For years, synagogue leaders have said they can’t find enough clergy to fill their pulpits, leading to warnings of a nationwide rabbinic shortage . At the same time, openings for campus rabbis at Hillel chapters draw an average of 19 applicants each.

This mismatch between what rabbis want to do and the kinds of jobs available is among the many findings in the first-ever empirical study of the American rabbinate across denominations, released this week by the Atra Center for Rabbinic Innovation.

The study also examines the so-called “rabbinic pipeline” — the concern that declining enrollment at seminaries means too few people want to become rabbis. Here, too, the findings challenge conventional wisdom.

Surveying 450 people who considered the rabbinate but chose other careers, the stu

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