members and counting, is based on the idea of an affinity space for Jews of color that cultivates a profound sense of psychological safety for our members. This psychological safety makes it easier to study the depth of Torah, learn Hebrew and raise one’s hand for leadership. At Ammud, Jews of color do not have to worry about being asked if they’re Jewish, having their Jewishness questioned and all the other reasons that may make Jews of color more hesitant to participate in Jewish life. Through our JoC Rabbi Ambassador program, we are learning that not only is this sense of affinity space vital for the average JoC who is not a rabbi or Jewish professional, but it is deeply essential for JoC rabbis. 

Following his participation in Ammud’s latest JoC Rabbi Ambassador retreat, Rabbi Bobbie Rosenberg put it best: 

“It is rare to be surrounded by others who look like me and share the same cultural influences when I enter a Jewish space, but at Ammud, I felt seen in the most positive way. I was not seen because of the color of my skin; my presence was not suspect. I did not have to justify being there or prove I was Jewish. I was able to bring the entirety of myself to the group, no questions asked. I was seen as a Jew, full stop. There was no need to explain myself, no assumptions made about my background. Sometimes, you don’t realize you’re missing something until you stumble upon it, and that is what happened for me at Ammud. It was like I finally found my home.”

Affinity spaces for JoC rabbis — rooted in community, unique professional development and a methodology that encourages participants to welcome all parts of themselves  — are a recipe for JoC rabbis to not only have joy, connection and camaraderie but also support and resilience as leaders serving our Jewish peoplehood. 

Finally, the third lever of JoC educator support at Ammud is elevating the public profiles of JoC rabbis. For example, Ammud is creating campaigns on social media and a poster series that highlight the Torah contributions of Ammud’s Ambassadors, three incredibly brilliant Torah educators, rabbis and community leaders. The importance of Ammud’s campaigns to elevate these incredible rabbis serves not only this moment but also seeks to have an impact for generations to come. Elevating the public profiles of JoC rabbis contributes to a ripple effect of encouraging more Jews of color to pursue the rabbinate, especially in future years: Studies highlight that careers children choose to pursue are influenced by the race and gender of who they observe in the media and in their own communities. When we see something, we’re more likely to become it, this is especially important, considering the growing number of multiracial Jewish children today and in the years to come. 

To be sure, critics who are lambasting anything related to inclusion programs might respond to tailored support for any group as problematic and offensive for not being available to every single person. I would encourage these critics to see the bigger picture: When we as a Jewish community are able to give tailored and unique support for specific groups of people, we are ensuring they get the chance to share their Torah, leadership and wisdom with the whole Jewish community — and everyone can benefit from that. Just as God instructed the Israelites to give their gifts to create the Mishkan, wise-hearted Jewish people of today should have the opportunity and support to contribute their gifts to our Jewish community in abundance. 

Alexandra Corwin is the executive director of Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy.