Steven Windmueller
It is my pleasure to extend my personal best wishes to you for a Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year 2008. This academic year, so far, has been extremely busy for the faculty, students, and administration on the Los Angeles campus, and there are many ongoing and new activities that I am delighted to report to you.
Implementation of New Technology
In February we will be dedicating a new videoconference "smart" classroom, as a result of a generous gift of Gerry and Burt Belzer. This will mark a particularly significant moment for our campus and the HUC-JIR community, as we will be able to expand our efforts to offer across our multi-campus system new learning opportunities made possible by this wonderful support.
Similarly, in early 2008 HUC-JIR will formally launch our new Student Information System (SIS) as a way to help both future applicants to our various graduate programs and current students negotiate and access information. We will have a great deal more to share with you in the months ahead concerning the acquisition and use of this campus-wide system.
Faculty Search for Jewish Thought Professor
During the course of this academic year our faculty is seeking to expand our teaching ranks by seeking a scholar in the area of Jewish philosophy and thought. Over the past several years, the Los Angeles campus has been fortunate to be able to bring eight new and dynamic scholars to join the ranks of our faculty. Their fields of research have included Jewish history, rabbinic literature and texts, education, and ethnography.
Artist-in-Residence to Enhance Jewish Education
The Los Angeles campus is fortunate to be enjoying the creative talents of Andrea Hodos, the second artist of four to interact with students and faculty in a two-year program partially funded by the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles. Andrea, a performing artist, combines study and interpretation of Jewish text with movement and dance. In her two-month residency during the November-December 2007 quadmester, she is participating in Dr. Lewis Barth's Midrash II course, where she is developing a curriculum for a project, entitled On Dry Ground, which will be available for community use upon completion. At the beginning of her residency, Andrea presented her ideas for potential partnership at a faculty meeting and was met with great enthusiasm. She will also be conducting workshops in classes taught by Rabbi Tali Hyman, Rabbi Richard Levy, Dr. Michael Zeldin, Dr. Isa Aron, Sally Weber, and Rabbi William Cutter, and she is conducting a Lunch and Learn program for the entire L.A. campus community, as well as leading two Torah interpretations during the campus-wide Thursday prayer services. As a culmination of her work, Andrea will perform, later in the Spring, an original piece of "Moving Torah" which was developed from her interaction with faculty and students.
Following Andrea Hodos's residency, the Los Angeles campus will be treated to the third residency with visual artist Judith Margolis during the third quadmester, February-March 2008. Judith is now in discussion with faculty to plan her work. We are grateful to the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation for additional funding, which makes it possible to bring the artist from Jerusalem for this unique opportunity. Our thanks, as well, to School of Jewish Communal Service alumna Anne Hromadka, who is coordinating this Artist-in-Residence program.
Related to our work in the area of the arts, I want to acknowledge the presence in our building over these past three months of a wonderful photographic exhibit, "Visions of Israel: Marvin Rand," which begins our campus celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary. Marvin is a world-renowned, Los Angeles-based photographer whose lifelong work has been primarily focused on architectural photography. I am pleased to announce that Nancy Berman, founding Director of the Skirball Museum and active member of our L.A. Campus Enhancement Committee, is loaning us over 50 works from her personal collection of Israeli art that will adorn our walls beginning in January. We are most grateful to both Marvin and Nancy for their generosity in sharing their collections with us, and for enhancing the learning experience of our students and the environment of our campus.
Honoring Our Faculty
On December 12, the Jewish Law Association, in cooperation with the College-Institute, will honor Professor Stephen Passamaneck for his years of teaching and his significant contributions to the fields of rabbinic law and literature. A "Festschrift" (a collection of academic articles in his honor) is being prepared by his many colleagues and friends, recognizing his dedicated service and contributions to this discipline. Dr. Passamaneck's connection to the College-Institute covers more than a half century of studying and teaching.
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Scholarship Luncheon
One of the extraordinary moments in our program calendar is our annual scholarship luncheon. This event was held on Tuesday, November 13, when over 80 guests and students gathered to enjoy lunch together. Hearing from HUC-JIR alumni and the families of our alumni who have scholarships named in their honor, or listening to individual donors who have created scholarships to assist our students, reminds us of how powerful and meaningful such gifts can be. For our students it represents those special opportunities to connect with individuals who are making a difference in their lives and education. Speaking at the luncheon this year were Rabbi Leonard Beerman in whose honor members of his congregation had established a rabbinic scholarship and Dan Wolf, in whose parents' names, Miriam and Rabbi Alfred Wolf, a scholarship was created by Wilshire Boulevard Temple members. Speaking on behalf of our students who were recipients of scholarships was Emily Walsh, the 2007 Windmueller Scholar. Emily's moving words resonated not only with her fellow students but with many of our donors who had joined us for lunch.
I would also like to share with you how pleased we were to announce the support of our Overseer Marcia Burnam who has recently endowed a scholarship for our School of Jewish Communal Service. This gift is in addition to her family's earlier commitment to underwrite a scholarship in her honor within the Rhea Hirsch School of Jewish Education.
Highlighting One of Our Students
Shira Liff-Grieff is a first-year dual degree student, who is studying in our School of Jewish Communal Service and at USC's Annenberg School of Communications. Growing up in the world of the Jewish community - Shira's father, Phil, is the Executive Vice President of the Bureau of Jewish Education and also teaches for our School of Jewish Communal Service - she was exposed early on to the issues and challenges of this field. She recalls participating in Federation's "Super Sunday" since she was three years old and, as she describes, "became addicted."
While a student at UC Santa Barbara, she began working for Hillel and continued her involvement with youth programming, serving on the staff of that community's Federation. Last year, Shira worked as the Hillel professional at Pierce Community College. Shira's participation in our dual-degree program with USC's Annenberg School is particularly important as it marks the fifth graduate program HUC-JIR has developed with the University of Southern California.
The Art and Act of "Deaning"
Serving as a dean is in many ways a verb, i.e. "deaning." It is as much about symbol and presence as it is about policy-making.
Being dean affords one the opportunity to deal with an array of important and challenging issues. Recently, our campus received approval for funds from the Office of Homeland Security. The balancing of security concerns with the idea of providing open access to our students, faculty, and visitors presents its own challenges.
But, as with so much in our lives, being a dean is about working with a great group of individuals, our students in particular, but also an extraordinary faculty and administrative team. It encompasses the opportunity to have such valuable community partners as our Western Region Board of Overseers and members of the national Board of Governors, and a wonderful community of supporters.
As we prepare for the year ahead, we on the Los Angeles campus look forward to hosting the visit of our Board of Governors in early February and to welcoming our alumni back to campus on February 26, on the occasion of "Founders' Day."
I want to thank so many of you for your ongoing participation with our Los Angeles campus. To those who have yet to "invest with us," we invite you to join us in this enterprise: to produce for the Jewish people a generation of professional leaders to serve our synagogues, school, and communal institutions! To make a donation by phone, please call Laurie Jacobs at 213-765-2106 or, if online, please use our website, www.huc.edu/support.
With hopes that you are enjoying your Hanukkah celebration and with all best wishes for the year ahead,
Steven Windmueller, Dean
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion/Los Angeles
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