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| THE CHRONICLE
MEET HUC-J IR’S STUDENTS
miles each week to study with a Conserva-
tive rabbi in an Orthodox synagogue. This
focused determination culminated with a
traditional conversion in 1987.
As a student rabbi she preached,
taught, and applied Jewish tradition to life-
cycle rituals and contemporary issues, and
promoted interfaith and intracultural dia-
logue in Reform congregations and
communities throughout the United States,
including Piqua and Portsmouth, OH;
Columbus, IN; Dothan, AL; Petoskey, MI;
Williamson, WV; and Grand Forks, ND.
Her rabbinical training included Clinical
Pastoral Education at Christ Hospital in
Cincinnati. She joined Crossroads Hospice
in Blue Ash, OH, where she served as its
Jewish Chaplain.
Prior to HUC-JIR, Stanton studied
social psychology, neuropsychology, and
interpersonal relationships at Lancaster
University in England (1983-84), received
the B.S. in Psychology (1988) and M.Ed.
in Counseling and Multiculturalism
(1992)
from Colorado State University,
and Professional Counselor Licensure
(1998).
She received the M.A. in Hebrew
Letters from HUC-JIR on June 7th at
Graduation Ceremonies in Cincinnati.
On August 1, 2009, she became the
rabbi of Congregation Bayt Shalom in
Greenville, NC – a Conservative congre-
gation of 53 families that recently became
dually affiliated with the Reform Move-
ment. She is the proud mother of an
adopted 14-year old daughter, Shana.
“
Alysa Stanton has a genuine depth of
soul that will make her congregants quite
blessed to be in her presence,” said Rabbi
Ellenson. “Her Ordination, coinciding
with the election of Barack Obama, offers
a ray of hope that the world can become a
better place.”
A
fter preparing for the move to rabbinical
school at Geiger Kolleg in Potsdam,
Germany, I got the news in April of
2008
that Geiger had signed an agreement
with HUC-JIR. Would I be interested in
going to Jerusalem instead?
As an American, my first days at
HUC-JIR/Jerusalem in July 2008 were con-
tinuously punctuated by double-takes when
introduced as an Abraham Geiger Kolleg stu-
dent. Despite my Montana birth and
American passport, I nonetheless saw myself
and was seen as a European student. Most
poignantly, while visiting Yad Vashem as part
of the weekly “Israel Seminar,” a fellow stu-
dent asked me as we watched a film of the
Nuremberg Nazi rally grounds, “How many
people were there? What were they think-
ing?” How did I suddenly become the expert
on German
Volk
-
Psychology? I answered as
best as I could and accepted my surprise role.
The four international students at
HUC-JIR that year, two from Leo Baeck
College in London, two from Geiger, spent
the year soaking in as much as possible from
the experience while trying to interject as
much of the Old World as possible. We led
a special “German” service for the Reform
Liturgy Workshop with liberal doses of
Lewandowski, Sulzer, and readings in the
vernacular of “our” tradition. It was impor-
tant to us to use the German language in
worship – to reclaim the language of Buber
and Heine from the National Socialists.
Choosing rabbinical school in Germany
is a guaranteed lightening rod across the Jew-
ish world. Reactions to my story have run
the continuum from looks of confusion to
outright hostility and anger. My answer:
“
We are going to serve the German commu-
nity so that you do not have to.”
When I started looking at rabbinical
schools in 2004, I discovered that a new pro-
gressive rabbinical seminary, the first since
the
Shoah
,
had opened in Germany in 1999.
I felt drawn to the poignant act of
tikkun
olam
that the Jewish
Wiederaufbau
(
rebuild-
ing) in Germany represented.
In reality, Progressive leadership in
America and in central Europe demands two
different perspectives. The mere comparison
of the nearly thousand Reform
shuls
in the
States and the slightly more than 20 liberal
communities in Germany makes the neces-
sity of a different approach obvious. In
Germany we are project managers as much
as spiritual leaders, attempting to help real-
ize a complete rebuilding. When we speak of
minhag
we count our tradition in years in-
stead of decades or generations.
“
You are truly moving to Germany for-
ever?” asked a friend a few hours after our last
finals marked the conclusion of the Year-In-
Israel. I reiterated the open invitation to host
my colleagues should they ever visit Berlin. “I
never wanted to visit Germany before,” com-
mented another, “but now I think I want to –
need to.”With that, the year was proved a suc-
cess, a little bit of the universe was repaired, and
we all went to our separate campuses.
Paul Strasko
ALYSA STANTON
(
continued)
A BERLIN RABBINICAL STUDENT
AT HUC-JIR/JERUSALEM
Paul Strasko,
Rabbinical Student, Abraham Geiger Kolleg
