School of Jewish Communal Service News

On June 16th, the SJCS will begin its summer program. What is particularly unique will be the presence of two Argentinean students who are joining through the support of the JDC, the LA Jewish community and HUC. They will be students at USC this year, as well, one in the Public Administration program and the other in Social Work. This young married couple, Judith and Ariel Jenik, will be joined by an entering class of 13 students, in addition to two joint masters (Jewish education and Jewish communal service) students who will be studying this coming year in Israel.

This class will include a student originally from Iran and another from Israel. One of the entering students continues a tradition developed many years earlier as she is a social work student at George Warren Brown at Washington University in St. Louis. Over the years, nearly 20 students have participated in this dual degree arrangement.

The SJCS second year class consists of 13 graduate students.

The SJCS will be offering this summer a total of 14 courses, covering Informal Jewish Education, The Jew in American Society, and Biblical and Rabbinic Sources. Among the faculty will be Rabbi Zoe Klein of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, Rabbi Richard Levy, and Phil Liff-Grieff, the Associate Director of the Bureau of Jewish Education in Los Angeles. The program will be introducing a new history sequence taught by Professor David Kaufman, who will also be offering a new course "Jews and American Popular Culture". Professor Aron Rodrigue will be offering a one week intensive course for rabbinic and communal students entitled, "History of Jews in Muslim Lands in Modern Times".

The summer course curriculum includes four courses in the management, organization and fund-development disciplines.

On August 5th, at HUC-JIR's Skirball Cultural Center, the SJCS will hold its 35th annual culmination program with key note speaker Edward Feinstein, the Rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom Congregation in Encino, California.

Summer Flyer in PDF format only