2009
ISSUE 72 |
1
D
uring the High Holy Days this year, I am especially mind-
ful of the fragile nature of our existence along with the
delicate potential for renewal that infuses the
Yamim Noraim
.
On a personal level, I have during this past year coped with the
deaths of a close friend and beloved President and Chancellor
Emeritus, Dr. Alfred Gottschalk (see page 2), the illness of an-
other, and my own individual health problems. At the same
time, I also eagerly await the birth of our first grandchild in
December as I watch our own family being renewed for a new
generation. As President of the College-Institute, I have had to
deal with the unprecedented economic challenges HUC-JIR has
had to confront this past year. Of course, there is not necessarily
anything unique about any of this. The very nature of life is such
that anxiety and uncertainty alternates constantly with confidence
and hope.
Ecclesiastes
taught us these truths millennia ago.
With these thoughts in mind, I have been turning more than
ever to the work of Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer (1820-1899), the
founder of the Berlin Orthodox Rabbinical Seminary in 1874. This
institution was the first such Orthodox seminary in history, and I
first wrote my rabbinical thesis on its founder under the direction
of my teacher Professor Fritz Bamberger at HUC-JIR in New York
in 1977. I expanded the thesis and completed my dissertation on
this topic at Columbia four years later under the supervision of Pro-
fessors Joseph Blau and Gillian Lindt.
I was intrigued by this topic because I wanted to understand
how a traditional religious leader like Rabbi Hildesheimer who was
also wedded to the culture of the modern world could both affirm
the authenticity of the
Massoret
(
Jewish tradition) and be open to the
changing currents of the modern world. I felt Rabbi Hildesheimer
provided a model worthy of exploration and emulation precisely
because he was involved in the unending dialectic that marks the
relationship between Tradition and Modernity. As Rabbi
Hildesheimer dealt with the trials of his day, he strove with all
the knowledge and talents at his disposal to create a modern semi-
nary that would educate rabbis and other religious leaders who
would serve and guide the Jewish people meaningfully and joyfully
as they faced the challenges of the modern setting. While his precise
answers to the problems of the modern situation were not and are
not mine, I did and do identify with the problems he faced and see
his tasks as in so many ways my own.
In an 1873 letter Rabbi Hildesheimer addressed to those who
might support the creation of his proposed seminary, he stated that
there could be no task “more holy and pressing than the establish-
ment of this school.” Without the best teachers to instruct and guide
the graduates his proposed institution would ordain, Rabbi
Hildesheimer believed that the future of Judaism and the ability of
our Tradition to inform the lives of Jews would be dim. While the
challenges of our day are surely distinct from the precise ones that
Rabbi Hildesheimer faced in his, the overarching framework is the
same and our task at HUC-JIR today – to educate religious, intellec-
tual, educational, and communal leadership for the Jewish people –
is identical to the task Rabbi Hildesheimer identified for his institu-
tion and himself in 1873-1874.
The lead article in this issue by Professor Steven Cohen de-
scribes precisely the dilemmas and opportunities that mark the
situation of North American Judaism at the beginning of the 21st
century. Rabbi Laura Geller and Professor Bruce Phillips offer their
own thoughts on what Professor Cohen has written, and the re-
mainder of our issue points to programs – Mandel, Schusterman,
and Tisch – as well as portraits of faculty, alumni, and students who
are each attempting in diverse ways to have Judaism speak in mean-
ingful cadences to the Jewish people now and in the future.
Following these portraits, a dozen books written in recent months
by our outstanding faculty – who constitute the heart of our insti-
tution – are featured. The range of topics on which they have
conducted their researches is genuinely breathtaking, and this schol-
arship, as well as the portraits of the individuals who are presented
in this edition of
The Chronicle
,
testify to the vitality that infuses
the College-Institute and its students and faculty.
The dialectic between Tradition and Modernity with which
Rabbi Hildesheimer struggled in the 19th century marks our own
efforts in the present, and his attempt to create a corps of religious
leaders capable of having Judaism speak in meaningful terms to a
contemporary Jewish community is no less ours than his. Just as he
devoted himself to the formation of Jewish religious and intellec-
tual leaders who could provide insight and inspiration for the Jewish
community of his day, so we at HUC-JIR continue this sacred and
enduring task of forging leadership capable of bridging the divide
between past and present in authentic and meaningful ways for our
people today.
As this New Year begins, Jackie and I, along with our children
Ruth, Sara and Micah, Hannah, Nomi, and Rafi, wish you and
yours a
shanah tovah u’metukah
,
a good and sweet New Year.
Rabbi David Ellenson
October 2009
Tishri
5770
President ’s Message
