 |
 |
 Rabbi Aaron Panken, Ph.D., Appointed Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literature Rabbi Aaron Panken, Ph.D., has been appointed Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literature at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, as of July 1, 2008. In announcing this appointment, Rabbi Ellenson said, "Dr. Panken's extensive teaching, scholarship, and mentorship of students are a source of strength for our academic programs in New York. His expertise in Rabbinic Literature, Second Temple Literature, Liturgy, Codes, Reform Judaism, and Legal Change and Science and Religion are intrinsic to the core curriculum of our rabbinical, cantorial, education, and graduate programs." Rabbi Panken also serves HUC-JIR in an administrative capacity as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, and previously served as Dean of HUC-JIR's New York campus, Director of the Rabbinical Program, and Dean of Students. Rabbi Panken's ongoing research interests include the change and growth of nascent Jewish law during the Rabbinic Period (70-600 CE), the application of Rabbinic texts to modern reality, and the intersection between science and religion. He published The Rhetoric of Innovation (University Press of America, 2005), which explores legal change in Rabbinic texts, and is currently at work on a book-length history of Hanukkah. He has presented academic papers, lectured, and taught at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia; the United States Air Force Academy; the Wexner Graduate Fellowship; biennial and regional conventions of the Union for Reform Judaism; regional Councils of Reform Rabbis; the Hillel International Leadership Conference; the USS Harry S. Truman nuclear aircraft carrier; Hartford Seminary, and the Association for Jewish Studies. He has contributed articles to numerous journals and books, including Reform Jewish Ethics and the Halakhah, edited by Dr. Eugene B. Borowitz. Rabbi Panken has been a scholar-in-residence in Reform synagogues throughout North America and Australia. He is involved in a number of leadership roles within the Reform Movement and the greater Jewish world, including the Advisory Board of Reform Judaism magazine, the URJ Press Editorial Board, New Israel Fund International Council, the International Education Committee for Birthright Israel, the CCAR Commission on Ethics and Appeals, CCAR Committee on Committees, CCAR Nominating Committee, and the Rabbinical Placement Commission. Prior to joining the faculty and administration at HUC-JIR, he served as a rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom on Manhattan's Upper West Side. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins University in Electrical Engineering in 1985, he was ordained by HUC-JIR in 1991 and completed his Ph.D. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University in 2003. He was also a recipient of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. 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 |
