Rabbi Danny Burkeman,
L ’09,
says “I
have always felt that for me, as a British Jew,
the ideal rabbinical program would involve
time studying in England, Jerusalem, and
America: England because it is my home
community, and the place where my Reform
Jewish identity developed as a minority
within a minority; Jerusalem because Israel
is the Jewish homeland and it is important
to spend time living in the Jewish state as
part of a rabbinical training program; and
America as the center of Reform Judaism
where exciting innovations and
developments are taking place.”
Consequently, after complet-
ing his first year of rabbinical
studies at Leo Baeck College in
London, he joined the Year-In-Israel Pro-
gram at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem, where he met
his future wife, Micol Zimmerman, RHSOE
’08,
and then transferred to the HUC-JIR
rabbinical program in Los Angeles. In both
the American and Israeli contexts, he was
able to play an important role representing
the condition of Reform Jewry in Europe.
“
While we may be divided by national
boundaries,” he explains, “we are all part of
one Jewish community and it is important
that we learn about each other, work to-
gether, and support each other for the good
of the Jewish people,” he explains.
Burkeman has married into a family
of leaders of Reform Judaism. His father-
in-law is Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, N ’70,
former HUC-JIR President (1996-2000),
and the eleventh generation rabbi in his
family, and he now counts Rabbi Brian
Zimmerman, N ’93, andMiriam (Mimi) Zim-
merman, SJCS ’92, as family.
While a student at HUC-JIR, Burke-
man was asked to produce an educational
publication and training sessions in con-
junction with the new
Siddur
(
prayerbook)
published by the Movement for Reform Ju-
daism in Great Britain. He provided an
in-depth look at the various elements of the
Shabbat
morning service and resources to
help with planning services that were dis-
tributed to synagogues throughout the
United Kingdom. (See
-
mjudaism.org.uk)
In reflecting on his experiences at
HUC-JIR, Burkeman notes that “it has been
fascinating to live as part of the Los Angeles
Jewish community and learn about the won-
derful ways in which Reform Judaism is
practiced in America. I feel truly blessed to
have had the opportunity to study with, and
be inspired by some of the leading scholars
in the Jewish world. Their teaching and the
insights, creativity, and innovative ideas that
I have gleaned at HUC-JIR will be coming
home with me to enrich the British Jewish
community.”
When
Cantor Zoe Jacobs,
SSM ’09,
first came from London to the URJ Kutz
Camp’s song-leader training program in
1997,
she learned about HUC-JIR’s cantor-
ial program from Cantor Ellen Dreskin.
Although she was attracted to the idea, she
dismissed it out of hand, because to her
knowledge cantors didn’t exist in Great
Britain. Today, as a newly minted cantor, she
is returning to her home congregation,
Finchley Reform Synagogue, to be a pioneer
as the first HUC-JIR-invested cantor for Eng-
land’s Reform Movement.
Her journey began as an eleven-year-old
preparing for her
bat mitzvah
,
when she and
her family transitioned from attending serv-
ices two days a year to becoming highly
engaged, weekly worshippers. “My rabbi and
educator were highly empowering of young
people and it didn’t take long before I was
teaching as a
madricha
(
assistant) and leading
music on Friday nights for the congregation’s
Erev Shabbat
service,” she recalls.
26
| THE CHRONICLE
MEET HUC-J IR’S STUDENTS
R E F O R M P I O N E E R S F O R
It has often been said that the sun never sets on a graduate
of HUC-JIR. Whether from the United Kingdom or Australia,
graduates of the Class of 2009 attest to both the allure of
studying at HUC-JIR, where they bring a worldly view of
Progressive Judaism and the Jewish Diaspora to their classmates, and the chal-
lenges as pioneers leading communities around the globe.
Rabbi Danny
Burkeman, L ’09
Cantor
Zoe Jacobs,
SSM ’09
Elizabeth McNamara Mueller and Jean Bloch Rosensaft
