About RTI
JTS’s Rabbinic Training Institute is the premier continuing education program for Conservative rabbis in the field, bringing participants together for five days of intellectual, professional, personal, and spiritual growth. RTI is open to all Conservative rabbis.
RTI will be held from Sunday, January 12 to Thursday, January 16, 2025 at the Pearlstone Center in Reisterstown, MD.
Five Days of Learning
A deeply stimulating and nurturing experience, RTI prepares participants to return to their communities rejuvenated in mind, heart, and spirit, and with new skills to serve as even more thoughtful and capable leaders.
Meeting at an offsite retreat center from Sunday to Thursday, RTI participants engage in text study and professional skill building with a faculty of world-renowned scholars and consultants, while also reflecting with peers on individual and shared experiences. The program offers:
- Torah lishmah
- Professional skills courses
- Facilitated groups for personal and spiritual reflection
- Meaningful davening and divrei Torah
- Yoga, meditation, and private massage (optional)
- Supportive and fun hevreschaft
View a sample schedule for RTI
Expert Faculty
The teachers and consultants who guide participants come from JTS and from diverse institutions around the world. Previous faculty have included:
- Mary Jo Barrett
- Dr. Tal Becker
- Rabbi Aryeh Ben David
- Dr. Moshe Benovitz
- Dr. Elizabeth Bloch-Smith
- Dr. Erica Brown
- Rabbi Aaron Brusso
- Dr. Alan Cooper
- Rabbi Eliezer Diamond
- Dr. Arnold Eisen
- Reb Mimi Feigelson
- Rabbi Ed Feld
- Dr. Linda Stone Fish
- Dr. Michael Fishbane
- Dr. Eitan Fishbane
- Dr. David Fishman
- Dr. Benjamin Gampel
- Dr. Alyssa Gray
- Dr. Arthur Green
- Rabbi Steve Greenberg
- Rabbi Judith Hauptman
- Rabbi Shai Held
- Rabbi David Hoffman
- Dr. Elie Holzer
- Judy Klitsner
- Dr. David Kraemer
- Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie
- Dr. Aliza Lavie
- Dr. Marjorie Lehman
- Rabbi Naomi Levy
- Dr. Daniel Matt
- Rabbi Jay Michaelson
- Dr. Alan Mittleman
- Rabbi Jack Moline
- Larry Moses
- Rabbi Daniel Nevins
- Rabbi Vanessa Ochs
- Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
- Dr. Michal Raucher
- Nigel Savage
- Dr. Diane Sharon
- Dr. Avigdor Shinan
- Rabbi David Silber
- Dr. Kathy Simon
- Dr. Benjamin Sommer
- Rabbi Mychal Springer
- Dr. Devora Steinmetz
- Rabbi Ira Stone
- Rev. Doug Tanner
- Rabbi Gordon Tucker
- Rabbi Jan Uhrbach
- Dr. Burton Visotzky
- Rabbi Melissa Weintraub
- Dr. Sarah Wolf
- Dr. Tzemah Yoreh
Fees and Registration
The fee for RTI 2025 is $1,050. This covers tuition and study materials, double-occupancy accommodations, all meals throughout the institute, and round-trip transportation via group shuttle from BWI airport and train station to the Pearlstone Center. Single rooms are available for an additional fee.
Discounts and Scholarships
- First-time participants receive a 25 percent discount.
- Rabbis within five years of ordination (ordained in 2020 or later) receive a 50 percent discount.
- Generous need-based scholarships for female colleagues are available on a first-come first-served basis.
- Limited additional scholarship funds are available for rabbis not in the above categories who cannot afford the full cost of RTI.
We are able to offer these subsidies thanks to the generosity of Marc Gary, executive vice chancellor emeritus of JTS, and Michelle Kravtin Gary (z”l).
What People Are Saying
“RTI is the best professional development I do all year. It nourishes my body, mind, and soul. It provides me with tools to serve my congregation and the Jewish people better. An amazing time of learning, living, and being.”
“As rabbis we teach and preach about the need to create sacred space for our congregants, yet overlook that need for ourselves. RTI fulfills that need, and I return each year from RTI spiritually and emotionally rejuvenated and invigorated.”
“RTI is an invaluable opportunity to personally connect with colleagues as they are, with all of our rabbinic masks taken off. We cut straight to the tachlis, the practicality, and strive to help one another in whatever stage we are at in our careers and in our mindset or emotional state.”
Contact Us
For more information and/or to apply for a scholarship, please contact Rabbi Julia Andelman at [email protected].
