Orthodox Rabbi at Harvard Hillel
Role Overview
Harvard Hillel is seeking a dynamic Orthodox Rabbi to foster a warm, inspiring Jewish community for students, faculty, and staff. The ideal candidate will make Jewish tradition exciting and meaningful through teaching, mentorship, and pastoral care, aligning with the religious values, practices, and spiritual aspirations of the students.
What You’ll Do
Advise the Orthodox Student Minyan: Serve as the student minyan advisor, providing shiurim, drashot, chavrutot, and organizational support. Act as a halakhic and hashkafic guide to Orthodox students, and the local Orthodox minyan as needed.
Teach Torah: Teach Torah in ways that are textually ambitious, intellectually sophisticated, inviting of questions, and responsive to students’ interests. Facilitate complex conversations characterized by humility, curiosity, and respect for multiple perspectives.
Welcome students in your home: Host students regularly for Shabbat and holiday meals, cultivating a sense of home and close-knit community for students away from their families.
Create a warm Shabbat and Chag Environment: Support students and the rabbinic team in making Shabbatot and Chaggim times of connection and holiness, including at least one off-site Shabbaton for the Orthodox community.
Provide pastoral care and mentorship: Build substantial relationships with a wide swath (> 100) undergraduate and graduate students through pastoral care, chavruta learning, teaching, and mentorship. Maintain a consistent, visible, and accessible presence in students’ daily lives.
Contribute to a pluralistic community: Engage respectfully and curiously with students’ and colleagues’ religious and moral commitments, even and especially when they differ from your own. Participate in campus conversations and gatherings, including joining the Harvard Chaplains’ community.
Be an exemplar of good middot: Relate to students and colleagues with a warm, caring, and approachable demeanor. Approach questions or conflicts with energy and a commitment to working out solutions together.
Collaborate with the Hillel team: Join the student-facing programming team, collaborating closely with colleagues to plan and execute programs. Share responsibility for student engagement and bringing ideas to fruition.
Partner beyond Harvard: Serve as Harvard Hillel’s liaison to the Orthodox Minyan at Harvard Hillel, supporting scheduling, financial coordination, and student participation in the broader Cambridge Orthodox community. Maintain relationships with Jewish day schools and other pipelines to attract prospective students.
What You’ll Bring to the Job
A commitment to and passion for creating Jewish community and inspiring students to grow in Torah, shmirat mitzvot, and participation in Jewish life.
An appreciation for the value of a broader pluralistic Jewish community, and a desire to build bridges with other Jews.
A warm, engaging, and approachable personality.
Experience in engagement and building meaningful pastoral relationships.
Facility in program design and implementation.
Relevant work experience in experiential Jewish education within Orthodox communities, Hillel, youth movements, or camp.
A talmid hakham with strong textual knowledge and fluency, demonstrating deep familiarity with Torah, from traditional texts to contemporary Jewish wisdom, and the ability to engage students in the tradition of Jewish learning through learner-centered pedagogy.
Facility leading complex conversations that are intellectually serious and personally sensitive.
A warm and welcoming home in which to host Shabbat experiences.
Confidence initiating, running, and evaluating programs.
A deep personal concern for the success of this work.
A willingness to admit what you don’t know and excitement to learn in those areas.
Creative problem-solving, proactive communication, and the capacity to collaborate in teams both inside and outside of Hillel.
Curiosity about… everything. You are hungry to learn and ask insightful questions before offering solutions. In this community, we are all learners, even the educators among us.
Membership in good standing in a rabbinic alumni association with established ethical guidelines.
Bachelor's degree and Orthodox rabbinic ordination.
What You’ll Receive
A competitive salary range of $100,000-$110,000 for 10 months a year of employment.
A network of students, parents, and university partners who will inspire you and become lifelong professional resources and partners.
Opportunities for professional development, mentoring, and Jewish study.
Colleagues and support from across the Hillel movement.
Travel opportunities, both domestic and international.
Stipends for Shabbat hosting experiences.
A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, Tax Deferred Retirement Plan, Life, AD&D, and Long Term Disability insurances, Flexible Spending Plan, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.
Plenty of Hillel and university swag.
About Harvard Hillel
Harvard Hillel is the Jewish center of the world’s greatest university. Home to 500 Jewish undergraduates and 1,800 Jewish graduate students, Harvard Hillel’s mission is to train a generation of Jewish students to lead a divided Jewish community in an uncertain future - by helping mentoring them as they create an inspiring, life-shaping community of meaning with and for one another during their years as students. Cambridge, Massachusetts is a rapidly growing observant Jewish community with synagogues, independent minyanim, an eruv, kosher restaurants, and hundreds of observant Jews. Students, young professionals, young couples, and families call "Camberville" home. We also have many Jewish resources including mikva'ot across the river in Brookline, Brighton, and Newton.
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 nearly 1,000 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.
About Us
Hillel is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an accepting and inclusive environment for all.