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2/21/08
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News at HUC-JIR
  • Hana Safrai, HUC-JIR Professor, Dies in Jerusalem
    Professor Hana Safrai, a leader in the Orthodox Feminist Movement in Israel and a teacher for the HUC-JIR Israel Rabbinic Program, has died in Jerusalem. Her funeral took place immediately following that of HUC-JIR Professor Rabbi Ben Hollander.
  • Fiddler on the Roof Lyricist Sheldon Harnick and Conductor Judith Clurman Present to HUC-JIR/NY Community
    Harnick opened the School of Sacred Music's Masters Series by singing a rendition of 'Sunrise, Sunset,' accompanied by Clurman, and then spoke to hundreds of HUC-JIR students, faculty, staff, Board members, guests, and media about his career, notably his collaboration with composer Jerry Bock on Fiddler on the Roof.
  • HUC-JIR/New York to Celebrate Founders Day March 13, 2008 with Talk by Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D.
    Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D., President of HUC-JIR, will speak to students, faculty, and staff at Founder's Day. Rabbi Shirley Idelson, Dean of HUC-JIR/NY, will lead the day of celebration. Each year, Founders' Day Ceremonies commemorate the vision of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of HUC in 1875 in Cincinnati, and of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, founder of the JIR in 1922 in New York.
    Upcoming Events at HUC-JIR
  • Albanian Muslim Rescuers During the Holocaust: Photographs by Norman Gershman – Opening Reception February 28, 2008 at HUC-JIR/NY
    Gershman, an American photographer, chronicled the tales of righteous Albanians. His work is on view at the HUC-JIR/NY Museum through July 11, 2008.
  • The Torah: A Women's Commentary Featured at Dr. Fritz Bamberger Memorial Lecture "Opening the Door to the Deep" Creating a Women's Torah Commentary, Thursday, March 6, 2008 at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York
    Rabbi Jacqueline Koch Ellenson, Executive Director of the Women's Rabbinic Network, will moderate a panel that includes Dr. Andrea L. Weiss, Assistant Professor of Bible, HUC-JIR and co-editor of The Torah: A Women's Commentary, along with Commentary contributors and HUC-JIR Professors Dr. Carole B. Balin, Professor of Jewish History, Dr. Alyssa Gray, Associate Professor of Codes and Responsa Literature, and Dr. Wendy Zierler, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies. The women will explore the Commentary's meaning and significance from the perspectives of Bible scholarship, intellectual history, literature, and rabbinic interpretation.
  • Dr. Eugene Borowitz, HUC-JIR Professor, at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York, March 10, 2008 (PDF)
    Dr. Borowitz will discuss his newest book, co-authored with Frances W. Schwartz, "A Touch of the Sacred." In the book, Dr. Borowitz talks about the mix of faith and doubt, of knowing and non-knowing. A book signing will follow the lecture.
    HUC-JIR in the News
  • Women Take on the Torah – The Christian Science Monitor
    Many women have long felt that their part in the story has been neglected. The editor of the commentary, Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, professor of Bible at HUC-JIR/LA, recalls how some responded to the December release. "An 80-year-old woman, embracing her copy, said, 'I've been waiting for this all my life.' And a young woman told me, 'For the first time, I am included in the conversation,'" Dr. Eskenazi says.
  • Why A Women's Torah Commentary? Andrea Weiss Writes Guest Editorial in The Jerusalem Post
    For much of the long and illustrious history of Jewish biblical exegesis, commentaries have been written by men. Such commentaries typically aim to elucidate the plain sense of the text and make the Bible meaningful for subsequent generations. The Torah: A Women's Commentary strives to do the same.
  • Religion Today – The Associated Press – Features HUC-JIR/Jerusalem Alumna
    In this city once known as Poland's Jerusalem, where the rabbis of prewar Poland were men wearing black coats and hats, long beards and sidelocks, Rabbi Tanya Segal is no throwback. A Russian-born Israeli with long fiery red hair, she is Poland's first full-time female rabbi. Her arrival in December in a land where Jewish life was all but wiped out in the Holocaust is a testament to the revival of that life now – and a new diversity taking root amid the growth of the community.
    Spotlight on HUC-JIR's Programs and
    Research Resources
  • The RHSOE Alumni Association Celebrates Milestones
    The Rhea Hirsch School of Education celebrated three milestone events at their recent Alumni Kallah. Dr. Michael Zeldin, Director and alumni of the RHSOE was celebrated; the William Cutter Educator in Residence Fund, which will sponsor educational scholars on the Los Angeles Campus, was dedicated in honor of the Founding Director of the RHSOE; and Dr. Tali Hyman led "Lost in Cultural Translation: Wearing and Carrying Israel in America."
  • Travels in American Jewish History: AJA Trip to Denver May 21-25, 2008 (PDF)
    The American Jewish Archives, located at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati, along with the URJ, is sponsoring a trip to historic Denver, Colorado. Participants will be able to examine Denver's Jewish heritage while studying with the foremost scholars of American Jewish History.
    Founded in 1875, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the nation's oldest institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional development center of Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR educates men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service professionals and offers graduate and post-graduate degree programs for scholars of all faiths. With campuses in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York, and Jerusalem, HUC-JIR's scholarly resources comprise renowned library, archive, and museum collections, the American Jewish Archives, biblical archaeology excavations, research centers and institutes, and academic publications. HUC-JIR invites the community to an array of cultural and educational programs that illuminate Jewish history, culture, and contemporary creativity, and foster interfaith and multi-ethnic understanding. Visit us at www.huc.edu.
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