ebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion
is internationally recognized as a
preeminent center of scholarship
–
not only as the rare venue for
graduate Jewish learning during
the era preceding the growth of
Jewish studies on university
campuses and as a haven for
scholars who fled Nazi Europe
(
see pages 23-24), but also as the
vibrant
alma mater
to nearly 400
School of Graduate Studies
alumni of all faiths who teach at
colleges, seminaries, and univer-
sities throughout the world.
What is less well known is that
the College-Institute has nur-
tured several generations of
rabbinical alumni who have
established careers as leading
academic scholars, not only at
HUC-JIR and other Jewish sem-
inaries
,
but also at leading
universities throughout North
America. In fact, these rabbinical
alumni have been the catalysts
since the 1960s for the develop-
ment of the burgeoning field of
Judaic Studies in secular institu-
tions of higher learning. As
scholars steeped in the history
and religious thought of Reform
Judaism, they also serve as advo-
cates of liberal Judaism in their
secular academic environments.
In an interview with
The
Chronicle
,
a number of rabbini-
cal alumni who are “academic
rabbis” reflected
on their rabbini-
cal student years
and ongoing
relationships
with HUC-JIR,
their areas of
scholarship, their
commitment to
Jewish intellectu-
al growth and
Reform Judaism,
and their interest
in bringing
HUC-JIR and
the academy
closer together.
For many of
these academics,
their scholarship
began as a con-
sequence of
their rabbinical
studies. The theses they pre-
pared for ordination, ranging
from American
Jewish literature,
18
th century
Hassidism,
Maimonides’
Guide to the
Perplexities of
Creation
,
medieval Jewish
history and cul-
ture, rabbinic
literature and
Judaism in the
Greek and Roman
periods, gossip
and slander in rab-
binic texts,
medieval philoso-
phy,
commentaries,
and Bible provid-
ed the foundation
for several of their
Ph.D. dissertations.
“
HUC-JIR in the late 1950s and
1960
s was a superb place to
study Judaism from a historical
perspective, with a faculty devot-
ed both to Jewish scholarship
and the continued vitality of
Judaism, providing us with a
broad range of viewpoints in an
atmosphere of intellectual open-
ness and genial encouragement,”
recalls
Robert Seltzer
. “
Even
though I became a historian of
modern Jewry, my training at
HUC-JIR grounded me in
Bible, Hellenistic Judaism, rab-
binics, Jewish philosophy, Jewish
literature, the whole scope of
Jewish history, human relations,
education, and even public speak-
ing.”
Peter Haas
agrees, “My
point in going to HUC-JIR was
to get a better background in the
rabbinic texts, and also to get a
perspective from within rather
than a purely academic point of
view.”
Jonathan Malino
began
rabbinical school at HUC-
JIR/NY the same time as he
began his graduate studies at
Columbia, while
Michael
Signer
,
who later went to the
University of Toronto for his
Ph.D., says, “the idea of focusing
my rabbinical career on ‘Torah’
and ‘
Wissenschaft
’
captivated me.”
On a more personal note,
Ruth
Langer
recalls that her marriage
to Jonathan Sarna (then on the
HUC-JIR faculty) kept her in
16
THE CHRONICLE
F
ROM THE
S
EMINARY TO
THE
A
CADEMY
:
R
ABBINICAL
A
LUMNI
T
EACHING AT
U
NIVERSITIES
by Jean Bloch Rosensaft
H
Peter J. Haas, C ’74
Michael Signer, C ‘70
Jonathan Malino, N ‘79
Robert Seltzer, C ‘61