About RTI

The Rabbinic Training Institute is the premier continuing education program for Conservative and Masorti rabbis in the field, bringing participants together for five days of intellectual, professional, personal, and spiritual growth. RTI is offered by JTS and the RA and 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.

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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

Faculty

The expert teachers and consultants who guide participants come from JTS and leading organizations devoted to personal development and organizational change. Below is a listing of faculty for RTI 2025:

Text Study

  • Dr. Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics, JTS
    RTI 2025 Rachel Brodie z”l Memorial Scholar
  • Dr. Benjamin Sommer, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, JTS
  • Rabbi Gordon Tucker, Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, JTS

Professional and Personal/Spiritual Development

  • Mary Jo Barrett, MSW, Executive Director, Center for Contextual Change
  • Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, Senior Faculty Fellow, Institute for Jewish Spirituality
  • Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen, Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School and Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership, JTS
  • David Harrison, Founder, Harrison Communications
  • Rabbi Naomi Kalish, Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education, JTS
  • Dr. Lisa Springer, Dean of the Division of Lifelong and Professional Studies, JTS
  • Dr. Linda Stone Fish, MSW, Professor Emerita of Marriage and Family Therapy, Syracuse University

New for RTI 2025: Family Systems Intensive

Fees and Registration

Registration fee: $1,100

The registration fee 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.  Please note that there is limited availability for single rooms.

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 an anonymous donor.  If you would like to inquire about a scholarship for RTI, please email rti@jtsa.edu.

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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

RTI is directed by:

Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School and dean of the Division of Religious Leadership, JTS

Rabbi Ilana Garber, Senior Director of Rabbinic Leadership, RA

Tani Schwartz-Herman, Program Director, Division of Lifelong Learning and Professional Studies, JTS

For more information and/or to apply for a scholarship, please contact us at rti@jtsa.edu.

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