Overview
Role Overview:
Yale’s Jewish Chaplain will inspire and organize pluralistic, diverse Jewish life at one of the nation’s premier universities. The Chaplain will serve as the senior rabbi or religious leader to a community of several thousand Jewish students, faculty, and other community members. The Chaplain will work together with the Slifka Center’s Executive Director and other staff to provide numerous opportunities to engage students, faculty, and the community in Jewish life. The Chaplain will provide leadership through Jewish teaching, spiritual and intellectual connection, and community engagement. The Chaplain will develop and maintain relationships with students less engaged with Jewish life and will increase the level of involvement and commitment of students in all aspects of Jewish life on campus.
The Slifka Center is also hiring an Executive Director during this hiring cycle and may choose to hire a single candidate to fill both that role and the role of Jewish Chaplain.
What You’ll Do:
· Facilitate and promote meaningful, exciting and pluralistic Jewish programming on campus.
· Encourage and empower students to grow as Jews and as Jewish leaders, including:
o Work in close partnership with student leaders.
o Build relationships with hundreds of students from diverse backgrounds.
o Identify needs of all Jewish students, from those already engaged with Slifka Center to those previously uninvolved in Jewish life, and develop strategies for meeting their diverse needs.
· Lead services (High Holidays, Shabbat, other holidays, and potentially other times.)
· Work with University Chaplain as Jewish representative to Yale Religious Ministries.
· Provide pastoral care and counseling.
· Develop and support vibrant Jewish experiences, one-on-one or small group learning, educational programs, immersive trips, and opportunities to participate in Jewish life on campus or connect to Judaism, as students find relevant. Pilot creative educational approaches and initiatives.
· Serve as a role model who attracts and inspires students and other constituents with his/her values, energy, passion, intellect, and Jewish identity.
· Grow the Jewish community at Yale.
· Educate and engage the entire Yale community about Judaism and Israel.
· Mentor other Slifka Center staff and volunteers to develop their own Jewish knowledge and educational skills.
· Collaborate with the Executive Director and staff to implement the Slifka Center’s mission and vision.
· Develop and nurture relationships with students, faculty, the local Jewish community, and the broader “Slifka Center community,” including parents and alumni.
· Contribute meaningfully to the intellectual life of Yale.
What You’ve Accomplished:
· Rabbinic ordination or an advanced degree in Jewish studies, Jewish education or a related field.
· A proven record of success in community building and engagement, including experience in program visioning and implementation.
· Training and experience in pastoral counseling.
· Inspiring interest in pluralistic, diverse Jewish life.
· Significant relevant work experience, which may include, among other things:
o Teaching Judaism and Jewish subjects.
o Grassroots community organizing.
o Experience in Hillel, youth movements, camping, or experiential Jewish education.
· “Plus factors” include:
o Experience in leadership roles in the Jewish world or in the worlds of secular nonprofit, higher education, or mission-driven organizations. Experience with a trans-denominational community.
o Experience with administration, development/fundraising, working with a team of professionals.
o Knowledge of the Yale community.
o Past Hillel or other college-level experience.
What You'll Bring to the Job:
· A strong knowledge base of Jewish content, ranging from traditional Jewish texts to contemporary Jewish wisdom, culture and unconventional Jewish sources.
· Expertise in leading complex conversations about Judaism and Israel, meeting students where they are.
· Commitment to creating an inclusive, vibrant and pluralistic Jewish community.
· Intellectual curiosity and passion for collaboration with colleagues across the university.
· Entrepreneurial spirit. Things may not always go according to plan, but you are willing to take risks and learn from your wins as well as your losses.
· Confidence initiating and running programs, and comfort asking questions.
· Creative problem-solving strategies, proactive communication, and collaboration.
· An inspiring presence which will help others to deepen their interest in Jewish life.
· Strong relationship building skills and comfort working with diverse populations different than your own.
· Ability to collaborate across teams both inside and outside of Hillel.
· Genuine enthusiasm for pluralism in Judaism. You will have to work with people whose level of observance and knowledge ranges from completely secular to very Orthodox; they will also have a full range of political views. The right candidate will see this as an exciting opportunity, and will enjoy working with all these communities, will respect all the religious denominations and be respected by them.
What You'll Receive:
· Competitive salary, commensurate with experience.
· A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, Group Supplemental Retirement Annuity (GSRA), pension plan, life insurance, Long Term Disability (LTD), Flexible Spending Plan, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.
· Great professional development, mentoring, and skill building opportunities .
· Travel regionally and abroad, particularly to Israel.
About Slifka Center:
Slifka Center is a self-supporting non-profit that provides cultural, intellectual, religious and social programs for Yale students, faculty and staff, and the greater New Haven community. Located at 80 Wall Street, in the heart of Yale University's campus, it provides a warm, welcoming and diverse Jewish environment in which students and other members of the university community can connect socially, culturally, intellectually, and spiritually to their Judaism. Located in an award-winning building in the center of Yale's campus, Slifka Center is the home to Yale Hillel, Young Israel House at Yale, JGAP (Yale's Jewish Graduate and Professional group), a vibrant plurality of minyanim (currently three, holding regular daily or weekly services), and an array of other Jewish student organizations, including Magevet (Yale's Jewish a cappella group), Shibboleth (Yale's undergraduate journal of Jewish thought), Yale Friends of Israel, several Jewish service and social justice programs, and other student organizations. Slifka Center draws its lifeblood from its vibrant, self-motivated student body.
Slifka Center has an endowment of approximately $20 million and an annual budget of approximately $2.5 million, as well as a large professional staff (currently 15 professional employees) and a sophisticated, engaged board of directors composed of alumni, faculty and professionals. The Kosher Kitchen is a focal point for Jewish student life and a meeting place for students, faculty and community members alike. The facility also features a chapel, a library, a Beit Midrash, and an art gallery which exhibits a variety of Jewish-themed works. Slifka Center's rabbis and educational staff run programs and teach regular classes, often in partnership with university professors. In recent years Slifka Center has featured speakers including U.S. senators and Israeli governmental ministers, and has sponsored educational trips to Israel, service trips to Central America, and lobbying trips to Washington, D.C. For more information see www.slifkacenter.org.
About New Haven:
Now Connecticut's second largest city with a population of nearly 130,000, New Haven, the nation's first planned city, sits on the coast midway between New York and Boston. The central town square, established in 1640 and located across the street from Old Campus (Yale's “front door”) and a block away from Slifka Center, hosts many summer concerts and other events. A wealth of museums, theaters and Yale's architecture-style Gothic academic buildings are all woven into the fabric of the city, which stretches for 20 square miles and is picturesquely surrounded by the red bluffs of East and West Rock. Residential communities range from modern high-rise apartments to lovely old houses on tree-lined streets that lead to campus, shops, restaurants, hiking trails, beaches and more. Famed for its intellectual life, sports, cuisine, theater and music, New Haven expands each summer with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, a 15-day festival of performing arts, lectures, and conversations that celebrates the greatest artists and thinkers from around the world. New Haven has had a significant Jewish presence since 1758 and currently has 11,000 Jewish households, many of whom participate in the array of activities which Slifka Center provides.
About Hillel International:
In 1923, Rabbi Benjamin Frankel started Hillel with humble means, a noble mission and a breathtaking vision: to convey Jewish civilization to a new generation. Today, Hillel International continues to enrich the lives of Jewish students and is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world at more than 550 colleges and universities across North America and around the world. As Hillel evolves as an organization, the mission remains steadfast: to create lasting connections with every Jewish student that foster an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning, and Israel and train them to become the next Jewish leaders.
Hillel International enriches the lives of Jewish students so they may enrich the Jewish people and the world, and envisions a world where every student is inspired to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel.
Slifka Center is affiliated with Hillel International but is independent and self-governing.
Start Date:
The new Jewish Chaplain will start in the summer of 2018.
To Apply:
Apply at www.Hillel.org/Jobs and include your resume and cover letter. Questions may also be addressed to SlifkaSearch2018@gmail.com.
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About Metro Chicago Hillel
Metro Chicago Hillel is creating a cohesive vibrant Jewish community across Chicago campuses and throughout the city. We serve almost two thousand students at DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Roosevelt University, School of the Art Institute, Oakton Community College, and Lake Forest College. Metro Chicago Hillel is part of the Hillels of Illinois, a department of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.