From Screen to Sanctuary: Virtual Pathway Rabbinical Students Gather in Cincinnati

Last month, students from Hebrew Union College's Virtual Pathway gathered in Cincinnati for an intensive program designed to blend learning, practice, and community. The four days were carefully crafted around the core goals of the experience: to strengthen relationships among peers, connect more deeply with College faculty and staff, step fully into the rhythms of rabbinical student life, and develop habits of reflection that will sustain them in their journey.

The program opened with a welcome from Rabbi Karen Reiss Medwed and a text study on Jeremiah 17, led by Rabbi Andrea Weiss, Ph.D. (Head of Seminary Programs and Rabbinical School Director, Associate Professor of Bible), reminding students that Torah is both ancient wisdom and a source of present-day guidance. Later, small group sessions, Panim el Panim, encouraged students to reconnect or get to know one another, while nightly prayer service, Ma'ariv, and an ice cream social offered a chance to weave prayer and joy together.

Monday immersed students in both scholarship and community. Morning worship set the tone for a day of learning that included an introduction to High Holy Day Reform liturgy with Rabbi Richard Sarason, Ph.D. '74 (Director, Pines School of Graduate Studies), explorations of Jewish textual interpretation with Jason Kalman, Ph.D. (Gottschalk-Slade Chair in Jewish Intellectual History and Co-Director of HUC Press), and a rare book room tour with Jordan Finkin, Ph.D. (Deputy Director of Libraries and Rare Book Manuscript Librarian). The afternoon was rich with choices: a shofar bootcamp, academic advising sessions, and drop-in meetings with staff for practical support.

That evening, a tour of historic Plum Street Temple and a panel on "Continuity and Change in the Rabbinate and Contemporary Judaism" connected students to the past, present, and future of Jewish leadership. Speakers on the panel included Rabbi Neil P.G. Hirsch '10 of the Isaac M. Wise Temple, Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch '15 (CEO of Women of Reform Judaism), and Rabbi Jessica Shafrin (Director of Mission at The Jewish Hospital).

Tuesday broadened the focus further with classes on homiletics (the art of preparing sermons) taught by Rabbi David Aaron, Ph.D. (Professor of Hebrew Bible and History of Interpretation), medieval Jewish thought taught by Rabbi Haim Rechnitzer, Ph.D. (Professor of Jewish Thought), archives, and Torah, alongside worship leadership with Cantor Richard Cohn and class with Cantor Sarah Grabiner. A lunch with Provost Judah Cohen underscored the College's investment in its students, while the evening closed with "An Evening of Art & Reflection" led by fifth-year cantorial student Leslie Goldberg, embodying the integrative spirit of the program.

The final day, Wednesday, lifted students' eyes outward and forward. Sessions on Israel, fieldwork, and community-building anchored their learning in global and local realities before the closing ritual, "Blessed May You Be in Your Going," sent the cohort forth with grace and good fortune.

By the end of the intensive, students had not only engaged deeply with texts and teachers but had also practiced the daily life of rabbinical study-balancing prayer, scholarship, reflection, and relationship. They left Cincinnati not just with information, but with connection: to one another, to their teachers, and to the larger calling that brought them to Hebrew Union College in the first place.