F
ollowing her ordination, Rabbi Julie
Schwartz became the first woman rabbi
to serve as a chaplain in the United States
military. Her three active-duty years were
spent at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, CA,
developing her pastoral care skills as well as
providing leadership for the Jewish military
community of Northern California, for which
she earned the Naval Commendation award.
In the early 1990s, she established the only
CPE program in the world affiliated with a
rabbinical school as well as initiated the
Mayerson mentoring program. While based in Atlanta,
she was the founding rabbi for the Weinstein Hospice;
rabbi of Temple B’nai Israel and Temple Emanu-El, and
taught in Atlanta’s Melton School and at Emory University.
She served on the boards of the trans-denominational
National Association for Jewish Chaplains, chairing its
Certification Commission, the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, and the Jewish Federation of Greater
Atlanta, and was the Treasurer and Vice President of the
Atlanta Rabbinical Association.
Schwartz:
“
Since I left HUC-JIR in 1999 and until my
return in June 2011, I had the challenge and the privilege
to ‘practice what I had preached’ through my work in
small and large congregations as well as my teaching
and serving as a hospice chaplain. I am energized to
share once again with our students this integration of
theory and practice. I believe that every activity in the
rabbinate is a pastoral event and that each encounter
is an opportunity to meet the Holy within our world.”
“
Cantor Ellen Dreskin’s energy, decades
of experience, and vision are just what
we need to make the Cantorial Certification
Program a success,” says Cantor Bruce Ruben,
Director of the Debbie Friedman School of
Sacred Music. This new program, beginning
in January 2013, will enable cantorial soloists
in Reform congregations to enhance their
skills, expand their knowledge of Jewish
music, liturgy, Hebrew, text, and Reform
Jewish philosophy and practice, and earn
Cantorial Certification while continuing to live and
work in their current communities.
Cantor Dreskin’s innovative expertise extends from music
and synagogue transformation to experiential education,
enlivened liturgy, and mysticism. She has worked with
Jews of all denominations throughout the United States,
both as a scholar-in-residence and in her work for Syna-
gogue 2000, a national institute dedicated to revitalizing
and re-energizing synagogue life in North America. The
native Texan has served as cantor and educator for con-
gregations in Cleveland and New York, and has taught for
many years on the faculty of URJ Summer Kallot, Hava
Nashira, and the URJ Kutz Camp Leadership Academy.
Dreskin:
“
I believe that strong attachment and iden-
tification to one’s Judaism begins in the heart, and that
a prime responsibility of the cantor is to use music to en-
gage one’s soul, as well as one’s mind, in Jewish pursuits.
Today’s cantors must be artists, songleaders, teachers,
counselors, and spiritual leaders, on and off the
bima
,
as they enhance liturgy, Torah, ritual, counseling, issues
of social justice, and even synagogue administration.”
Rabbi Julie S. Schwartz
fi
Jay Stein Director of Clinical Pastoral Education
and Pastoral Care, HUC-JIR/Cincinnati
Vitals
8
Cantor Ellen Dreskin
fi
Coordinator of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred
Music Cantorial Certification Program
M.A., Jewish Communal Service,
Brandeis University (1979)
Investiture, HUC-JIR/DFSSM (1986)
Associate Dean, HUC-JIR/New York (1998-2002)
Director of Programs, Synagogue 2000 ( 2002-2006)
Vitals
B.A., Modern History, Northwestern University (1981)
Ordination, HUC-JIR/Cincinnati (1986)
Director of Alumni Relations and National Director of
Continuing Rabbinic Education, HUC-JIR (1989-1999)
Certified Supervisor, Association for Clinical Pastoral
Education (1997)
