Each year, Founders' Day programs commemorate the vision of HUC-JIR's founders: Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. New York: Rabbi Lance Sussman will present a lecture at services on March 18 at 10:05 a.m. on "New York State of Mind: Stephen S. Wise and the Founding of the Jewish Institute of Religion" Rabbi Sussman, Ph.D., is Senior Rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, PA. Cincinnati: Founders' Day Services on March 24 at 10:50 a.m. will honor the memory of Dr. Alfred Gottschalk, z"l, Chancellor Emeritus of HUC-JIR. Dr. Gottschalk's writings and speeches will be featured as the readings and creative liturgy in the service. Members of his family and friends in the Cincinnati area will be invited as special guests to attend this tribute. Los Angeles: Students and faculty gathered in the Hilborn Synagogue on February 9 for a Shacharit (morning) service in memory and honor of those who created this institution and the Reform Movement. The community prayed from Isaac Mayer Wise's prayer book Minhag America, offering prayers in his elegant English and a Hebrew which he revised considerably from the traditional text. More...

Rabbi David Ellenson, President of HUC-JIR, gave the eulogy at Avi Gross Schaefer's funeral. He said, "Avi Gross Schaefer, a 21-year-old veteran of the Israel Defense Forces and a freshman at Brown University, was killed almost instantly February 12, after being hit by a car driven by a drunken driver. Rabbi Arthur Gross Schaefer and his wife, Laurie Gross, a prominent artist, have lost a son, and the wider world lost someone who was primed to make a difference as a peacemaker. I knew him from the day he was born, and I watched him develop over the years into the young man he was still in the process of becoming. Schaefer's nuanced understanding of the complexity and tragedy that marked the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians made him mature beyond his years. He acted as he did because his conscience compelled him to promote reconciliation, even as he worked, as a soldier, to ensure the survival and safety of his people. Avi Gross Schaefer was the best of our youth. He understood that God calls us to the task of creating community, and because he was true to that task, his life shines out in an instructive and commanding way; his memory is a blessing." More...

HUC-JIR's Kalsman Institute was recently awarded a grant by the John Templeton Foundation to help develop a scholarly foundation for the field of Judaism, health and healing. The two leading health and religion researchers in the nation, Jeff Levin and Ken Pargament, travelled to Southern California earlier this month to advise and shape the Kalsman Roundtable on Judaism and Health Research. The Kalsman Institute is pleased to announce that in 2011, the first major research-focused roundtable on Judaism and Health will convene. The Kalsman Roundtable will engage influential researchers and scientists, congregational and pastoral leadership, and medical practitioners in cross-sectional dialogue and research that will develop, shape, and extend the reach of the Jewish healing movement. More...

The New York Public Library will exhibit the Rose Haggadah in the McGraw Rotunda on the third floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building from March 25 through April 18, 2010. The three-volume Rose Family Passover Books illuminate passages of the Passover story through the artwork of celebrated 20th century American artists. The Rose Haggadah has been a work in progress growing annually by one piece since 1947. The personal family initiative not only documents generational artistic tastes, but provides a unique record of the dynamic art world over the last 63 years. HUC-JIR Museum Curator Laura Kruger has been an advisor to Sandra Priest Rose in the development of this project in recent years. The Rose Haggadah, which is only available for viewing to the public once a year, includes art from 63 leading figures in the field. The books include the work of: caricaturist David Levine known for his political drawing from The New York Review; painter Frank Stella; feminist artist Judy Chicago (whose drawings for the Rose Haggadah were exhibited at the HUC-JIR Museum in "Judy Chicago: Jewish Identity" and who will receive an honorary doctorate from HUC-JIR at Graduation in Cincinnati on June 6, 2010); caricaturist Al Hirschfeld; photographer Joan Roth (whose photographs of Jewish women in the Former Soviet Union were exhibited in the "Project Kesher" exhibition at the HUC-JIR Museum); and social realist painter and printmaker Jack Levine. The Library will display a spread from one volume of the Rose Haggadah alongside a video presentation of images contained in all three volumes. More...

Cincinnati - at 10:50 am unless otherwise noted:
Mar. 6 at 10:30: Leading Services: Laila Haas
Mar. 8: Leading Services: Nicole Roberts and Michal Loving
Mar. 9: Leading Services: Matt Cohen
Mar. 10: Leading Services: Jen Lader
Mar. 11: Leading Services: David Gerber and Stephanie Clark

Los Angeles - at 10 am:
Mar. 8: Schaliach Tzibbur: Jaclyn Fromer; Reading Torah: Ilana Mills; D'var Torah: Adam Wright; Gabbai: Heath Watenmaker
Mar. 11: Schaliach Tzibbur: Jaclyn Fromer and Cantor Kent; Reading Torah: Daniel Brook; Sermon: Ethan Bair; Gabbai: Rachel Ackerman

New York - at 10 am unless otherwise noted:
Mar. 8: Rabbi: Rachel Van Thyn; Cantor: Lesile Niren; Reading Torah: Sydney Henning; Gabbai: Scott Fox; Dvar Torah: Jay Rapoport
Mar. 9 at 10:45am: School of Education Practica: Tifani Coyot presents "A Multi-Sensory Curriculum for Adults on Developing a Meaningful Prayer Experience." David Vaisberg presents "Keep it Together, Keep it Real: Holistic Healthy Living For Teenage Jews." The goal of David's curriculum is to empower adolescents through Jewish wisdom to make healthy balanced lifestyle decisions in the midst of their teenage experimentation and development.
Mar. 10 at 10:45 am: School of Sacred Music Senior Cantorial Recital: Raina Siroty presents "The Life and Legacy of Hazzan Gershon Sirota," about the life of her Great-great uncle and of one of Poland's greatest Hazzanim, Gershon Sirota. As an artist, ba'al t'fillah,and upstanding member of Warsaw's Jewish community, Gershon Sirota put an indelible mark on the art of hazzanut today.Through the research of his life, and explaining the role that chazzanut had to the Jews at that time, she incorporates the legacy of Sirota into the larger picture of chazzanut in the early 20th century and shows how important Sirota was in bringing chazzanut to the immigrants of America, and countries abroad.
Mar. 11: Reading Torah: Aviva Kolet; Gabbai: Elana Rosen Brown; Sermon: Cassi Kail

Jerusalem:
Mar. 6 at 9:30am: Leading Services: Marc Kasten; Dvar Torah: Jonah Zinn
Mar. 8 at 9am: Drasha: Esteban Gottfried; Shaliah Zibur: Tlalit Shavit
Mar. 11 at 8:30am: Leading Services: Bess Wohlner; Dvar Torah: Eric Mollo More...

HUC-JIR cordially invites you to honor Representative Henry A. Waxman (CA-D), Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa and a Distinguished Democratic Legislator and Public Servant. Please join us at the Los Angeles campus on Sunday, March 14 from 11am to 12pm for a presentation and remarks. More...

Please join us at HUC-JIR/Los Angeles on Sunday, March 14 from 3:30 to 5 pm for an artist's reception with Ruth Weisberg in conjunction with her exhibit titled "Ruth Weisberg: Drawings from The Open Door Haggadah." The program will also include a dialogue with Rabbi Laura Geller, Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills. RSVP online or call Delicia Sauerwald at 213.765.2106 or via email to dsauerwald@huc.edu. The exhibition is organized by the Jewish Artists Initiative of Southern California and is on view from January 28 - May 31, 2010. More...