Vital in its approach and vibrant in its tradition, the Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical College is the leading Sephardic center for Torah learning and training for the rabbinate. The mission of the SSC is to change the world through education by placing rabbis, trained in Sephardic tradition and Jewish law, in struggling Sephardic communities around the globe.
For three decades, the Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical College, has provided an unsurpassed educational experience to rabbinical students from around the globe. Embodying Sephardic tradition and rich heritage, the three-to-four year accredited rabbinical training program is responsive to community needs, and provides a preeminent source of rabbinic leadership for the next generation and beyond.
In an increasingly complex world, the Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical College prepares its students to face the complex issues of today’s society, while anchored in the sacred legacy of Torah and the Jewish people.
The Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical Program has trained some of the Sephardic world’s most distinguished Orthodox rabbis, scholars, and teachers. With their rich grounding of Jewish law and Halakha, our graduates assume a broad range of leadership roles in the community while ensuring the perpetuation of Jewish scholarship.
Firmly set in the emphasis on Talmud, Codes, and Halakhah, the Abe M. & Geri Cohen 
Rabbinical Program has developed programs to meet the communal and personal needs of our time and place. Our students study Halakha, Talmud and practical rabbinics. Students learn all areas of Jewish law, including the laws of Shabbat and holidays, niddah (family purity), mikveh (ritual immersion), mourning, kashrut (keeping a kosher home), and marriage and divorce. Some students are also taught kosher slaughtering, and mohelim (performance of circumcision required on the 8th day after the birth of a boy).
In addition, the students must complete a leadership training program, which includes public speaking, substance abuse, philosophy, psychology, negotiation and family counseling.
In the three decades since the SSC opened its doors, scores of graduates have passed the examinations administered by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and have been ordained as rabbis. More than 150 of our alumni have been placed in congregations around the world, including more than a dozen in the New York/ New Jersey area. During the course of the coming decade, we hope, with the help of God, to place 100 additional rabbis in communities throughout the world.
Upon graduation, the SSC works diligently to place each graduate into a congregation somewhere in the world. The SSC has trained more than 150 rabbis, 15 dayanim, 60 teachers, 40 mohelim, and 25 shochetim. These spiritual leaders now serve Sephardic Jews in 70 cities on five continents.
Seen as the global source for Sephardic training, the SSC receives calls daily from Diaspora Jewish communities looking for rabbinic leadership to build a kahal, lead holiday services, to teach in a school, or to oversee the kashrut of a restaurant. No matter what the need, the SSC fills the gap by sending its graduates to the remotest towns or the most highly populated cities, to serve and inspire the people there.
The Rabbinical school is highly recommended by the former Chief Rabbis Hacham Ovadia Yosef, Hacham Mordechai Eliyahu, Hacham Bakshi Doron and the present Chief Rabbi, Rishon Le-Zion, Hacham Shlomo Amar.
ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for admission to the Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical College are:
- A satisfactory record in Talmud and Jewish studies
- An entrance examination
- Three letters of recommendation: two from the most recent roshei yeshiva and one from the student’s congregational rabbi
- A personal interview
TRANSCRIPTS
The applicant must have two official copies of his transcript of record sent from each undergraduate and graduate institution attended. Mail to: Rabbi Sam Kassin
Misgav Ladach 33
Jerusalem, Israel, 97500
kassin.sam@gmail.com
If this application is submitted in the middle of a semester during which the applicant is in attendance at another school, he should not wait until the end of the term to have transcripts sent; they should be ordered at once and supplements (in duplicate) should be requested upon completion of the term.
All students admitted to the Abe M. & Geri Cohen Rabbinical College are eligible to receive a full tuition scholarship and/or stipends, depending on their situation.
Free housing is available for all single SSC students in the SSC dormitory on site.
