3
“
I truly believe that HUC-JIR
is the most important Jewish
institution in North America
today,” says Andrew R. Berger,
the new Chair of HUC-JIR’s Board of Governors. “It is
HUC-JIR that prepares innovative and caring Jewish leaders
to inspire new generations to lead Jewish lives. Nothing
is more important than supporting HUC-JIR’s mission.”
Berger’s life’s journey exemplifies his point, saying “it was
two red-headed rabbis, alumni of HUC-JIR, who changed
my life.”
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, to parents who were lawyers,
he grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, where his father was a
law professor at the University of Nebraska. “My Jewish
identity was formed mostly by osmosis, based on my
parents’ strong identification, rather than synagogue or
community-centered,” he recalls.
Focused on becoming a lawyer early on, he graduated from
the University of Nebraska in two years with a B.A. in
economics and went directly to Cornell Law School, where
he enjoyed the Socratic method of teaching that “taught me
how to think as a lawyer.” He was recruited to a large law
firm in Cincinnati and after two years joined Katz Teller
in 1980, where he became a partner in 1984. His practice
is concentrated in mergers and acquisitions, commercial
financing transactions, business organization and succession
planning, and executive employment agreements. He serves
as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and is listed in
Woodward/White’s
The Best Lawyers in America
and recog-
nized as an Ohio Super Lawyer by Law & Politics Media.
Never having affiliated with a synagogue or been involved
in the organized Jewish community, Berger’s turn toward
Jewish engagement in his 40s was sparked by an unexpected
invitation from a friend and law partner, Tedd Friedman,
a lifelong member of Isaac M. Wise Temple, to attend
Yom Kippur services at its landmark Plum Street Temple.
Arriving early, he picked up the
mahzor
,
the High Holy
Days prayer book, “whose beautiful meditations posed
soul-searching questions for me: have you done everything
to help strengthen the Jewish people, to make yourself a
better person?” The theme of the sermon –The Eleventh
Commandment: Thou Shalt Hope – inspired him to think
about how “the Jewish people have survived as a civilization
because we never gave up hope for ourselves and the larger
world.” Deeply affected by the service’s theme of ‘return,’
Berger told his wife Linda, whom he had married in 1991,
about this “life changing experience, almost an epiphany”
and that he wanted to explore a stronger connection to
the Jewish community and membership in a synagogue.
Another law partner, Jerry Teller, a longtime member of
the HUC-JIR Board of Governors, leader of the Cincinnati
Jewish community, and member of Wise Temple, directed
Berger to his rabbi, Rabbi Lewis Kamrass. Rabbi Kamrass
welcomed the Bergers but suggested they do some learning
first and sent them to the Rabbi Gary P. Zola, Ph.D.,
Executive Director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of
the American Jewish Archives at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati.
Dr. Zola’s
Introduction to Judaism
class and their new
relationship with Rabbi Kamrass “had a tremendous impact
on our lives. We were concerned about how an interfaith
couple would be received in the Jewish world and were in
the process of deciding how to bring up our children.
Because of that class, the feeling that our family could be
welcomed into the community, and the support of those two
red-headed rabbis – Dr. Zola and Rabbi Kamrass – Linda
made the decision to bring up our children as Jews. That’s
why I am passionate about HUC-JIR. I want us to turn out
more Jewish leaders like them who can change people’s lives.”
The Bergers joined Wise Temple and discovered a welcom-
ing community with “many people like us raising children
in an interfaith environment, where Judaism is a choice.
We found good friends with whom we could have serious
conversations about God, values, and what it means to be
in a synagogue community.”
HUC-Jir’
s
a
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Hair of
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b
oard of
g
overnors
Andrew Berger
and Rabbi Panken
reading Torah.