We Take Pride In...
(From April 2001 through April 2002)
Dr. Rachel Adler won the Tuttleman Foundation Book Award
in 2000 for Engendering Judaism. In celebration of the first
five years of the award, she was honored with previous winners and
participated in a panel at Gratz College in October 2001.
Rabbi Ruth Alpers was certified by the National Association
of Jewish Chaplains as a Certified Jewish Chaplain.
Rabbi Tom Alpert and Rabbi Randy Sheinberg participated
in a panel discussion on Yale graduates entering the rabbinate as
a second career, sponsored by the Yale University Hillel Slifka Center.
Bill Artz won a silver medal in men's doubles masters tennis
at the 16th Maccabiah Games in Israel in 2001.
Dr. Avraham Biran was awarded the Israel Prize in archaeology,
Israel's highest honor. The Director of HUC-JIR's Nelson Glueck School
of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem, Dr. Biran participated in the
excavations of the University of Pennsylvania in Iraz, at Tepe Gawra
near Mosul and Khafaje near Baghdad and in the American Schools of
Oriental Research excavations near Irbid in Jordan. He accompanied
Nelson Glueck in his epoch-making discoveries at the head of the Gulf
of Eilat. Dr. Biran directed the excavations of Anathoth, Tel Zippor,
Ira, Aroer, the synagogue of Yesud Hama'alah, and the longest ongoing
excavations in Israel at Tel Dan, 1966-1993. In 1993 at Tel Dan, the
northernmost city in the biblical kingdom of Israel, Dr. Biran discovered
the "House of David" stele. The inscription on this stele, written
in early Aramaic paleo-Hebrew script and dating from the 9th century
B.C.E., is the first archaeological evidence supporting the existence
of the House of David.
Dr. Eugene Borowitz was elected to be a Fellow of the American
Academy for Jewish Research. The Fall 2001 issue of Religious Studies
Review contains an extended review of his theological work, entitled
"Postmodernity and Historicity: Reflection on Eugene Borowitz's Postmodern
Turn." He led the annual Study Day of the Chicago Board of Rabbis
on "Three Views of Revelation: Buber, Heschel and Levinas." He lectured
on "Covenant" at the United Jewish Federation of Chicago Great Ideas,
Great Thinkers city-wide program. He presented a paper on "The Term
'Halakhah' in Reform Jewish Usage," at the HUC-JIR's conference on
The Contemporary Study of Halakhah. He was a guest lecturer in Temple
Ohabai Sholom's year long celebration of its 150th anniversary. He
was the inaugural scholar-in-residence for Rodef Shalom Temple, Pittsburgh's
newly established Kaplan Institute on Jewish Life: Defining a Contemporary
Jewish Ethic.
Dr. Eugene Borowitz, Dr. David E. Kaufman, Dr. Gary P. Zola, Dr.
Wendy Zierler, Dr. Stanley Nash, Dr. Marcia Falk, Dr. Barry Sherman
Kogan, Dr. Mark Kligman, Dr. Clark Brooking gave a presentation
on "the Location of the Akra" and Kristine Henriksen gave a presentation
on "The Metaphorical Use of ‘egel marbeq in Jeremiah 46:21: A Synthesis
of Text and Archaeology" at the Semiannual meeting of the Cincinnati
Consortium of Ancient Studies on "From Sumer to Caesar" at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati.
Michael Chernick and Dr. Adam Rubin participated in
or chaired sessions at the 33rd Annual AJS Conferenence.
Anne Brener wrote an article, "A Jewish Voice on Mourning after
September 11th," using selections from the new edition of her book
Mourning and Mitzvah: Walking the Mourner's Path – A Guided Journal
for Walking the Mourner's Path Through Grief to Healing (Jewish
Lights, 1993, 2001) and from "Prayer and Presence" from Jewish
Pastoral Care: A Practical Handbook from Traditional and Contemporary
Sources by Dayle A. Friedman (Jewish Lights, 2001).
Dr. Michael Chernick conceived and organized, with Rabbi
Aaron Panken, a three-day conference on the contemporary academic
study of Jewish law (Halakhah). The conference was international in
scope with speakers and registrants from the US, Europe, and Israel.
As the conference was interested in a Jewish interdenominational approach
to the interpretation of Jewish law, there were sessions on Jewish
law as interpreted by Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox practitioners.
Sessions included such topics as defining the historical-critical
and jurisprudential approaches to the study of Jewish law, the place
of halakhah in Jewish thought, the study of halakhah as the product
of historical and social forces, the implications of halakhah for
non-Jewish legal systems, and non-rabbinic halakhah, e.g., Qumran
and Karaite halakhah.
Dr. Jonathan Cohen participated on an international panel on
"What is the unique contribution of Jewish bioethics to the ethical
dilemmas of the coming decade?" at the "Jewish Ways of Knowing: Anticipating
the Ethical Dilemmas of Biotechnology" conference at The Jewish Theological
Seminary in New York City.
Rabbi Ken Cohen is the new Executive Director of the American
University Hillel.
Dr. Martin Cohen was invited to the Catholic University to
serve as the Jewish expert in connection with a symposium on the recent
Vatican text entitled "Il popolo ebraico e le sue sacre scitture nella
bibbia cristiana (The Jewish people and their holy scriptures in the
Christian Bible)." He spoke on "Israel: The Land of Faith, Jewish
Refuge, and, Yes, as Globalism Develops, of Hope" at B'nai Abraham
Synagogue in Easton, PA. He has two forthcoming publications: The
Autobiography of Luis de Carvajal, the Younger (University of
Nebraska Press) and The Canonization of a Myth (HUC Press).
Also, his thesis student at Harvard College, David Weintraub,
received an A plus (Summa) for his undergraduate honors thesis, which
consisted of the application of contemporary social scientific theory
to an analysis of the myth and ritual problems as evidenced in tractate
Sukkah of the Bablyonian Talmud. Dr. Cohen was thanked in a letter
from Harvard's Department of Sociology: "It [David Weintraub's thesis]
is a brilliant piece of work in no small part due to your extensive
input." (David's father, Rabbi Peter G. Weintraub, N ‘75, was also
Dr. Cohen's thesis student.)
Rabbi Stacia Deutsch was appointed to the CCAR Ad Hoc Committee
on the Part Time Rabbinate.
Dr. Susan Einbinder presented at the Melton Conference at Ohio
State University.
Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein was invited by the Chaplain of the
U.S. Senate to be Guest Chaplain and offer an opening prayer during
the week when his synagogue, Congregation B'nai Tzedek of Fountain
Valley, CA, was celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Dr. Shaul Feinberg gave a presentation entitled "What a Jew
Needs to Know" at an international seminar at the Saly Entin Faculty
of Humanities School of Education at Tel Aviv University in May 2001.
Rabbi Harvey J. Fields' book, B'Chol L'vavch, was revised
by Elaine Rose Glickman and published by UAHC Press.
Dr. Reuven Firestone's personal essay about "his illness in
a foreign language" and an article on the controversy over the American
Jewish Committee's publication of books explaining Judaism to Moslems
and explaining Islam to Jews appeared in the Jerusalem Report (July
5, 2001). He was invited by President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia
to participate in the International Scholars Annual Jewish-Christian-Muslim
Trialogue in Skopje, Macedonia on "Nurturing a Culture of Dialogue:
Building Confidence by Way of Dialogue Among Religions." He will lead
a panel discussion on "Understanding Islam in Light of the Issues
of Our Times" with Dr. Khaled Abu El Fadl, Professor of Law at UCLA
and Dr., Richard Hrair Dekmejian, Professor of Political Science at
USC.
Rabbi Randy Fleisher is leaving Camp Sabra to begin full-time
at Central Reform Congregation in Chesterfield, MO.
Dr. Nili S. Fox and Angela R. Roskop's article "Of Rattles
and Rituals: The Anthropomorphic Rattle from the Nelson Glueck Collection
at the Cincinnati Art Museum" was published in the 2000/2001 issue
of the HUC Annual.
Rabbi Ruth Gais' meditation, "Eichah – Ground Zero" was published
in Midstream Magazine (December 2001).
Rabbi Ted Gordon chanted Haftarah in celebration of the 80th
anniversary of his Bar Mitzvah at Moses Montefiore Temple in Bloomington,
IL (where he served as interim Rabbi from 1997 to 1999). Though he
has "retired," he still serves as Associate Chaplain on the staff
at Illinois Wesleyan University and is the Rabbi Emeritus at Moses
Montefiore Temple and at Main Line Reform Temple (Wynnewood, PA).
Dr. Lisa Grant and Frieda Robins' article "Judaic Enrichment
as a Change Agent in Early Childhood Education: Limitations and Possibilities"
was published in the Spring 2001 issue of Conservative Judaism
Magazine. Her article "A Journey to the Other to Learn About the
Self: Israeli TALI School Educators on a US Study Tour" was published
in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service and "The Hidden Curriculum
of a Congregational Israel Trip" was published in Conservative
Judaism. She participated in two presentations of the Network
for Research on Jewish Education in Toronto: a session called "Learning
from the Florence Melton Adult Mini-Schools: What's Unique, What's
Generalizable" (a joint presentation with Diane Schuster and Meredith
Woocher, with Steven M. Cohen and Betsy Katz as commentators) and
a paper called "Judaic Enrichment for Early Childhood Educators: Limitations
and Possibilities for Change." Her adult bat mitzvah curriculum guide
was published by the Women's League for Conservative Judaism.
Dr. Alyssa Gray contributing a piece on scholarship about medieval
Jewish law for an article on Jewish law which was published in the
Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. She read a paper at the
World Congress of Jewish Studies entitled "The Yerushalmi as a Source
of the Bavli".
Professor Leo Haber's first novel, The Red Heifer, was
published by Syracuse University Press. He was appointed Editor of
Midstream Magazine.
Andrew Hahn completed his Ph.D. in Jewish Philosophy at the
Jewish Theological Seminary.
Robert M. Heller was elected Chair of the Commission on Social
Action of Reform Judaism.
Dr. Lawrence Hoffman edited Volume 4 of My People's Prayer
Book and wrote The Way Into Jewish Prayer (both published
by Jewish Lights). Synagogue 2000 (S2K) opened a three-year commitment
to work with eighteen Reform congregations nation-wide, with a three-day
conference in February 2001 for 400 people in Philadelphia. Merri
Arian, Dr. Joel Hoffman, Dr. Sam Joseph, Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller,
and Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig taught at the conference. S2K
is working with eleven congregations in Denver/Boulder and eleven
in the greater Detroit area, as well as with congregations in Westchester
County, NY, among other locations. Dr Hoffman has incorporated important
findings on synagogue systems and the leadership skills needed for
synagogue transformation and enrichment to the curriculum for experimental
classes.
HUC-JIR received the "We Are Much Pleased" award in honor of
its 125th anniversary from the Southwest Chapter of the Victorian
Society.
Deborah Joselow was appointed Managing Director of the Commission
on Jewish Identity and Renewal at UJA-Federation of New York in June
2001.
Rabbi Samuel K. Joseph was Scholar-in-Residence at HUC-JIR/NY
for two weeks during the Fall semester.
Jo Kay was awarded the 2001 Covenant Award for Jewish educators.
Last year, for the first time at the New York School of Education,
students presented a portion of their Thesis/Project to the entire
school community to share their research and how that research can
be translated for use in the world of Jewish education. Like the Senior
Sermon for rabbinic students and the Master's Recital for cantorial
students, the Senior Education Practicum, for education students,
is a culminating project, which demonstrates expertise in a particular
area and is a newly instituted requirement for graduation.
Sandra Kazan co-produced with Robert M. Young a documentary-style
movie entitled True to the Game. The movie dramatizes the story
of a teenage African-American girl torn between her life as a drug
and gun dealer on the streets of New York City and her desire to become
a writer.
Rabbi Rich Kirschen is the new Rabbi/Executive Director at
Brown University as of August 2001.
Dr. Ron Kronish was quoted in a Christian Science Monitor Article,
"Religion as a force for peace" (by Jane Lampman) about the Interreligious
Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI), of which he is the Director.
To read the story online, go here (archived at web.archive.org).
He spoke at the ICCI's tenth anniversary symposium held at the Rockefeller
Foundation in New York in March 2001.
Rabbi Ruth Langar's article "Jewish Liturgy: a field on the
move" was published in the newsletter of the Association for Jewish
Studies, Perspectives (Vol. 3, Issue 1).
Eric Lazar was voted in as a "NFTY Garden Empire Region Lifetime
Member" at the NFTY-GER Spring Conclave.
Cantor Sheldon F. Merel's CD, Standing Ovation, which
includes selections from his concerts recorded live from 1963-1991,
with songs in Hebrew, English, and Italian, was recently released
and can be ordered on-line at www.Soundswrite.com.
Dr. Michael Meyer was awarded an honorary Doctor of Hebrew
Letters degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He lectured on
the "History and principles of Reform Judaism" at Trinity College
in Dublin, Ireland in December 2001.
Maxim (Max) Meyers was honored as one of Cincinnati's Best
Salespeople by the Business Courier.
Dr. Philip E. Miller's articles "Shukr Kuhayl in Galicia: an
Anti-Hasidic Ruse?" was published in Judaeo-Yemenite Studies
(Princeton, New Jersey and Haifa, Israel, 1999) and "Speculation on
External Factors in the Formation of the Crimean Karaite (National)
Identity," was published in Judaism and Islam: Boundaries, Communication
and Interaction: Essays in Honor of William M. Brinner (Leiden,
The Netherlands, 2000). He is also involved with the on-line Al-Qirqisani
Center for the Promotion of Karaite Studies (http://www.qirqisani.org)
and its proposed project of translating into English Qirqisani's classic
compendium, Kitab al-Anwar wal-Maraqib.
Ann Millin was appointed Special Assistant to the Director
of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Rabbi Linda Motzkin's book, Aleph Isn't Enough: Hebrew for
Adults, Book 2, edited by Rabbi Hara Person, was published by
the UAHC Press.
Dr. Stanley Nash hosted the convention of the National Association
of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH) at HUC-JIR, where he delivered a paper
"Authors and Women as Antiheroes in Aharon Megged's Later Works."
The article was published in Modern Judaism (Feb. 2002).
Dr. Carol Ochs' Our Lives as Torah: Finding God in Our Own
Stories was published by Wiley/Jossey-Bass and An Egalitarian
Omer Calendar was published by Kolot, The Center for Jewish Women's
and Gender Studies. She has completed another book manuscript for
The Gift of Story: A Jewish Quest for Meaning. She serves on
the advisory board for A New Commentary on the Torah (Women of Reform
Judaism). She has begun work on a new book, on the relationship of
creativity to religion, using key texts in the Tanakh. She is contributing
an article on Images of God for a book called The Women's Table
(Jewish Lights Press). She also was invited to contribute an article
for Presence, the journal for Spiritual Directors International. Last
year, she did formal weekly mentoring sessions with a rabbi who holds
a fellowship at the Institute for Informal Jewish Education, sponsored
by a Bronfman grant to Brandeis University. She was interviewed on
the Sunday morning "Shalom America" and National Public Radio of Indiana
in connection with her latest book, Our Lives as Torah. She
was the scholar-in-residence at East End Synagogue in New York, and
at the Pacific Area Association of Reform Rabbis in Palm Springs,
CA. She spoke to a meeting of the UAHC Commission on Religious Living;
Hevreh of the Southern Berkshires; and the Society for Values in Higher
Education meeting. She taught a five-week course in comparative religion
at Temple Beth El in Great Neck, N.Y.
Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky's guide to a deeper understanding of
the rituals and spirituality of Passover, Preparing Your Heart
for Passover, was published by The Jewish Publication Society
in February 2002.
Dr. Kenneth Roseman's book Jeremiah's Promise: An Adventure
in Modern Israel, his latest book in the Do-It-Yourself series
for fourth through sixth grade students, was published by UAHC Press.
Jean Bloch Rosensaft lectured at the William Breman Jewish
Heritage Museum in Atlanta, GA, in conjunction with the opening of
the exhibition Rebirth After the Holocaust: the Bergen-Belsen Displace
Persons Camp, 1945-1950.
Joyce Rosenzweig, Cantor Robert Abelson, Cantor Jack Mendelson,
and Cantor Sarah Zemel performed in The Legacy Series: Jewish
Music in Westchester.
Dr. Adam Rubin delivered the inaugural Dina Abramovidz Memorial
Lecture at YIVO on "The Politics of Yiddish Folklore Collection in
Interwar Poland."
Rabbi Douglass Sagal will become the new senior rabbi of Temple
Emanu-El in Westfield, New Jersey on July 1, 2002.
Dr. Marc Saperstein presented at the Melton Conference at Ohio
State University.
Rabbi Bert Sapinsley was honored by Rabbi Lucy H.F. Dinner
of Temple Beth Or of Raleigh, NC for post-retirement teaching.
Neal Schuster was appointed Director of the Berit Mila Program
of Reform Judaism and Executive Director of the National Organization
of American Mohalim/ot.
Rifat Sonsino and Daniel B. Syme's revised edition of
Finding God: Selected Responses was published by the UAHC Press.
Dr. David Sperling's article, "Miriam, Aaron and Moses: Sibling
Rivalry," was published in the Hebrew Union College Annual.
He lectured on "The Death Penalty in the Bible" at Central Synagogue's
Death Penalty Symposium, which included Protestant and Catholic clergy
and legal experts.
Steven E. Steinbock's The Gift of Wisdom: The Books of Prophets
and Writings and Torah the Growing Gift with teacher's guides
were published by the UAHC Press
Dr. Paul M. Steinberg and his wife, Trudy, were honored at
Temple Adas Israel of Sag Harbor Long Island in appreciation of his
twenty years of service as Rabbi for the High Holy Days and selected
Sabbaths. He was also named Rabbi Emeritus of the congregation at
the time. (*See appointments.)
Tzedakah Committee/Jerusalem students collected over 300 parcels
of food that were donated to help at-risk teenagers and women and
their children in Jerusalem' Women's Shelter, Eisha l'Eisha.
Dr. Racelle Weiman's article "Ending the Bitterness," which
looks at the treatment of Jews by Christians over two millennia and
the challenge of reconciliation for Christianity and Judaism in a
post-Holocaust world, was published in Christianity (Veritas
Press, Ireland, Winter 2001). She wrote a chapter entitled "Human
Dignity and Rights as Essential Values in Judaism" for the book Religions
in Dialogue: From Theocracy to Democracy (2002). She was invited
by President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia to participate in the International
Scholars Annual Jewish-Christian-Muslim Trialogue in Skopje, Macedonia
on "Nurturing a Culture of Dialogue: Building Confidence by Way of
Dialogue Among Religions." She will also travel to Sofia, Bulgaria
to meet with the Honorable Hristo Danov, President of the Constitutional
Court of Bulgaria, to review Holocaust education in Bulgarian schools.
Dr. Steven Windmueller was the Scholar-in-Residence for the
Small Federation Executive Institute Program in March 2002. He spoke
at the 2002 JCPA Plenum held in Washington D.C. on "The Impact of
September 11th on Religion in the Public Square" and was a moderator
for "Jewish Communal Service: Pursuing a Graduate Degree with a Higher
Purpose."
Rabbi Eric Yoffie spoke at the Interreligious Coordinating
Council in Israel's tenth anniversary symposium held at the Rockefeller
Foundation in New York in March 2001.
Dr. Gary P. Zola was elected Vice President of the Martin Luther
King, Jr. Coalition, which plans and implements Greater Cincinnati's
annual observance of Martin Luther King Day.
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