Chovevei Grads Not Yet in RCA
Three months ago, I did some reporting about a then-upcoming vote that would determine whether YCT graduates would be welcomed into the RCA. Well, the voting date of June 14th came and went, and there was no news. So I wrote to the RCA’s Rabbi Basil Herring to ask for an update, and he replied:
By mutual agreement the matter was not taken up at the June 14th meeting of the Executive Committee of the RCA, as Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and the Semichah Standards Committee are continuing to mutually address several issues in the YCT application.
I’ll have no further comment on the matter.
Interesting.
July 6th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Question: Do they accept musmakhim who take the ZN Goldberg Bechina? L’aniat daati, i dont think that exam comes along with any kind rabbinic training such as that of YCT which regorously prepares people for the rabbinate. The question is, what is (or was iontended by its founders) or what will be the standards of qualifications measured by the RCA?
July 6th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Why are you asking such a logical question, when it’s clear that the entire decision by the RCA is politically charged?
July 6th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Anoymous - Yes, that is the question, and it’s one that’s being currently debated on several fronts.
July 6th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
no they don’t take smicha from Rav zalman nechemia goldberg. you need smicha from an institution or two semichas
July 6th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
I hear that they have also stopped accepting graduates of Aish, Ohr Torah- Yeshivat Hamivtar, Bat Ayin, and R. Zalman Nechmiah.
Since it was originally an old boys club with clear boundaries- they did not need formal rules. They now have to create membership rules. They used to evaluate one by one but now they have to create objective standards.
I hear that they are looking for a non-Riets gadol to give hashkamah to YCT.
July 6th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
andn ow that Skokie stopped giving semicha, the RCA really is a YU old boys club (with a few remaining chofetz chaim guys mxed in)
July 6th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Not true. Because guys with smicha from Lakewood, Chaim Berlin, or Torah Ve-Daas who take a “modern” congregation may join the RCA for various reasons.
July 6th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
One reason that the RCA is not accepting YCT graduates is because of the participation of YCT students in Darchei Noam in Manhattan (and its equivalent in Riverdale) where both men and women are called to the Torah for Aliyot. Rabbi Weiss’s recent marriage of a kohen to a convert did not help the cause of his students, of which I am one, either. Moreover, the public comments by one graduate about presiding over a gay seder ceremony hurt YCT. Finally, although totally unjust, some YU rabbanim crititicize the Rosh Hayeshiva, Dov Linzer, because his wife wears a talit as do the wives of several chovevei students. As far as the attack on my teacher at YCT., Dr. Milgram, it was weak. Just because he teaches Talmud at the JTS rabbinical school or engages in Talmud criticism does not make him conservative. At the very worst, he is Orthoprax rather than Orthodox.
July 6th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
BB
That was true in the 1950’s also. It does not change the nature of the club.
July 6th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
The following are lists, publicly available on the RCA site of what yeshivot are accredited (=acceptance by RCA) and which private smichas are acceptable (2 of which = acceptance by RCA). Rav ZN Goldberg is on list 2. Hamivtar is on ist 1.
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July 6th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
The following are lists, publicly available on the RCA site of what yeshivot are accredited (=acceptance by RCA) and which private smichas are acceptable (2 of which = acceptance by RCA). Rav ZN Goldberg is on list 2. Hamivtar is on list 1.
...
...
July 6th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
That is May 2006. That was the list that Excluded YCT. Can you get a May 2004?
July 6th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Given the fast acceptance of their rabbis, the issue will soon be are the RCA members accredited by YCT?
July 6th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Curious how many class at did Saul Berman and Naomi Marks teach at YCT?
I have a great deal of concerns with anyone calling themselves a rabbi if their teachers are unethical.
Remember both Marks and Berman were involved with Mordechai Gafni. Neither of them have ever made a public apology.
July 10th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Dear Tara,
You are not a current YCT semicha student.
Stop the impersonations. You are pathetic.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Check out this article Yeshiva University Vs. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah ... seems to put an end to this BUT I don’t know what Mr. Ford source is….