2003
ISSUE 62
9
implementation forces us to think in new
ways and work together on our campuses
and cross-campus to a much greater extent.
c) We place supreme value on teaching,
which must entail our concern for student
learning outcomes; our responsibility to help
our students integrate all facets of their
HUC-JIR experience and an acknowledge-
ment that advising and mentoring, and the
ways in which we assess our students
throughout their experience, are crucial.
All of this makes tremendous demands upon
each member of the faculty – yet the benefits
of our investing time and energy are great.
First, the challenge of being more reflective
and even more creative in our teaching as we
review and reshape the content of what we
have taught and how we communicate it, and
how we assess our students, will no doubt
enhance our students’ growth. It will also
enable them to forge a clearer vision of the rel-
evance of the tradition for people’s lives. Second,
the greater collaboration with colleagues from
different disciplines as well as within our own
areas will be personally satisfying. It will add to
our own growth as teachers and scholars as it
challenges us to measure our own views in
relationship to those of others. Finally, the
Core Curriculum in its essence places a high
priority on teaching at the College- Institute
and, therefore, must be recognized as such by
all of us. We must value the time and commit-
ment invested by faculty in their teaching.
D. Implementation
Amidst all of our other activity, we are devot-
ing much energy to the implementation of
the new Core Curriculum for our rabbinical
program and to its relevancy for our other
professional programs. We
are moving ahead on each
campus with the planning
for our new quadmester
structure and the requisite
review and changes in our
learning modules. The cam-
pus committees on
curriculum and local faculty
are working hard at review-
ing the new core curriculum’s
aims and goals in each learn-
ing area and adapting them
to the resources, expertise,
and interests of our faculty.
During the past academic year, the Los
Angeles faculty and administration complet-
ed the planning for the two year (the second
and third years) quadmester core curriculum
structure, which will be put into effect for
2
nd
-
year rabbinical and education students
this fall on a model basis. In doing so, they
dealt with all the academic policy and proce-
dural issues and structural challenges
attendant to the implementation of the core
curriculum. The efforts of the Los Angeles
School will help our other campuses enor-
mously as we move forward.
In Cincinnati, emphasis on collaboration
and integration emphasized at the faculty
retreat was continued during the year.
Faculty have focused upon opportunities for
integrating learning amongst different areas
as well as on how to help students attain a
more integrated sense of what they have
learned through new modes of assessment.
In New York, the faculty is in the final stages
of shaping a model quadmester structure for
the second and third years. In addition, a
new integrative learning module on Reform
Judaism was introduced as the program for
the year-opening
Kallah
.
This module seeks
to introduce students to the critical thinking
and methodological approaches that inform
the entire course of study and are the bedrock
of the Core Curriculum. The faculty is also
working on a module on Jewish music, which
is mandated by the new curriculum guidelines.
In Jerusalem, the faculty and administration
are engaged in implementing key aspects of
the Core Curriculum for our first-year stu-
dents. These include a basic orientation to
the purpose and nature of the curriculum,
several new courses and seminars that inte-
grate learning, including an integrative,
thematic module on Jerusalem, and new
assessment vehicles.
On a broader national level, the overall Core
Curriculum Implementation Committee cre-
ated two important planning vehicles to move
the process forward. A Hebrew Planning
Committee, chaired by Dr.William Cutter,
discussed both the implementation of the new
Hebrew matriculation standards as well as
how we can concretize on each campus the
Hebrew goals outlined in the new curriculum.
Second, we have shaped a National
Committee on Assessment to implement the
overall approach to assessment of students as
defined by the Core Curriculum, and how we
can ensure that through the ongoing assess-
ment of students, each of them is able to
fulfill his/her potential.
Our forward-looking, creative new Core
Rabbinic Curriculum (which also has begun
to impact upon our other professional pro-
grams as they adapt to its structure and new
learning modules) is now coming to fruition.
Our first-year students in Jerusalem have
already been introduced to the new curricu-
lum and its overall approach and will benefit
from it during this academic year. The new
curriculum will be introduced on our state-
side campuses in the fall of 2004 when our
students return from Israel. In addition, our
new higher matriculation standards in
Hebrew and basic Jewish literacy will be
introduced for all new applicants this year.
The new Core Rabbinic Curriculum’s over-
riding message is that teaching/learning are
our priority and our key role is to focus on
learning outcomes, how students think and
understand, what they know and what they
are able to do with their knowledge. Simply
put, our goal is to help our students make
meaning – in each learning area and
throughout their overall experience at the
College-Institute, and later in their profes-
sional careers. While not shying away from
the daunting challenges of implementing a
new curriculum and reshaping our academic
life, we are all energized by the opportunity
to achieve what essentially is a sea change in
the culture of HUC-JIR.
Dr. Michael Zeldin and students, HUC-JIR/Los Angeles.