Home>>Alumni and Their Impact>>Leading the Way

We have trained over 185 stellar, transformative rabbis who serve in communities across the U.S., in Israel, and across the globe. They:

Seth Braunstein Szarvas helping student lay teffilin

Reach over 250,000 people each year, serving in a wide variety of settings

  • In some of the largest and most vibrant Modern Orthodox synagogues in America
  • In smaller communities around the globe that lack Modern Orthodox options
  • On a wide range of college campuses
  • As teachers and administrators in day schools
  • As chaplains in hospitals, prisons, and the U.S. Armed Forces
  • As religious and spiritual entrepreneurs, including as founders of dynamic engagement opportunities for all Jews
  • As leaders of Jewish community centers, senior residences, camps, adult education programs, and so much more.
Steven Exler Bar Mitzvah

Occupy top leadership positions in the Jewish community

  • Heads of School and Heads of Judaic Studies
  • Executive Directors and a Vice President of Hillel International
  • Camp Directors and as Vice President of Foundation for Jewish Camp
  • Senior rabbis in major synagogues, including the both the largest Orthodox synagogue in the US and the largest one in Canada
  • Senior rabbis and Directors of Chaplaincy of major hospitals in the US and Israel

Are innovators, thought-leaders and change agents

Some of the most exciting new and visionary initiatives in the Jewish community over the last 20 years have been launched and headed by YCT rabbis.

  • Base – Rabbinic couples opening their homes to millennials and others seeking Jewish engagement and learning, now in 10 locations across the US.
  • Uri LiTzedek – An Orthodox movement bringing people together around learning Torah and activism for a variety of social justice causes.
  • Solu – A Chicago-based organization bridging the gaps between Jews and non-Jews through shared social action and community projects.
  • YATOM – Jewish Foster and Adoption Network, providing material and spiritual support for those who bring children into their homes.
  • Fact Finders Israel – 10-day trips to Israel for Jewish and non-Jewish college students, to learn about the Israel-Palestinian first-hand and deepen relationships between campus leaders.
  • Livyat Chen: YCT Center for Pastoral Rabbinic Education in Israel – Bringing Israeli clergy together for in-depth training and in-person experience providing spiritual care in various healthcare settings.

Our Alumni in Action

Video, Alumni Impact

Rabbi Jon Leener: Rabbi of BASE BKLYN &The Prospect Heights Shul

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Rabbi Aaron Lerner: Executive Director, UCLA Hillel

Video, Alumni Impact

Rabbi Andrew Scheer: Rabbi of the Tokyo Jewish Community

Video, Alumni Impact

Rabbi Mishael Zion’s (’11) Journey to the Rabbinate in Israel

Video, Alumni Impact

Rabbi Ari Hart (’12) Makes a Deep Impact in His Hometown

Video, Alumni Impact

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (’10) on the Obligation to Help Foster Kids

Musmakh looking for a Job?

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We can help make the right shidduch for your community. Contact Ruthie Strosberg Simon to learn more about our placement process and to discuss your needs!

Alumni News

  • Ari Hart

    Skokie Synagogue Renovation Reflects Congregation’s Recent Renaissance

  • The Making of a Rabbi: Nissan Antine

  • Rabbi Aaron Lerner with Surfboard

    Finance, rabbinics and practical experience fuel L.A. Jewish community foundation’s new top exec

  • UCLA hillel

    How Hillel at UCLA Moved beyond Tolerance to Embrace Difference

  • Kyle Savitch

    Rabbi Kyle Savitch (’21) Holds Both Jewish Tradition and Modern Sensibilities in His Hands with Kehillat Harlem

  • Jason Mark

    Jason Mark (’22), rabbi at Congregation Etz Chayim, observes High Holidays in Toledo

  • Rabbi Aaron Lerner

    Rabbi Aaron Lerner (’13) Selected as Next President and CEO of Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles

  • Rabbi Jonathan Lenner

    Synagogue Teshuva

  • headshot of aaron finkelstein

    Jewish Journal- Rabbis of LA | Rabbi Aaron Finkelstein: The Educator With a Pastoral Focus

  • kyle savitch, seated far right, at a kitchen table with four others teaching torah. looks like a friendly group.

    #YCTInnovators: Kyle Savitch (’21) Is Helping Lead the Growing Orthodox Community of Harlem

  • I’m a Rabbi With Mental Illness and I’m Done Trying to Hide My Pain

  • Jewish Daily Forward: A Chicago Orthodox rabbi reaches out to his Rohingya and Black neighbors

  • A photograph of a white latex gloved hand with fingers slightly splayed except for the thumb and pointer finger. Clasped between the thumb and pointer finger is a small glass bottle with a white cap that has blue plastic at the top. The bottom of the bottle has a white label with blue letters saying "mRNA Vaccine" with "COVID-19" written below in smaller letters. The background of the image is white.

    Why Being a Rabbi Led Me to Participate in the Novavax Vaccine Trial

  • #YCTInnovators: Learn about Rabbi Scott Kalmikoff’s (’18) Journey to Professional Genealogy

  • In Haifa Coronavirus Ward, a US-Trained Rabbi Helps Muslims Keep the Faith

  • A photograph of a key hanging in a door lock. The right half of the image is taken up by a brown wooden door which has a greenish tinge due to the light source coming from the left. The key is inside a metal modern turning door lock and is hanging at the center of the photograph. The key inside the lock is metal and straight with ridges on both sides of the key bit and the part that attaches the bit to the key-ring is bulky and made of black plastic. On the small metal loop key-ring are hanging to other keys pointing straight down, both are completely metal and have ridges only on one side of the bit, the front key is squarish at the top and the back key is circular at the top. At the top of the image is what might be a cylindrical door knob but it has been cut-off at the top. The left side of the image is blurry and seems to be a window directed outside to a garden or some other space with a large light source and many green vaguely leaf shaped objects.

    Open Doors

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    The Silence Between Us – What we’re missing in the #MeToo/#GamAni Movement

  • Cornell University Logo A circular logo over of transparent background. The circle is white with red outlining the letters and images and a red border before and after the lettering around the circumference of the circle. The block letters going around the circumference of the circle say "CORNELL UNIVERSITY" on the top half and the bottom half says "FOUNDED A.D. 1865". In the center of the circle is another circle with a shield touching 3 edges of the circle. The shield is split into 2 segments, the top third and the bottom 2 thirds. The bottom segment has the symbol of an open book facing the viewer with 8 horizontal bars each on the left and right pages of the book. The line dividing the book extends upwards and downwards past the edge of the book and forms a "T" separating the bottom segment from the top segment and the left part of this segment from the right part. The book symbol also has 3 small squares coming out of its left and right sides with space between them appearing like bookmarks or tags.The top segment has two smaller shields. The left shield has a horizontal box taking up a third of the shield and descending down from the box are 6 vertical lines. The right shield has a quadrilateral in the abstracted form of a ship with 5 other quadrilaterals appearing like sails. The ship is on a flat plane meant to look like water with 3 triangular shapes behind to look like mountains and a circle behind the mountains with rays bursting out to look like the sun.

    Rabbi Ari Weiss honored for Cornell Hillel leadership

  • Rabbi Noah Leavitt Ran the New York Marathon for Friendship Circle

  • Hearing the Shofar’s Cry in the Jerusalem of Lithuania

  • Rabbi Aaron Frank (’08) leads his students in faith

  • Photograph of meat being grilled. Most of the image is taken up by a piece of what might be chicken breast, its mostly light in color but is clearly fully cooked with many splotches of dark reddish-brown to black coloring, including about 9 dark vertical grill lines. To its left are two other cooking pieces of meat that are slightly blurred. They also appear to be poultry but are much redder in hue and one appears to have a skewer sticking out of the bottom horizontally. The meat is cooking on top of a grill grate with black metal bars in horizontal rows making up the surface of the grill. Below the bars are grey coals with an orange glow emanating from beneath them.

    Rabbi Jacob Siegel ensures that investors do not promote religious discrimination and instead reflect their values

  • Rabbi Jordan Soffer (’16) on the cost of Jewish Day School education

  • Two greyed-out hands, each holding a puzzle piece towards the other. The puzzle pieces are the same shape, a squarish middle section with 2missing circular sections on opposite sides and 2 outward jutting circular sections on the other two sides. The puzzle pieces are oriented towards each other so that they would fit, the left piece is rotated so that the jutting out sides are horizontal and the right piece is rotated so that the missing sections are horizontal. The image is photo realistic and the background is white.

    YCT Rabbis Attempting To Rebuild Ties Between Israeli And American Jews

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    Hillel International Welcomes Rabbi Benjamin Berger as Vice President of Jewish Education

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    A Justice System That Creates Orphans: Reflections on a recent visit to the US/Mexico border:

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    UCLA Hillel Director Rabbi Aaron Lerner (YCT ’13) responds to growing anti-Zionism on campus

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    Muhlenberg College Announces Appointment of Rabbi Rachmiel Gurwitz as Jewish Chaplain and Hillel Director

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    R’ Avidan Freedman, ’07, invites fellow Israelis to be shelter for African refugees

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    Base Hillel: A pluralistic project for millennials takes a page from the Chabad playbook

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    The Solution to Growing Chasm Between Israel and North American Jewry

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    What the Book of Genesis Tells Us About Sexual Harassment and #MeToo

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    Adult Learning is the Number One Priority for the Jewish Future

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    Libi B’Mizrach- New IRF Journal on Religious ZIonism

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    Supporting and Destigmatizing Those With Mental Illness

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    For Judaism to survive, it has to get out of the shtetl

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    The Spiritual Trauma of Taking a Life

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    A Blacklisted Diaspora Rabbi Is Pleased To Find Himself In Good Company

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    Was the Chatam Sofer Really So Fair?

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    Rabbi Seth Winberg Named Executive Director of Hillel At Brandeis

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    ‘Fleet as an Eagle’: Scouts Soar into the Rabbinate

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    The Triple Decker Shalshelet: Partnership With Those Differently Abled – Parshat Vayikra

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    Every Age Shines with its Own Light:” A Review of “When God Becomes History”: Historical Essays of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, translated by Bezalel Naor

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    Host of SXSW festival, Austin also trying to lure more Orthodox Jews

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    Rabbi Dan Millner ’14 at the Texas House of Representatives

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    A Pharaoh Who Knew Joseph

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    Sacramento temple hires native son as rabbi