At the heart of our yeshiva and central to YCT’s vision and founding, our semikha program prepares Modern Orthodox rabbis to be talmidei chakhamim, poskim and spiritual leaders, serving the Jewish community in a wide range of capacities with compassion, sensitivity, and a recognition of each individual’s unique needs within the broader system of halakhic Judaism.
YCT rabbis draw deeply from Torah to confront the challenges of the modern world. We believe that a life of religious meaning, faith, and Jewish identification can be integrated with deep engagement with the best of modernity. Our semikha program prepares rabbis to articulate a hashkafa rooted in text and traditional wisdom and share their learning with the world. Students emerge from the semikha program with strong analytical skills, love of learning, reverence for Chazal, and the deep knowledge necessary for a lifetime of Torah-committed leadership.
Rabbi Jordan Soffer YCT (’16): Path to Becoming a Rabbi
Our Semikha program features:
- Small classes that promote intellectual growth and encourage strong friendships and supportive peer groups.
- A high faculty-student ratio and the consistent presence of faculty in the beit midrash, which fosters lively, stimulating interactions between students and their rabbanim.
- Teachers who concern themselves with the whole student, attending to each student’s intellectual, emotional and religious development.
In addition, YCT fosters:
- Commitment to and pride in serving Klal Yisrael
- Love of learning Torah and need to bring Torah in conversation with the urgent issues of today
- Intellectual openness anchored in a deep commitment to halakha, tradition and community
- Mutual respect between students, rebbeim, and faculty
- A valuing of diversity and the importance of every individual
- A sense of responsibility to others through chevrashaft, tzedakah, chesed, and outreach
"YCT encourages me to explore new perspectives, question assumptions, and learn alongside a group of people who are intent on changing the world."
-Rabbi Eli Weinbach
Class of 2024
"YCT has always innovated on what Semikha is supposed to look like in the 21st century. YCT required rabbinical pastoral counseling for its training program, and then literally wrote the textbook for the rest of the rabbinic world. This past year, YCT created a tutorial program in which students were asked to select any subject of choice. Then YCT faculty members reached out to the foremost scholar in that field to teach that subject to us... Expect to see other rabbinical schools follow suit in the next couple years."
-Rabbi Dvir Cahana
Class of 2024
"I entered yeshiva to more skillfully and knowledgeably serve my local Jewish community. YCT allows me the freedom to continue my ongoing community building work in Harlem while simultaneously supporting my growth as a learner within the yeshiva."
-Rabbi Dimitry Ekshtut
Class of 2024
Curriculum
YCT rewrote the book on rabbinic education and remains at the cutting edge of rabbinic training. Many programs now offered at other rabbinic institutions, across the denominational spectrum, began right here, and we continue to develop and refine our training to meet the Jewish world’s ever-changing needs.
Core components of our training include:
Still Innovating…
YCT continues to develop its curriculum to respond to the changing world around us. In the 2021-2022 academic year, YCT launched its new professional and leadership curriculum.
This new professional curriculum seeks to:
- Create rabbis as visionary, innovative leaders
- Train based on learning through doing
- Cultivate independent learners
Components of the new professional curriculum include:
- Focus on training leadership skills, including: community organizing, relational engagement, innovation, entre- and intrapreneurship.
- Emphasis on mentored fieldwork and projects over classroom learning
- Greater independence and self-direction, with mentorship and funding, in areas of Torah learning, academic growth, and professional development
Admissions Criteria
The Semikha program accepts observant male applicants who demonstrate love and dedication to serving the Jewish people and who possess yirat Shamayim, ahavat haTorah, and ahavat Klal Yisrael. Students should have facility with Gemara and rabbinic texts, overall academic excellence, demonstrated leadership, an open and inclusive orientation, and high moral character. Specific requirements for incoming students include a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, and at least two years of post-high school intensive study of rabbinic texts or the ability to demonstrate the equivalent of such study in terms of textual skill in Talmud and classical commentaries.
Application Instructions
YCT Rabbinical School admits students of any race, color, national origin, or ethnic origin. All documents submitted in support of an application for admission become the permanent possession of YCT and cannot be returned to the applicant.
All prospective students must spend at least two days at the yeshiva while it is in session. Visits should be arranged in advance. Applications must include three letters of recommendation: one rabbinic reference, one academic reference, and one personal reference. References should be emailed to admissions@yctorah.org. Applications must also include an official transcript. Those currently enrolled in degree programs should include mid-year transcripts and arrange for final transcripts to be emailed to admissions@yctorah.org upon completion of the semester.
The deadline for 2026-2027 applications is April 1, 2026
Interviews may be scheduled upon receipt of a complete application. The interview, should it be granted, includes a meeting with Rabbi Dov Linzer, President and Rosh HaYeshiva; a formal interview with our admissions committee; and a written and oral assessment of the applicant’s Talmud skills. In preparation for discussions during the interview, applicants are asked to prepare a 3-5 minute d’var Torah on the topic of their choice.
YCT offers qualified students tuition remission and a generous monthly living stipend. For more information email Ruthie Simon at rsimon@yctorah.org.
