Ivy League Rabbi

Teaching, and going to rabbinical school might not seem like the most glamorous path for an Ivy League graduate to take, but Rabbi Judd K. Levingston '86 says that going to Harvard has helped him tremendously in his career.

"Parents and faculty extend me a certain degree of credibility," Levingston said. "They figured even if I didn't know everything, they knew I would know where to turn."

Levingston, who concentrated in History and Science, began teaching immediately after graduating from Harvard at an independent school in Baltimore, where he says some people reacted strongly to his educational background.

"When I was first introduced, along with one guy from Princeton and one from Yale, there were gasps in the audience, kids seemed impressed," Levingston says. "The kids aspired to go to these places."

But Levingston's job surprised many of his classmates.

"I would get things like, 'That's so great, you're donating your time to charity, but what are you going to do next?'" he says. "It was as if teaching was not a genuine career choice."

Education might not have been the popular career choice among his peers, but Levingston says he feels that he got the better end of the deal.

"Some of my friends seemed a bit envious," he says. "They felt pressured to go into investment banking, or work for two years and go to law school. I was doing my own thing."

In fact, Levingston did decide to go to graduate school, but it wasn't to study law or medicine. Instead, he enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary's (JTS) Rabbinical School and was ordained as a Conservative rabbi in June 1993.

According to Levingston, not only did going to Harvard help him get into JTS, but it also helped him deal academically. Even though his Hebrew background was weak, Levingston says he still had some advantages over his classmates.

"I found, being from Harvard, that people extended to me credibility I didn't deserve," he says. "Professors found I could write even if I couldn't study Talmud."

Whereas Harvard emphasized intellectualism and critical thinking, Levingston says that rabbinical school added a new dimension that was sometimes difficult for him.

"Talking about theology was exciting," he says, "but the assumption that these commandments might come from God was difficult."

" I have innate skepticism and having gone to Harvard and Exeter just added to it," he says.

Yet the very skepticism and critical thinking that Levingston learned in college has allowed him to reach out to his adolescent students.

After his ordination, Levingston became the principal of the Rebecca and Israel Ivry Prozdor, a Jewish after-school program for high school students for six years.

This year, Levingston became the principal of the Solomon High School of New York, a Conservative Jewish school.

"I think the intellectual training and the healthy skepticism has served me well when I work with people who are skeptical," Levingston says.

"I find that appreciating that [skepticism] helps a tremendous amount when I speak," he says. "It makes religion accessible for people."

His Ivy League-background isn't always great though, Levingston adds. Sometime people simply pile on the pressure.

"I think they have higher expectations which means they end up being more disappointed if I don't follow through," he says.