The New York Jewish Week reports on how the bad economy is helping to lead some young Jews back to school.
For Jodie Gordon, a first-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the economy wasn’t the primary factor for beginning to pursue her long-held goal of becoming a rabbi.
But she does admit that, “there is a sense of safety in knowing that [my classmates and I] will be firmly ensconced in school for the next five years, rather than struggling to find work.”
She is like many young (and not-so-young) Jews who are returning to the academy in the wake of this year’s recession, looking for more meaning and the chance to cement their Jewish connections in an uncertain time. … Many admissions officers and professors at both Jewish seminaries and secular universities with Jewish studies programs said they have seen an increase in applications this year, and that the economy is often part of the explanation.
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