The Position

The Howard M. Holtzmann Jewish Chaplain at Yale (“the Chaplain”) holds a unique, senior position that distinguishes Yale’s Slifka Center from other Hillels. Distinct from the Executive Director, the Chaplain serves as the Senior Rabbi to the Yale community in a role that combines teaching, community leadership, alumni engagement, pastoral care, and day-to-day work with students and faculty. The Chaplain leads the Slifka Center’s Student Life Team (the student-facing staff) supporting students in building a vibrant Jewish community that is both pluralistic and Zionist. The Chaplain inspires students to greater love for and commitment to Jewish texts, Jewish tradition and the Jewish state; engages with faculty; and explores, teaches, writes, and speaks about Jewish texts, ethics, and values. Together with the Executive Director, the Chaplain is a key representative of the Slifka Center and the Jewish community in conversations with the Yale administration, faculty, and the broader community.

Because of the Slifka Center’s unique leadership structure, the Chaplain can serve the Yale Jewish community as a senior teacher, scholar, and community leader without the primary operational and fundraising responsibilities that typically accompany leadership roles in Jewish institutional life. The Chaplain will support, rather than lead these functions.

The Organization

The Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale (home of Yale Hillel) is an independent self-supporting non-profit that serves more than 1,500 Yale undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, staff, and members of the greater New Haven community. Located at 80 Wall Street, in the heart of Yale University’s campus, the Slifka Center provides a warm, welcoming, and diverse Jewish environment in which students and other members of the university community can connect socially, culturally, intellectually, and spiritually. The Slifka Center is the home to Yale Hillel, which hosts multiple minyanim and communities of students with diverse interests including Magevet (Yale’s Jewish a cappella group), Shibboleth (Yale’s undergraduate journal of Jewish thought), W{Holy} Queer (Yale’s religious LGBTQ program run in partnership with other campus organizations), Yale Friends of Israel, Jewish service and social justice programs, as well as other student groups. For more information see www.slifkacenter.org.

The Slifka Center operates the only kosher dining hall on campus, which serves as a focal point for student life within and beyond the Jewish community and a meeting place for students, faculty, and community members alike. In addition to the kosher kitchen, the facility also features a chapel, a library, a Beit Midrash, an art gallery, as well as additional gathering spaces for the Yale campus community.

Location and Schedule

Most of the work will take place in person at the Slifka Center and on Campus. The Chaplain is expected to live in New Haven and play an active role in students’ Shabbat and Jewish holiday experiences. The rhythm of the role follows the academic year and student availability, including some evening commitments, balanced by flexibility during the workday and downtime during school breaks. Limited annual travel includes occasional fundraising, student excursions, and conferences.

1.The Chaplain is the leader of the Student Life Team and responsible for, in collaboration with the Executive Director and Board of Trustees, the vision, strategy, and culture of student life at the Slifka Center.

2.The Chaplain’s primary focus is student-facing work, including pastoral, educational, community building, and intellectual engagement across Yale’s diverse Jewish community of roughly 1,500 total Jewish undergraduate and graduate students.

3.The Chaplain, together with the Executive Director, shares responsibility for facilitating a culture at the Slifka Center in which deep friendship, study, debate, and a sense of shared Jewish peoplehood flourishes across denominational, political, and other differences. The Chaplain works with the Board of Trustees and the Executive Director to establish the methods, metrics, and goals that guide the Slifka Center’s efforts to engage and inspire Jewish students, support student initiatives, build a vibrant and pluralistic Jewish community, and assist students in deepening their Jewish identities.

4.The Chaplain is the Senior Rabbi of the Yale Jewish community and leads staff efforts to support the Slifka Center’s diverse prayer communities (minyanim), to design Shabbat and holiday programming together with student leaders, and to provide pastoral care to students and the Yale community.

5.The Chaplain is the lead rabbinic voice of the Slifka Center, teaching Torah in small groups and public lectures, overseeing formal Jewish education, articulating Jewish values, disseminating written Divrei Torah, inspiring commitment to Jewish texts, traditions, and the State of Israel, and speaking to – and on behalf of – the Yale Jewish community during moments of crisis and opportunity.

6.The Chaplain often represents Slifka Center at alumni gatherings, fundraising activities, and community events both in person and online, and authors substantive messages to the broader parent, alumni, and donor community. The Chaplain also travels periodically for donor visits and/or events.

7.The Chaplain serves as a rabbinic resource, intellectual partner, and primary liaison to the Yale faculty. The Chaplain may study with and answer questions from individual or groups of faculty members seeking to deepen their own Jewish identities or better serve their Jewish students. The Chaplain may fill a similar role with particularly involved Yale alumni and parents.

8.The Chaplain is a representative of Slifka Center to the Yale Religious Ministries and the University Chaplain’s Office and is a key interlocutor for the diverse religious and spiritual communities around Yale.

9.While not responsible for directing the day-to-day administration of the Student Life Team (such as planning, finance, and HR matters), the Chaplain works closely with staff – particularly with a member of the senior leadership team responsible for Student Life administration- to ensure the team's smooth functioning and fiscal accountability; to establish clear communication, problem solving, and alignment on student life priorities; and to support the professional growth of the other members of the student-facing team.

Relationship with the Executive Director and Board of Trustees

The Chaplain reports to the Executive Director, with a dotted line to the Board of Trustees. The Executive Director has primary responsibility for overall leadership of the Slifka Center, including fundraising, communications, operations, facilities, financial management, human resources, and external stakeholder management. The Chaplain attends Board meetings as an ex-officio nonvoting member of the Board, works closely with several different Board committees, and is an important part of Board development and culture. Excellent working relationships between the Executive Director, the Chaplain, the senior professional leadership team, and Board are essential. After consultation with the Executive Director, the Board is responsible for hiring and evaluating the Chaplain.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate for the Holtzmann Senior Rabbi position possesses the following competencies:

• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.

• Interpersonal Savvy: Relating openly and comfortably with diverse groups of people.

• Drives Vision and Purpose: Painting a compelling picture of the vision and strategy that motivates others to action.

• Communicates Effectively: Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.

• Demonstrates SelfAwareness: Using a combination of feedback and reflection to gain insight into personal strengths and weaknesses.

• Drives Engagement Creating a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives.

Additional Qualifications

• Rabbinic ordination and years of formal study of Torah and Rabbinics, as well as a demonstrated commitment to ongoing, regular Jewish text learning. Advanced degree in Jewish Studies or Jewish Education is a plus.

• Passion for Jewish texts, Jewish ideas, and Israel, and proven success with pluralistic community-building and outreach.

• Training and experience in pastoral care and counseling, staff supervision, and leadership development. A track record of supporting staff members in executing a team’s vision both individually and collectively is a plus.

• Passion for and demonstrated ability to connect with students from across the Jewish denominational and educational spectrum.

• Experience in grassroots community organizing, Hillel, interfaith work, youth movements, camping, or experiential Jewish education is helpful.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary

$160,000-$180,000, commensurate with experience. Candidates who may be seeking compensation beyond this range are still encouraged to apply, as we are open to further discussion.

Housing Allowance (Parsonage Allowance)

This position is intended to qualify as a ministerial role under Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code. Consistent with applicable law, a portion of the Rabbi’s compensation may be designated annually as a housing (parsonage) allowance, to the extent permitted by law. Any housing allowance is excludable from gross income for federal income tax purposes only to the extent actually used by the Rabbi for qualified housing expenses and subject to applicable IRS limitations, including the fair rental value of the home. Housing allowance amounts are designated in advance and are the responsibility of the Rabbi to report properly for tax purposes. The housing allowance is not exempt from self‑employment (SECA) taxes.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, a 403(b) retirement plan, life insurance, disability, vacation/sick time, and parental leave.

• Great professional development, mentoring, and skill-building opportunities at Yale and with the Hillel movement.

• Opportunities to attend global conferences and travel regionally and abroad.

• Access to events and amenities as a member of the Yale community.

Our Commitment to Inclusivity

Our Hillel believes in the inherent worth and dignity of all people, for as Jewish tradition teaches, we are all created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. We value a diverse and inclusive community and welcome students, professionals and community members of all abilities, races, ethnicities, socio‑economic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, and interfaith backgrounds or observances. We are invested in creating an accessible and welcoming workplace and will work collaboratively to ensure that all members of our community can fully participate in the richness of Jewish life.

About New Haven

Located on the coast between New York and Boston, New Haven was our nation’s first planned city and is now Connecticut’s second largest with a population of nearly 130,000. The central town square was established in 1640 and is located across the street from Yale’s “Old Campus” and a block away from the Slifka Center. New Haven has a wealth of museums, theaters, and Yale academic buildings in the Gothic style that are woven into the fabric of the city, which stretches for 20 square miles and is framed by the picturesque red bluffs of East and West Rock. Famed for its intellectual life, sports, cuisine, theater and music, New Haven expands each summer with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, a 15-day festival of performing arts, lectures, and conversations that celebrate the greatest artists and thinkers from around the world. New Haven has had a significant Jewish presence since 1758 and continues to host a thriving Jewish community with several synagogues and kosher restaurants and close connections with Yale and the Slifka Center.