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 Hana Safrai, HUC-JIR Professor, Dies in Jerusalem Professor Hana Safrai, a leader in the Orthodox Feminist Movement in Israel and a beloved teacher in the HUC-JIR Israel Rabbinic Program, has died in Jerusalem. Her funeral took place immediately following that of HUC-JIR Professor Rabbi Ben Hollander. Safrai was born in Jerusalem in 1946. After studies at the Hebrew University, she became the first principal of the Judith Lieberman Institute. Safrai completed a Doctorate at the University of Utrecht and continued to teach in the Netherlands following her research. A natural linguist, Safrai showed mastery of Hebrew, English, Armenian, Dutch, German, and Ancient Greek. She worked closely with Professor David Flusser, and was deeply involved in inter-religious dialogue. She was affiliated with the Hartman Institute, the Hebrew University, and, during her last years, with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. She had been working on a monumental project a new interpretation of the Mishna along with her late father and her brother, both noted experts. A founder of the Kolech movement for Orthodox feminists, she was a pioneer amongst traditional Jewish women, and a renowned and beloved teacher. Founded in 1875, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the nation's oldest institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional leadership development center of Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR educates men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service professionals, and offers graduate and post-graduate programs to scholars of all faiths. With centers of learning in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York, HUC-JIR's scholarly resources comprise renowned library and museum collections, the American Jewish Archives, biblical archaeology excavations, research institutes and centers, and academic publications. HUC-JIR invites the community to an array of cultural and educational programs which illuminate Jewish history, identity, and contemporary creativity and which foster interfaith and multiethnic understanding. Visit us at www.huc.edu |
