Introducing Training Synagogues

The First Cohort to Benefit from Leo Baeck College’s new Training Curriculum

Rabbi Mark Goldsmith

Back in 2018 a group of Rabbis began to work with Gaby Rupin of Leo Baeck College and the leadership of the Movement for Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism to develop an improved way of preparing Rabbinic students to be effective as community leaders.   The challenge that we were addressing is that Student Rabbis are expected to be competent community practitioners with a wide variety of rabbinic skills by the time of their year 4 and 5 placements in our synagogues, and to be fully competent at the point of Semichah (ordination), so that they can be effective community rabbis.  However, Student Rabbis come to the college with a wide range of pre-existing communal skills.  Some have often acted as shlichei tzibbur (prayer leaders), teachers and counsellors and some have very little such experience, but other strong and positive qualities.

Our idea was put into action in 2024, following the Covid hiatus and the need to await a new group of students to start.  For the first three years of their Leo Baeck College Training, starting from the second semester, students are now assigned to two training synagogues of different character (large/small, Reform and Liberal minhag, clergy team/sole clergy). The two training synagogues are a community with a rabbi willing to help any student’s growth over three years in an organized, reflective and assessed programme where the community is interested and invested in the students who train there.  In parallel the students are expected to be interested and invested in the training synagogue community.

The students come to their training synagogues one or more times every month.  They observe and participate in Synagogue life, prayer services, education, organising meetings, social activities and more.   Each time they come, they prepare a written reflection on what they have witnessed or led, following a pro-forma that encourages them to both appreciate what they see as good practice and to critique practice that they were less convinced by.   They meet with the Rabbi or Cantor in the Synagogue who is their training supervisor to share and learn from each reflection and to plan forward for their future visits.

Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue and East London and Essex Liberal Synagogue have been the first two training synagogues and are currently working with the three students in the Second Year of the college.   Both Rabbi Richard Jacobi and I have been very much enjoying the experience as we find the reflections that the students prepare help us to critique our own practice!   We are working hard to ensure a variety of learning experiences for the students and also finding the time to speak with them about their own ad hoc work in other communities.   We are helping them learn how relationships with members of the Synagogue are key to our work and how it is helpful to build strong learning relationships with other Rabbis and Cantors. We aim to involve them more in leadership in the coming year as their skills have been building and we look forward to including feedback from lay members of the Synagogue into their programme.

The next Leo Baeck College year will start a new cohort on the Training Synagogues programme, with new Synagogues acting as the trainers and we look forward to sharing our experiences with them.   Overall we can already see the benefits of our Rabbinic Students in-congregation work being self-reflective and supervised and expect that it will help them to be even more effective when they go out to communities to which they are assigned in their fourth year and onwards.