HUC-JIR Los Angeles Campus

Lewis M. Barth

Rabbi Lewis M. Barth served twice as the Dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Los Angeles and Professor of Midrash and Related Literature. He is a native of Los Angeles, graduated from UCLA, and was ordained and has his Ph.D. from the College-Institute in Cincinnati. He has been on the faculty at the Los Angeles School since 1969. He first served as Dean during the 1970s, and was reappointed to this position in July of 1997 until 2006.

At HUC-JIR his courses include Midrash, Aramaic, and an occasional seminar on Rabbis as Charismatics and Wonderworkers. As part of the HUC-JIR/University of Southern California joint Judaic Studies program, he has taught an Introduction to Jewish History and a course on Jerusalem as a Holy City for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Every other summer he is invited to Berlin to teach about Jewish religious thought at a special institute for German Protestant theology students. He has thrice served on the faculty of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations’ summer Spirituality Kallah held at UC Santa Cruz. He and his wife, Dr. Joye Weisel-Barth, a psychologist, lecture on Jewish family issues.

He has studied, taught, and lectured in Berlin and Jerusalem and has published books and articles in the field of Midrash, which deals with rabbinic biblical interpretation. In recent years he has dealt with rabbinic material on the ancient legend of “The Ten Trials of Abraham.” He is presently engaged in the preparation of an electronic critical edition of Pirqe d’Rabbi Eliezer (the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer), an eighth century midrashic retelling of biblical history. Pirqe d’Rabbi Eliezer has been an exceedingly popular classical work of which there are over 30 printed editions, 20 complete manuscripts, and hundreds of fragments.

Rabbi Barth is the Founding Co-Chair of the Berit Mila Board of Reform Judaism and - working with Dr. David James, Founding Chair of the Berit Mila Board - was responsible for the creation of a program which has now trained over two hundred physicians and certified nurse mid-wives as mohalim/ot. In this capacity he edited the book Berit Mila in the Reform Context, the first major work in Reform Judaism dealing with this subject.

Rabbi Barth edited, with Ruth Nussbaum, a volume of sermons, speeches, and essays of Rabbi Max Nussbaum: Max Nussbaum: From Berlin to Hollywood, A Mid-Century Vision of Jewish Life. Nussbaum served at Temple Israel of Hollywood from 1943-1974 and was a renowned Reform and Zionist leader in this community.

His personal website.