Serving Small Communities Sparks Big Growth for Student Rabbis

For decades, in communities nationwide, Hebrew Union College's student rabbis have been bringing Jewish leadership, learning, and creativity to places where Jewish life is vibrant, committed, and often far from major metropolitan areas. As part of their fieldwork program, rabbinical students often serve a student pulpit traveling each month leading services, offering sermons, teaching children and adults, and officiating life cycle events. They partner with dedicated lay leaders to strengthen local community life. This year, those local communities spanned the country from Alaska to Montana to Texas, and along the east coast from Maine to Florida. In reflections from their pulpits, students share how this year of service shaped both them as future rabbis and the congregations they serve.

Megan Eslamboly
Third-year rabbinical student
Serves at Congregation Beth Aaron in Billings, MT

Whenever I mention my pulpit, I'm almost always met with the same surprised question: 'There are Jews in Montana?!' In truth, there is a vibrant network of Jewish life across the state; scattered across great distances yet ever connected and committed.

As one of the few Reform congregations in the region, Congregation Beth Aaron draws members from as far as 200 miles away. I am continually humbled by the congregants who travel more than an hour and a half each way to provide homemade challah, attend Torah study, or chant the High Holiday Torah readings. Their commitment reminds me that Jewish connection isn't about convenience-it's about covenant.

Some of my most meaningful Montana moments range from the lighthearted to the profound: making my first snow angel with the religious school kids while teaching them Shalom Aleichem, performing my first funeral during snowfall, and racing from Neilah to my first-ever rodeo. My time in Billings has taught me that Jewish leadership isn't measured by the size of a congregation but by the depth of connection you build.