After the ceremony, Rabbi Jonathan Gross, a rabbi in Omaha who was featured on the video, said, “It was very encouraging to see the future of American rabbanus.”
Rabbi Chananya Weissman, a rebbe and English teacher at the Queens Gymnasia, a yeshiva for Bukharian Jews, said the event was “very inspiring.” He added that it was an extra bonus to be able to see “the familiar faces of semikhah students.”
The parents of another new musmakh told me of his family’s own personal legacy. Professor Shalom and Noya Rackovsky related how Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky’s great-grandfather was a rosh yeshiva at RIETS, and his grandfather was the first captain of the RIETS debate team. Rabbi Rackovsky was just one of the over 180 promising new rabbis with the legacy of RIETS looking over their shoulders.