by Debra Nussbaum Cohen A worldwide effort is underway to bring about healing for one of American Judaism’s most beloved composers of healing and other Jewish liturgy. Debbie Friedman is the widely-known composer of Jewish songs, including “Mishebeirach,” “Sing Unto God” and “Lechi Lach,” which have become standard parts of synagogue and camp life in Judaism’s liberal denominations. Friedman, who has long suffered with ill health but been private about the underlying cause, has developed pneumonia and is on a respirator, in a medically-induced coma in an Orange County, California hospital. Her sister Sheryl Friedman reports that as of January 7, the doctors’ measures have not yet succeeded in opening up her lungs. Close friends and colleagues are asking people worldwide to … Continue Reading
Introducing the School of Jewish Nonprofit Management
The School of Jewish Communal Service, established more than forty years ago by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), is changing its name to the School of Jewish Nonprofit Management (SJNM), reflecting the dramatic changes in the nonprofit and Jewish communal world during the past decades. The SJNM is unique in the academic world - it is the only graduate program of its kind that is embedded within a Jewish institution of higher learning and enjoys a special partnership with its neighbor, the University of Southern California. Students at the SJNM receive a cutting-edge education in nonprofit management grounded in Jewish history and values, as well as the opportunity to earn one of five dual degrees at USC. Originally conceived as a graduate program preparing social … Continue Reading
New Grant to HUC Supports Classical Reform Programs
The Society for Classical Reform Judaism (SCRJ), with the support of the Edward and Wilhelmina Ackerman Foundation, has announced a five-year grant in the amount of $500,000 to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). This grant will support rabbinical students on the Cincinnati campus with scholarships, Prize Essay Awards, a Student Travel Fund, and an annual SCRJ Institute. Classical Reform Judaism - its history, thought, and liturgical expressions - will be included in Core and Elective courses in the Rabbinical School on the Cincinnati campus and the School of Sacred Music on the New York campus, and in campus co-curricular activities and programs. Cincinnati faculty will work to develop an elective course on Classical Reform Judaism, which may be offered through … Continue Reading
HUC Cincinnati Selling Land Assets
from Cincinnati.com: Hebrew Union College bounces back Nearly a year after the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion was rescued from a potential shuttering, there are nascent signs of recovery. ... It was October 2009 when the national HUC board officially adopted a plan to close a $3 million budget deficit, imposing budget cuts on campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem but keeping all four open. The cuts have been painful and are not fully implemented yet, meaning any new programs or scholarships will depend on private donations. Enrollment on the campus here is down to about 47 rabbinical students and 30 in the graduate program, plus 100 employees. To help plug the budget cuts, the college is selling some assets. That … Continue Reading
The Future of Jewish Scholarship
Jewish Studies Rises, but We Pay the Price an opinion piece by Jacob Neusner The flourishing of Jewish studies at secular American universities in recent decades is a remarkable and profoundly important development. As students return to their campuses, it is not only those who attend Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College or the Jewish Theological Seminary who will have access to high-level teaching and scholarship on Jewish topics. Secular academic institutions have gained unprecedented endowments for their professorships and programs in Jewish studies. The tens of millions of dollars that have supported the new professorships, programs and post-doctoral study centers in Jewish studies have bought a place in academia for anything Jewish, with the priorities set by the secular … Continue Reading
Jim Joseph Foundation Makes $5.2m Grant to DeLeT
The Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded a three-year, $5.2 million grant to the DeLeT teacher education program at Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. The grant extends a donor relationship between the foundation and DeLeT that began two years ago. According to an evaluation commissioned by the foundation, DeLeT represents a “paradigm shift” in the preparation of Jewish day school teachers, integrating graduate coursework with a yearlong immersive field experience in partner schools. As of this summer, the program will have prepared more than 130 Jewish day school teachers, working in 40 schools across the U.S. DeLeT, the Hebrew word for “door,” stands for Day School Leadership through Teaching. Philanthropist Laura Lauder founded the … Continue Reading
New Rabbis Face Employment Challenges
Newly Ordained Find the 2010 Spiritual Job Market a Tough Place To Sell Their Wares by Larry Yudelson Last fall, Rabbi Lennard Thal gave an uncharacteristic warning to senior rabbinical students at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary that trains Reform rabbis: Consider options other than the pulpit for your rabbinic career. Thal heads the Reform movement’s Joint Commission on Rabbinic Placement. His advice reflected the failure of an unprecedented number of graduates of the rabbinic class of 2009 to find pulpits. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting decline in synagogue dues and donations, senior rabbis postponed retirement, junior positions were eliminated, and cutbacks at the umbrella group Union for Reform Judaism sent many older … Continue Reading
The Limits of Cross-Denominational Partnership
from Tablet Magazine: Teachable Moment Last week, each of the three universities associated with the major American Jewish denominations received an $11 million grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation, a San Francisco-based Jewish philanthropy. ... But the relative ease with which this arrangement was made may less reflect a burst of newfound harmony among disparate monoliths as much as a loss of power experienced by each. During the period in which relations have improved, major Jewish community donors have eschewed giving to the denominations at all, often contributing instead to robust nondenominational organizations like Birthright and Hillel that target often-unaffiliated youth - and where such “megadonors” also have more control. What the Jim Joseph Foundation may have done is found … Continue Reading
What Jewish Educators Should Teach
from The Jerusalem Post: Rosner's Domain: Al Levitt on what Jewish educators should teach You've probably heard about the "big news coming out of The Jim Joseph Foundation": $33 million is being given to The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC), and Yeshiva University (YU) to increase the number of future Jewish educators and to improve the quality of professional preparation they receive. ... And - Al Levitt, president of Jim Joseph Foundation, had agreed to answer my nugging questions. Here we go: 1. Wow, that's a lot of money? Why so much for this cause? The grants are part of a $45 million grant commitment that JJF has made to these 3 institutions. The initial $12 million dollars (divided almost equally among the three … Continue Reading
Jim Joseph Announces $33m. to Train Educators
As part of a continued concentrated effort to increase the number of credentialed future Jewish educators and to improve the quality of professional preparation and Jewish education they receive, the Jim Joseph Foundation (JJF) has announced that $33 million in grants have been awarded to the three leading training institutions for Jewish educators. With these grants, JJF has now gifted a total of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to Jewish education and Jewish youth causes since it was established in 2006 as a private foundation. The $33 million in grants JJF awarded will support The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC), and Yeshiva University (YU). JJF gave the three institutions an initial $12 million of this funding in September 2009, … Continue Reading
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