About This Course
The rabbinate demands a unique blend of academic knowledge, professional skills, personal wisdom, religious sensitivities, and commitments. The goal of this seminar is to explore this integration of the academic, the personal, and the professional. The seminar will focus on the life-cycle rituals, with special emphasis on the concept of covenant implicit in each of them. We will explore the role of rabbi at key moments of the personal, family and communal life. We will also apply a personal assessment and analysis of career goals and objectives. There will be time for professional skills training geared towards to world of ‘rabbi’ing– organizational development and change, communications, lay/board relations, staff supervision, and other key skills.
Required Reading
- Speed B. Leas, Discover Your Conflict Management Style.
- Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.
- Gerald Bubis, The Director Had a Heart Attack and the President Resigned
Course Outline
- Rabbinic Mission and Educational Philosophy Statements
- Communication Skills
- Discovering Your Conflict Management Style
- Organizational Skills/Time Management & Effectiveness
- Personal Boundaries/Rabbi as Symbolic Exemplar
- Transition – The First 90 Days and Pathways to Rabbinic Success
- Managing Change/Disruptive Innovation
- Lifecycle Lab: Bris/Simhat Bat/Baby Naming; Weddings; Funerals
- Bnai Mitzvah/Rites of Passage/Youth Initiation
