With the impressive number of 19 students from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Spain, the IberoAmerican Institute for Reform Rabbinical Education (IIFRR) began the classes of its first year of operation, after 18 months of intense planning by its founding partners: the World Union for Progressive Judaism, the WUPJ-Latin America, Fundación Judaica, and Centro de Espiritualidad Judía Mishkan.
The project is the long overdue answer to the growing need for Rabbis in the region, that is plagued by economic hardships, but, nevertheless, harbors 20 vibrant Reform communities, and 2% of world Jewry, in constant need of Rabbis and trained professionals.
Classes are held in an innovative way that combines the ongoing core classes using a distance learning online platform and two face-to-face intensive seminaries per year, organized in Buenos Aires and other cities of the region, throughout the year.
All rabbis who are presently serving the communities in the region are teaching in the IIFRR, demonstrating that the Institute is emerging from the will of the communities and is a direct answer to its specific needs and idiosyncrasies. Rabbi Damián Karo, Dean of the Institute, emphasized the level of the teaching team who was also recruited outside the region, among the best Spanish and Portuguese speaking rabbis and scholars.
Click here to read more about the founding of the Institute in September 2017.
To learn more about the activities and program of the Institute, email: info@institutorabinico.org.