President's Letter on the Year-in-Israel
Program
March 14, 2002
1 Nisan 5762
Dear HUC-JIR Community,
I write to you with a heavy heart - not because of the decision
I recently made to compress the formal instruction offered in our
Year-in-Israel Program for the current academic year with the onset
of Passover vacation. Rather, I am sad because the cumulative effect
of events in Jerusalem and the Middle East during these past nine
months necessitated such a measure on our part. I remain convinced
that it was the correct decision to make.
HUC-JIR is unique among all North American seminaries in that the
College-Institute alone makes a first year of study in Israel absolutely
mandatory for continuation in our cantorial, education, and rabbinic
programs. Students are not permitted to substitute another year
of study in Israel for the first year, nor does our policy allow
students to maintain matriculation in our North American courses
of study should they elect to withdraw from our Israel program before
the end of the first academic year.
Our sixty-two first year students in our Year-in-Israel program
have been in Jerusalem since June. For nine months our women and
men have studied Hebrew and a wide array of subjects linked to their
future vocations as klei kodesh (Holy vessels) for the Jewish people,
and they have experienced the existential reality of what it means
to be part of the Jewish people in our reborn Jewish State. I am
proud of each and every one of them, and I know personally how devoted
and loyal they all are to the State of Israel and their course of
study as future Jewish leaders.
Throughout this entire academic year, the College-Institute family
and I have been mindful that we have dual obligations in providing
this Year-in-Israel Program to our students. On the one hand, there
is an absolute commitment to the academic integrity of the course
of study offered in Jerusalem. There must be a positive educational
and learning environment for our students. At the same time, the
Zionist commitment of HUC-JIR to the State of Israel can brook no
compromise. In light of the events of the past year in Israel and
the Middle East, balancing these two concerns has not been easy.
My own concern for and support of this program as the initial year
for the educational experience of our stateside programs had caused
me to come to Jerusalem four times this year prior to March. In
July and again in August, I was with our students as they began
their course of study, and I returned in October to offer continued
encouragement to our students in this program as well as to ordain
two of our Israeli students who had completed their ordination requirements
in our Israeli Rabbinic Program. I came to Israel again in December
to indicate my ongoing solidarity and concern for our Jerusalem
students after the tragic bombing in the heart of Jerusalem on November
29th, and I was in Israel for eight days this past week to attend
the CCAR Convention as well as to provide continued support for
all our students in both the Israeli and Year-in-Israel Programs
of the College-Institute.
Over the last few months it became clear to me, both through reports
transmitted to me by the Jerusalem staff and faculty as well as
through my own observations of and dialogues with a number of students,
that a significant proportion of the student body was showing signs
of fatigue and stress. The constant sounds of bombings and the restriction
of “safety zones” where students could feel secure had caused many
of them to complain of sleep deprivation while others felt they
simply could not study. During the week of March 5th it was clear
that the violence in the State as well as Jerusalem itself had escalated
to an unprecedented level, and matters were brought to a head with
the foiled bombing of Kafit on Emek Refaim on March 7th and the
terrible tragedy at Café Moment in Rechavia on Saturday night. It
was now obvious that a sizeable number of students in our Year-in-Israel
Program had come incrementally to the point where they were unable
to focus on their academic work and the integrity of the program
itself was clearly in jeopardy. For these reasons, as well as an
imminent two-week vacation, my Administration and I decided to end
the formal instructional part of our academic year with the onset
of the Passover vacation on March 24, 2002.
The academic year itself will end on May 21st as planned and students
are expected to complete all academic requirements for their specific
program prior to that date. Each student has the option to remain
in Jerusalem to finish the work of this academic year or he/she
may travel to the Diaspora to complete her/his studies for this
year. That choice has now been placed in the hands of each student.
For the student who elects to stay in Jerusalem, a non-graded course
of instruction will continue and our Jerusalem staff and faculty
will provide options for the duration of the academic year. For
example, a tour to the Negev scheduled for next week will take place
as planned and twenty-three students under the direction of our
faculty member Paul Liptz intend to tour Poland in the near future.
Students who choose to complete their course requirements outside
of Israel will each have a mentor. We ask that rabbis and others
support and tutor them as they fulfill their assignments through
the use of e-mail, faxes, video conferencing, and phone calls under
the supervision of the Jerusalem advisor who will oversee the work
of each one.
I would be remiss in closing if I did not offer a special word
of thanks and gratitude to our Provost Norman Cohen as well as to
our Jerusalem Dean Michael Marmur for their help in arriving at
this decision. The integrity and level-headedness of Norman Cohen
and his passion and love for our students and the State of Israel
make him an ideal partner for me in our joint efforts on behalf
of the College-Institute and the Jewish people. HUC-JIR simply could
not fulfill its mission without him. Michael Marmur is an extraordinary
human being by any standard. His love of Zion, his intelligence,
his humor, and his grace are all devoted to the service of the College-Institute
and the welfare of our students and the excellence of our academic
offerings. The College-Institute is blessed by his presence and
we are fortunate beyond measure that such a man is Dean of our Jerusalem
School. To both of them, I express my gratitude.
There is the Hebrew expression, “Kol hathalot kashot - all beginnings
are difficult,” that is known to every speaker of our people’s tongue.
I would conclude by amending the Hebrew and assert, “Kol hahlatot
kashot - all significant decisions are difficult.” This was not
an easy decision to make but I do take full responsibility for it.
The College-Institute looks forward to greeting its entering class
of students in Israel this summer and plans for the 2002-2003 academic
year will be announced in the near future. I wish all of you well
and pray that somehow the logic of peace will prevail over the destructiveness
of hate for both Israelis and Palestinians speedily in our day.
B’virkat hag kasher v’sameah - with warmest greetings for a meaningful
Passover holiday, I am,
Sincerely,
Rabbi David Ellenson
