Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Graduation and Ordination Advisory
New York, NY

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is proud to announce the ordination, graduate, and honorary degree recipients of the Class of 2004. HUC-JIR, the nation’s oldest institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional development center of Reform Judaism, trains men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service professionals and offers graduate and post-graduate degree programs for scholars of all faiths.

The graduating class consisted of a diverse and unique student body, including a media consultant and lecturer on the image and influence of Jews in film and television, three former attorneys, a cantor now continuing his studies to be ordained as a rabbi, two Seventh Day
Adventist ministers, a refugee from the Ukraine, and students who run the HUC-JIR soup kitchen, which feeds 200 homeless people each week.

GRADUATION - MAY 20, 2004
Rabbinical School
Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature, leading to rabbinical ordination.
Carey A. Brown
Joshua L. Burrows
Leah Rose Doberne-Shor
Robin D. Nafshi
Michelle Denker Pearlman
Janet Roberts
Andrew L. Rosenkranz
Jared Harrison Saks
Maurice Alan Salth
Jeffrey S. Saxe
Stephen A. Wise

School of Sacred Music
Master of Sacred Music
Guy Bonne
Carrie Faith Brawer
Morris Glazman
Leigh Seth Korn
Shirah Lynn Lipson
Shira Ariel Nafshi
Hayley Koblinsky Poserow
Jennifer Lynn Roher
Daniel A. Singer

Graduate Studies
Doctor of Ministry degree.
Rabbi Marcus Lance Burstein
Reverend Sherwin S. Jack
Rabbi Janet Beth Liss
Reverend Harry Hugh Maynard-Reid
Rabbi Shira Stern

New York School of Education
Master of Arts in Jewish Studies
Debra E. Griboff

Master of Arts in Religious Education
Natalia Azatyan
Liotte Lipke-Greenbaum
David Gronlund-Jacob
Aleksandr Tanskiy

The College-Institute bestowed honorary degrees upon the following recipients:
Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa
Sam E. Bloch, Zionist Leader and Guardian of Holocaust Memory
Rabbi David Hartman, Founder, Shalom Hartman Institute
Ellen Y. Rosenberg, Executive Director Emeritus, Women of Reform Judaism

American Distinguished Service Award
Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner

Graduation Address
Rabbi David Hartman, Founder, Shalom Hartman Institute

ORDINATION - MAY 23, 2004
Rabbinical School
The New York School ordained 16 rabbis (6 men and 10 women). In addition, 4 rabbis (2 men, 2 women) were ordained in Los Angeles on May 16 and 13 rabbis (6 men, 7 women) were ordained in Cincinnati on June 5.
Stephanie Michelle Alexander
Anne Elizabeth Belford
Marci Nanette Bellows
Benjamin Paul David
Karen Clara Deitsch
Michael Scott Friedman
Ilyse Glickman
Rebecca Gutterman
Jeremy Master
Alysa Mendelson
Michael Pincus
Julie Saxe-Taller
Linda Kersh Steigman
Taron Tachman
Alana Wasserman
Scott Weiner
Shoshanah Wolf

2004 Roger E. Joseph Prize
Erin Gruwell, The Erin Gruwell Project
Erin Gruwell is the Founder and President of the Erin Gruwell Education Project, a non-profit organization devoted to teaching tolerance, funding college scholarships for underprivileged students, and propagating their vision for revolutionizing education for "at-risk" students in America. She also created and led the "Ambassadors of Tolerance Tour," which took her students, named the “Freedom Writers,” to visit Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Anne Frank's attic in Amsterdam, and war-torn Sarajevo. Erin Gruwell's and the Freedom Writers' journey in the classroom and beyond will be the subject of a feature film to be released by Miramax in 2005. Gruwell also serves as Distinguished Teacher in Residence at California State University, Long Beach in the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Education. The Roger E. Joseph Prize is an international award presented annually to an individual or organization, which, by virtue of religious and moral commitment, has made a distinctive contribution to humanity.

Ordination Address
Rabbi David Ellenson, President, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion