18
THE CHRONICLE
These “academic rabbis” main-
tain close relationships with
HUC-JIR.
David Ruderman
was one of the moving forces
for the creation of the CCAR-
HUC-JIR Joint Comission on
Sustaining Rabbinic Education.
Frederick Greenspahn,
Jonathan Malino, Marc
Saperstein, Matthew Kraus,
Michael Morgan, Michael
Signer, Peter Haas,
and
Robert
Seltzer
serve on the Academic
Advisory Board of HUC-JIR.
Seltzer
organized a conference
co-sponsored with HUC-JIR
that resulted in a book,
The
Americanization of the Jews
,
co-edited by Provost Norman J.
Cohen, and has invited numer-
ous HUC-JIR faculty members
to lecture and publish at
Hunter College.
Signer
,
who
taught at HUC-JIR/LA for 19
years, has involved HUC-JIR
students in week-long seminars
at Auschwitz and Krakow
where, together with his Notre
Dame students, they meet with
German and Polish students in
study of how to live a religious
life in a post-Shoah world.
The relationship with HUC-
JIR also endures through the
numerous students these alumni
have directed toward HUC-JIR
for graduate study. Some of
them have become ordained
rabbis; others have pursued
careers in other areas of Jewish
communal life.
Marc
Saperstein
believes that the
experiences of several students
in his courses influenced them
to want to continue their study
at HUC-JIR. “I have been able
to help several prospective rab-
binical students attain the
academic proficiencies that
gained them admission to the
College-Institute and have
encouraged several Christian
seminary students to attend
graduate school at HUC-JIR,”
notes
Frederick Greenspahn.
Some alumni are also effective
in influencing their students in
other ways.
Signer
notes,
“
Many of my graduate and
undergraduate students eventu-
ally will become active lay
people in the Catholic church; I
try to show them ways in which
they can engage with the Jewish
community when they become
an active member of their
parish.”
Haas
takes pride in
having had “the opportunity to
teach and influence divinity stu-
dents at Vanderbilt Divinity
School, particularly those work-
ing in New Testament, for
whom I could offer a better
perspective of the Judaism of
the time, and the ability to
teach hundreds of undergradu-
ates of all backgrounds in
Judaism and the Middle East.”
Always forging new directions
in Judaic scholarship, their
forthcoming books tackle an
array of subjects (see sidebar).
Their past efforts have yielded
notable achievements, ranging
from
Saperstein
’
s winning the
National Jewish Book Award
for two different books on the
history of Jewish preaching, to
Malino
’
s founding and contin-
uing coordination of an annual
philosophy conference, now in
its 20
th
year, at the Shalom
Hartman Institute, bringing
together leading Israeli and
American philosophers and
legal and political theorists.
“
I was fortunate that just as I was
completing my doctoral work,
Jewish studies was widely coming
into its own in American higher
education. As a newly-minted
professor, I was able to introduce
general Jewish history at Hunter
College to supplement the long-
standing Hebrew language and
literature program,” recalls
Seltzer
,
who also points to serv-
ing on the Board and
committees of the CCAR as a
source of personal fulfillment.
Other pioneers include
Langer
,
who is proud of bringing about
the creation of the Center for
Christian-Jewish Learning at
Boston College, “which is begin-
ning to have a significant impact
on Christian-Jewish, and particu-
larly Catholic-Jewish relations,
nationally and internationally.”
Ruderman
takes pride in “the
Center for Advanced Judaic
Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania, an institution that
attracts some 25 scholars a year
from around the world to create
a new discourse in Jewish learn-
ing. This institution is unique
and reflects the power of the new
renaissance of Jewish learning
sweeping the university.”
Furthermore, the Center reaches
out to the greater Philadelphia-
area community by assisting 12
synagogues in creating adult edu-
cation programs – a partnership
model for other communities
with proximity to universities
with Judaic studies departments –
and offers lecture programs in
New York, Miami, and soon in
Los Angeles in conjunction with
HUC-JIR.
Kraus
,
one of the
youngest academic rabbinical
alumni, feels honored that he is
the first person tenured in Jewish
Studies at Williams College.
Signer
is most proud of “
Dabru
Emet
” –
signed by more than
200
Reform, Conservative, and
Orthodox rabbis and scholars –
that sets an agenda for future
Marc Saperstein, N ‘72
Frederick Greenspahn, C ‘73
David Ruderman, N ‘71
F
ROM THE
S
EMINARY TO
THE
A
CADEMY
:
R
ABBINICAL
A
LUMNI
T
EACHING AT
U
NIVERSITIES
(
continued from page 17)