When Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld was named Hebrew College’s dean of the only rabbinical school in New England 18 years ago in what was then considered a bold and controversial move, its future success was anything but certain.

The Newton college was dealing with a sizable budget deficit. It was the first rabbinical school not to be associated with any of the major Jewish denominations, and there was a serious concern if Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox synagogues would even offer their graduates pulpit jobs.

“At that time, rabbinic placement was done through the denominations, and they were resistant to hiring rabbis who didn’t come through their own seminaries and rabbinic associations,” said Anisfeld, one of the first women to head a rabbinical school.

Today, it is the largest non-Orthodox rabbinical school in the country with 75 students and 221 graduates working in Jewish communities in the United States and abroad, serving as rabbis in Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, and unaffiliated congregations.

Every major non-Orthodox synagogue in Greater Boston has hired the school’s graduates as interns and, in many cases, rabbis, according to Anisfeld.

She said about 50 percent of the graduates serve in pulpits while the other half work in a number of other positions, including Hillel rabbis, chaplains in health care settings, educators, and as leaders in Jewish community organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

While Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Newton will welcome a class of 16 new students in the fall, other schools are showing a sharp decline of approximately 20 percent in enrollment despite a national shortage of rabbis, according to the school’s Rabbinical School Dean Rabbi Daniel Klein.

The Jewish Theological Seminary’s Rabbinical School in New York admitted only seven new students last year.

Hebrew Union College’s campuses in New York, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati ordained a total of only 30 rabbis last year. The Cincinnati campus will close its rabbinical program in 2026. Yeshiva University and Hebrew Union College – both in New York – also have seen a decline in enrollment.

In sharp contrast, Klein said Hebrew College has seen its rabbinical school admissions remain consistent in recent years, with class size averaging 15 students a year. He said the school anticipates similar numbers in the future. Thirteen students were ordained in June.

They won’t find difficulty finding a job, as the demand for rabbis nationwide exceeds supply, as baby boomers are retiring and others are leaving because of burnout, according to a report in Mosaic, a national Jewish publication, entitled “American Judaism’s Great Rabbi Shortage.”

Klein cited a number of factors for the decreasing numbers of students, including the major financial and time commitment involved in attending rabbinical school, the difficulties of the job – “you’re on all the time” – and geographical concerns.

Many students, he said, prefer to live in larger cities where there are sizeable Jewish communities.

At Hebrew College, tuition is about $32,000 year and the rabbinical program runs five to six years, depending on the student’s background in Hebrew. Some 50 percent of Hebrew College students receive scholarship support.

Prospective students, Klein said, “Need to have been demonstrably engaged in Jewish living in a serious way for a significant portion of time. Is prayer a part of your life? Have you been involved in Jewish learning? Do you read the parsha [a section of the Torah] weekly?

“Jewish learning here is not just about the intellect but it is about the heart and soul. The teachings, the rituals, the practices of our tradition need to be real and meaningful parts of your life,” the dean said.

“If you’re going to be working with people in communities, teaching them about Shabbat and prayer and holidays, it has got to be real for you.”

The school’s philosophy attracted Rabbi Talia Stein, the associate rabbi of Temple Sinai in Brookline, a 2020 graduate of Hebrew College.

“Hebrew College really focused on prayer life, as well as developing a spiritual life and a relationship with the divine, with God and prayer,” she said.

“I felt I would be challenged and pushed in the ways that I wanted, and the school would allow me the growth that I really was seeking.”

Few would have predicted the college’s rabbinical school would become a success story when it opened with a nontraditional class of 15 students, including a former lawyer, matchmaker, and carpenter who were interested in second careers as rabbis.

Today, most of the students are in their mid-20s and have grown up in the liberal Jewish world, although there are occasionally some students who were raised in an Orthodox home or are Jews by choice, according to the dean.

“The decision to start the school was certainly a bold, and in some ways controversial move,” Anisfeld said.

“It also turned out to be prescient in anticipating the need for a pluralistic rabbinical school that would be passionately grounded in Torah and the rigorous study of classical sources but committed to a vibrant atmosphere of intellectual and spiritual openness, creativity, and depth.”

Anisfeld said the college’s leadership “knew the Jewish world needed this form of rabbinic education but no one knew how we would be received.”

Not everyone was in favor of starting a rabbinical school, as the college had only built a new campus in Newton Centre the year before and was in serious financial difficulty.

The new campus, designed by Moshe Safdie, an internationally-recognized Israeli-Canadian architect, had been financed with a $32 million loan, including a tax-free bond and a $5.2 million loan guarantee from Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.

The college couldn’t overcome the crushing debt and was forced to sell the new campus only 16 years after opening. The buyer permitted the college to remain at its Newton location until it could find a new one.

Last year, the college opened a new shared campus at the Conservative Temple Reyim in Newton as part of what the temple calls a “hub for Jewish learning, community, and creativity.”

The college renovated 25,000 square feet of the temple building and constructed an additional two-floor state-of-the-art wing dedicated to offices and program space.

Anisfeld said the college has eliminated its long-term debt and raised all the funds for the new campus through a $13.9 million capital campaign.

“We’re excited to be planning for the future from a much stronger and healthier position,” she said. Θ