Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) held New York Graduation Ceremonies on Thursday, May 3, 2012 and New York Ordination Ceremonies on Sunday, May 6, 2012, both at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York. Rabbi David Ellenson, HUC-JIR President, said, “The Class of 2012 emerges from the College-Institute imbued with leadership skills, steeped in knowledge, strengthened by a commitment to service, and dedicated to bringing hope and healing to our troubled world. As they touch the lives of others through their sacred work as rabbis, cantors, and educators, throughout North America and around the world, they will be a source of inspiration and guidance.”

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, President, Union for Reform Judaism, presented the New York Graduation address.
Cantor Angela Warnick Buchdahl, Senior Cantor, Central Synagogue, New York, presented the New York Ordination address.

Michael Zeldin, Ph.D., Professor of Jewish Education, has been appointed Senior National Director of the Schools of Education at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) by Rabbi David Ellenson, HUC-JIR President. In this new capacity, Dr. Zeldin will be moving HUC-JIR’s Schools of Education in Los Angeles and New York towards a more integrated model for all of HUC-JIR’s education programs, providing opportunities for greater synergies among the various programs so that they can play an even more significant role in transforming the landscape of Jewish education to meet the demands of the extraordinary times in which we live.

What’s the difference between investiture and ordination? Plenty, say officials at HUC-JIR, which has announced that for the first time since establishing its cantorial school in 1948, it will ordain rather than invest its graduating class of cantors. Six cantorial students will be ordained Sunday in ceremonies at Temple Emanu-El in New York. The change has been several years in the making. Reform movement officials say it both recognizes the elevated role that cantors have in modern times and eliminates some barriers they have faced in their clergy work.

Rachel Adler, Professor of Jewish Religious Thought and Feminist Studies at HUC-JIR, will be ordained on May 13 as a Reform rabbi. Rabbi David Ellenson, President, states, “She has taught the Jewish community in virtually an unparalleled way for almost 40 years, from the time of her earliest writings in the 1970s to the present day. Many of the changes that have occurred in Jewish life that have allowed the community to be inclusive of women have been a result of Rachel Adler’s efforts. Rachel will now officially become what she has been and was destined to be — a rabbi among the Jewish people.”

HUC-JIR, A.R.I.F. – Association for the Restoration of Jewish Works and Institutions in France, and Moment Magazine invite you to the opening reception and program for “Joëlle Dautricourt: The Book of Happy Writing,” on Wednesday, May 16, from 5:30-7:30 pm, with program, “France and the Jews,” at 6:30 pm. The program will feature Richard Bernstein, NY Times book critic and former Paris bureau chief; Andrea Baumann Lustig, President, A.R.I.F.; and Joëlle Dautricourt, Artist. Photo ID required for admission. Please RSVP: hucjirmuseum@huc.edu or 212-824-2298. Presented with the support of Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and Evelyn and Bernard Korman at the Irma L. and Abram S. Croll Center for Jewish Learning and Culture at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum.

Please join us at the Cincinnati campus on May 20 at 4:00 pm for a vibrant concert of Italian baroque music inspired by the cultural mixes of Venice, Rome, and Florence.