HUC-JIR Los Angeles Campus

Alfred Gottschalk, 2nd Dean

Alfred Gottschalk was born in Oberwesel Germany in 1930. His family moved to New York in 1939. Gottschalk received a B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1952. He then enrolled in the New York campus of HUC-JIR and earned a B.H.L. from that campus. After receiving his B.H.L., Gottschalk began the rabbinic program on the Cincinnati campus where he was ordained in 1957.

After ordination, Gottschalk moved to Los Angeles to become first acting dean (1958-1959) and then dean (1959-1971) of the LA campus.

Gottschalk was named president of HUC-JIR in 1971. He served in this position until 1995.

His areas of academic interest include education, ethics, and Jewish intellectual history. He has a special interest in the work of Ahad Ha-am.

(excerpted from Reform Judaism in American : a biographical dictionary and sourcebook / edited by Kerry M. Olitzky, Lance J. Sussman, and Malcolm H. Stern. Greenwood Press, 1993)

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