Moshe Lazar Appreciation

I admit that one of the things I like about my job is that I don't work evenings or weekends. Having said that, it was with great pleasure that I drove in to HUC on Sunday, Dec. 3 for our second annual Friends of the Frances-Henry Library event. We honored Dr. Moshe Lazar who has truly been a friend of the Library, a friend of our Librarian, Yaffa Weisman, and a friend of the Jewish community.

It was a lot of fun to mill about in a crowd of bibliophiles munching on Sephardic pastries (in the hallway - not in the library proper!) and listening to Sephardic music. Dr. Mark Kligman, from the New York campus, gave an interesting talk on integrating Sephardic studies into the curriculum at HUC-JIR. He made the analogy that just as we accept events in American history as our own history, regardless of when our families arrived on the continent, we should also accept Sephardic history and culture as a part of our Jewish identity.

Dr. David Gilner, the Director of Libraries, flew in from Cincinnati to join the festivities. He marveled at the collection that Moshe had donated and spoke about the importance of personal collections.