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
Barry Shrage on Birthright Israel
Barry Shrage, President of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, was the speaker at the New York Investiture and Ordination Ceremonies of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He had this to say on Birthright Israel: There are two demographic realities that will reshape the future of our people. The first is intermarriage and the second is Birthright and you are in a critical position to address both of these realities. The next ten years will, I believe, see the largest increase in Jewish interest and the largest potential increase in Jewish engagement in the next generation that we’ve ever seen. Dr Steven Cohen tells us that the next generation of Jews is already, probably for the first time in American Jewish history, more spiritual than the last and that this … Continue Reading
The FSU Pesach Project
Fourteen Year-In-Israel Hebrew Union College (HUC) students are traveling to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to conduct Passover seders and engage the renascent Jewish communities - from early childhood to the elderly - in Jewish learning, worship and heritage. In partnership with the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), the students lead Pesach celebrations in Reform congregations along with creating varied educational programs for community members. Funds for the program are raised by the participating students. … Continue Reading
Changes in American Jewish Identities Since 1948: From Norms to Aesthetics
by Dr. Steven M. Cohen Jews Within In the sixty plus years that have elapsed since the founding of the State of Israel, profound changes have taken place in Israel, in American Jews’ relationship with Israel, and in American Jews’ identities. With regard to the latter, two major changes are among the most salient and influential. One is the enormous change in the integration of Jews into the larger American society. As compared with just fifty years ago, today’s Jews have far fewer Jewish spouses, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Not only do most young American Jews have loving relationships with non-Jews, but hundreds of thousands of non-Jews love Jews - a very common circumstance now, and a fairly rare occurrence just a few decades ago. This increasing integration reflects … Continue Reading
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