Professor Sara S. Lee, Director of the Rhea Hirsch School of Education and Adjunct Professor of Jewish Education, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, will be awarded the 1996-1997 Samuel Rothberg Prize in Jewish Education in recognition of her outstanding contributions in the field of Jewish Education. The Rothberg Prize will be presented to Professor Lee at the 60th Meeting of the Board of Governors of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem on June 1, 1997, in which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be participating.

"We are proud of Professor Sara Lee's distinguished contributions to the field of Jewish education," stated Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, President of the College-Institute. "Her creativity as a teacher and administrator has inspired our students, our Reform educational institutions, our Reform congregational schools and the leadership of the Reform movement. She is a catalyst in the growth and development of new initiatives in Jewish education which are ensuring the continuity of Jewish spiritual and cultural continuity for the generations to come."

Professor Lee earned her Bachelor of Arts in Social Relations from Radcliffe College in 1955, a Master of Arts in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsh School of Education, HUC-JIR in 1977, and a Master of Science in Education from the University of Southern California in 1979. She has been the Director of the Rhea Hirsh School of Education since 1980. Professor Lee is on the Executive Committee of the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education and is a Member of the Wexner Foundation Graduate Fellowship Committee. She is a past member of the North American Commission on Jewish Identity and Continuity and past President of the Association of Institutions of High Learning for Jewish Education.

Among her many publications, Professor Lee co-edited the special issue of the Fall 1996 issue of Religious Education. She is co-editor of A Congregation of Learners, Touching the Future: Mentoring and the Jewish Professional, and countless articles and lectures.

In addition to the Rothberg Prize, Professor Lee was a Millender Fellow in Jewish Communal Leadership at the Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service at Brandeis University (1993) and was awarded the Ezra Award from the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles for broadening Jewish knowledge and eduation in the community (1992), among many other fellowships and awards.