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A S
acred
L
egacy
Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D.
President (2001–2013); Chancellor, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
This scroll was rescued from the Europe that my teacher, Rabbi Wolli Kaelter, knew.
The College saved him, as it saved others,
Though not nearly enough,
A saving remnant only.
But it saved the few it could in those dark days.
Patched, sewn, and repaired, the scroll was rescued too,
And then handed to Rabbi Kaelter,
When I stood here, as you do now.
He then handed it to me,
As I hand it now to you.
A witness to our people’s past:
Its tears and its agony,
But also its resilience,
And its passion for the destiny toward which it was intended
Since Abraham and Sarah first chose to hear a call.
Birshut rabbotai,
“
With the permission of my teachers,”
Of your colleagues too, the faculty gathered here,
I call upon you,
Rabbi Aaron Panken,
To carry this scroll of our past into the future.
(
Congregation is seated)