Rabbi David Ellenson's Letter from Jerusalem
August 21, 2002
13 Elul 5762
Dear HUC-JIR Community:
As I write these words I am sitting at Ben-Gurion Airport preparing
to return to the United States. This is my seventh trip during the
fourteen months since I became President, and the second time this
summer. I need not report what the sad conditions have been that
have necessitated my taking so many journeys to the Jewish State
so that I could be with our students and lend the moral support
of my office to those at our Jerusalem campus - both Israeli and
American.
Each trip is different, and I have found that each one takes on
a character all its own. In July, I flew to Israel to meet with
sixteen of our entering North American cantorial, education, and
rabbinical students and their spouses/significant others who had
come to Jerusalem to enroll in a summer ulpan offered at our Israeli
campus. I also taught at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the
Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University, as well as at the Shalom
Hartman Institute of Jerusalem. Teaching stints allowed me to renew
my friendship with many of my academic colleagues in both Israel
and the Diaspora and permitted me to enter the classroom for which
I must admit I occasionally still pine. I had the opportunity to
host our HUC-JIR students on more than one occasion, and was able
to spend private time with my son, Micah, who is in Israel this
year as part of his education at the University of Judaism. Jerusalem
was quite peaceful during this entire period, and I loved being
with our students, Micah, as well as our Israeli friends.
This August visit has been dissimilar from the one last month
in many ways. The bombing at the Mt. Scopus Campus of Hebrew University,
at the end of July was devastating in every way. The loss of life
and the destruction that occurred in this oasis of civility and
learning in the desert of conflict that currently surrounds both
Palestinians and Israelis could not leave untouched the hearts of
anyone concerned with the State of Israel today. This bombing had
a direct impact upon many persons within the HUC-JIR community.
In the week following this explosion, eighteen of our entering
first year North American students joined seven others who had decided
previously elected to defer for this year the requirement to study
in Israel. With this growth in the number of students who elected
to study stateside, the Administration was compelled to rethink
the plans the College-Institute had previously announced concerning
the stateside study alternative that the Board of Governors had
approved in June. Many hours were spent during the first week of
August deciding how this stateside option could best be put into
effect for these twenty-five students. Our primary concern was to
provide these students with the best possible academic program.
After extended conversations, it was determined that the unity of
the class and the integrity of their educational course of study
could be maintained most efficiently and effectively by having the
five entering students in the School of Sacred Music enroll in the
New York campus, and the twenty entering students in the Rabbinical
School enroll in Cincinnati. The time period during which this decision
was made understandably created anxiety and confusion among a great
many of these students and their families. However, as persons preparing
for careers of leadership among the Jewish people, these students
displayed an expected maturity and patience that allowed them to
respond with great flexibility to this unprecedented situation in
the life of the College-Institute. This decision to hold the stateside
option for rabbinical students in Cincinnati and cantorial students
in New York was finalized only moments before I boarded a plane
at Kennedy on August 12th for Israel, where I was scheduled to meet
on August 14th with forty-one entering students who elected to fulfill
their Year-in-Israel requirement in Jerusalem this year.
It was against this backdrop that Chair of the Board of Governors,
Burton Lehman, Vice Chair, Fred Lane, and former Chair, Richard
Scheuer and I arrived in Israel during the week of August 12th to
greet these students and their families. From the moment we met
with them and their loved ones, it was apparent to all of us that
their morale, as well as that of our Israeli students and staff
was extremely high. Among the entering students, four are preparing
for a career in education, three are cantorial students, and thirty-four
are enrolled in the rabbinical program. Seven of them are forty-five
or older, and a number came with their spouses/significant others,
and children. These students and their families want very much to
be in Israel at this time, and Dean Michael Marmur and Associate
Dean Shaul Feinberg, our Jerusalem staff and faculty - especially
Director of Student Services, Rose Ginosar and Lecturer on Israeli
Studies, Paul Liptz - have made extraordinary efforts to ease the
transition of these students into Israel.
In addition, a great many of our current thirty Israeli students
enrolled in our Israel Rabbinic Program, as well as all sixteen
of the entering North American students who were already in Jerusalem
did everything in their power to welcome all "the newcomers"
who came last week. These students met the newly-arriving students
at Ben-Gurion and hosted and oriented them throughout their first
days in Israel. The spirit of community that has already been established
among these people is palpable and will surely stand the entire
HUC-JIR/Jerusalem community in good stead during the days ahead.
The days in Jerusalem were full ones. On the morning of August
14th, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert took a full hour of his time and
greeted the students in a warm and fulsome manner at breakfast.
He candidly acknowledged the dangers that currently exist in Jerusalem.
At the same time, he spoke appreciatively to the students of their
decision to be with their Israeli brothers and sisters, and the
Mayor stated that their stay in Jerusalem this year would contribute
immeasurably to their growth as Jewish religious leaders. His words
were inspiring and direct, and the students gave him a standing
ovation. We were honored by his presence, for a second year in a
row, and surely hope this will become an annual part of our Israeli
orientation program.
A religious service was then held. Shaul Feinberg and Director
of the Cantorial Program, Eli Schleifer, conducted the prayers,
and the words of welcome and support several of our Israeli rabbinical
students offered to their North American counterparts were surely
a highlight of the service. The unity that marks HUC-JIR and our
multi-national Israeli and Diasporan student body could not have
been more evident than it was on that morning.
Following services, the class gathered together and Michael Marmur
and I had the opportunity to greet these students individually.
Burt Lehman, Fred Lane, and Dick Scheuer then each addressed all
of the students and their families. Burt told the students how appreciative
and inspired he was by the decision they had made to serve the Jewish
people, and he congratulated them on their deciding to become cantors,
educators, and rabbis. He movingly pledged that the Board would
do all in its power to support and assist the students at this point
as well as throughout their years of study . Fred then offered a
touching homily that spoke of the "magic" that marks the
rising of the sun in Jerusalem even during these trying and difficult
days, and Dick recounted the extensive history of the College-Institute
in Jerusalem. During the remainder of the day, there was ample time
for an informal lunch and many conversations,
In the early evening, a reception was held in the Presidential
Residence for staff, faculty, the Board of Overseers and several
leaders of the Israeli Reform Movement, including Rabbi Uri Regev,
leader of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and dear friend.
Later that evening, a number of us went for dinner in a crowded
restaurant on Emek Refaim in the German Colony, and we were especially
happy to have Yoni Regev, who arrived in army uniform on leave for
several days from his current military service, join us in mid-meal.
I am happy to report that restaurants are crowded, and the meal
was pleasant and leisurely.
On the following day, virtually the entire morning and early afternoon
was spent reviewing security arrangements at our Jerusalem campus.
The Jerusalem Administration brought in a team of security experts
to discuss our situation. Burt and Fred viewed every part of the
campus in an extensive guided tour that was arranged for precisely
this purpose. A number of steps to upgrade the security arrangements
have already been made, and more are contemplated in the next few
days.
The saddest and most moving moment of the trip came on Thursday
afternoon. Burt, Fred, Michael, and I went to the Pardes Institute
of Jewish Studies in the Talpiyot section of Jerusalem to fulfill
the mitzvah of nihum aveilim B the commandment of Acomforting mourners.@
Pardes is an exceptional institution that has been providing a rigorous
study of classical Jewish texts in a modern Orthodox and genuinely
open environment for over twenty-five years. Over fifty of our HUC-JIR
alumni have studied extensively at Pardes over the years, and I
myself served as the first Blaustein Faculty Scholar during the
1997-1998 academic year. The head of Pardes, Rabbi Daniel Landes,
is a man of exceptional knowledge and sensitivity whose love for
Klal Yisrael is genuine and unmatched by virtually anyone I know.
I have been his friend for over two decades. The Chair of the Pardes
Board, Ruth Cummings Sorenson, is also a very close personal friend,
and she was on hand to meet us as well.
Pardes is of course now deeply engaged in a period of mourning,
as two of its students who were enrolled in a joint Pardes-Hebrew
University program in Jewish education, were murdered in the Hebrew
University bombing on July 31st. Michael had arranged for Burt,
Fred, me, and himself, to visit Pardes so that we could express
our personal condolences and sympathy as well as affirm the solidarity
we feel for Pardes at this moment of overwhelming and unbearable
pain. Rabbi Landes, Ruth, and two other members of the Pardes family
received us appreciatively and with great warmth, and we all spoke
quietly and intimately for an hour about the events of the past
two weeks. Rabbi Landes indicated that he had co-officiated with
our colleague Rabbi Martin Lawson of Temple Emanuel of San Diego,
at the funeral of Pardes student Marla Bennett, a member of the
Temple who was murdered and whose words of devotion and commitment
to Israel and the Jewish people have been published in The New York
Times and elsewhere these last weeks.
I have had the opportunity previously to comment on the devotion
and concern that the members of our Board have for our students
and the College-Institute, and it is not my intention to embarrass
any of the lay leaders that I have mentioned in this letter by extolling
them unduly in public. However, each time I actually bear personal
witness to the care and commitment these persons display for our
school and for the Jewish people I am moved and grateful, and I
recall the words of the medieval Babylonian Geonic prayer that calls
upon God to offer special blessings to those who toil on behalf
of the community. I can only say once more that HUC-JIR is privileged
to have such people as its lay directors, and I thank the Holy One
each day for the good fortune that is given our Administration to
work with such persons on behalf of the Jewish people.
The High Holidays are of course fast approaching and I am reminded
as I conclude this letter how delusional it is to believe that life
can somehow be set into pre-established patterns. I am aware every
moment that while our Tradition teaches that our human responsibility
is absolute, experience indicates that our ability to control events
is at best partial. Yet, God continues to call upon us to affirm
life and create community -- and this is precisely what is occurring
now in Jerusalem and throughout the Jewish State.
On this past Shabbat, I had the honor of attending the
Bat Mitzvah ceremony of my niece Ashley at the Shmueli Center for
Progressive Judaism at Kehillat Ra'anan in Raanana. My sister-in-law
Rachel is an Israeli of Yemenite descent, and she and my brother
Jimmy had decided to celebrate my niece's becoming a Bat Mitzvah
in Raanana - as they had for my older niece Kimberly two years ago
-- so that Ashley could identify with her people in Medinat Yisrael.
It was a wonderful way for me to end this particular visit in Israel,
and as I was called to an aliyah my beautiful and precious
niece proudly chanted the words of Parshat Ki Tei'tzei. I
beamed with pride thinking of how my parents would have felt had
they lived to see this moment when their granddaughter came of age
Jewishly. As Ashley read these words of Torah and later delivered
her bat mitzvah address in Hebrew, I felt inspired by the continuity
and courage that continues to define our people as we attempt to
affirm the sanctity of existence even during such agonizing days.
Even during this most aching of times, life is taking place in Jerusalem
and all of Israel. I am glad that HUC-JIR is part of it.
May this year somehow be a sweeter and more peaceful one for you,
for Israel, and for the entire world. Tizku l'shanim rabbot u'ne'i'mot
- may each of you and those whom you love merit a year of pleasantness.
Kol tuv - best wishes,
Rabbi David Ellenson
