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Hebrew Union College About HUC Message From the President Andrew Rehfeld, PH.D.

Message from President Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D.

Now in our 149th academic year, HUC-JIR has grown from a seminary to the largest graduate and professional school for Jewish leadership in the world. Our students and alumni strengthen diverse and changing Jewish communities by fostering Jewish education, engagement, and identity.

Our faculty’s scholarship and teaching advance the transmission of our heritage and tradition, from generation to generation. HUC-JIR drives the ideas and builds the leaders for the Jewish public sphere shaping our future.

Three Students

HUC-JIR At A Glance

HUC-JIR educates leaders for service to the Reform Movement and the Jewish people worldwide as rabbis, cantors, educational leaders, nonprofit professionals, and pastoral counselors, and offers graduate programs to scholars and clergy of all faiths.

Students

Our Students

With 400 full-time students and 800 part-time education students, graduate studies students, and undergraduate students at USC and Xavier University, HUC-JIR has the largest number and most diverse students of all Jewish seminaries in North America.

Two Faculty

Our Faculty of Mentors

Our world-class faculty are transforming the contemporary understanding of Jewish text, pedagogy, and community building, offering nurturing mentorship, a low faculty-to-student ratio, and daily guidance and support from some of Judaism’s best minds.

Faculty & Staff Directory

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Our Alumni Leading Globally

Our 4,000 active alumni lead:

  • Over 1,000 North American Reform congregations and Progressive synagogues in Israel and worldwide;
  • National Jewish communal organizations, Israel advocacy, philanthropic foundations, Jewish startups, Hillels, and chaplaincies

For Alumni

Around the Globe

HUC Cincinnati Campus

Cincinnati

The historic birthplace of HUC-JIR, established in 1875 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of American Reform Judaism.

Cincinnati Campus
HUC Jerusalem Campus

Jerusalem

Founded in 1963, the home for stateside/Israeli rabbinical, cantorial, education, and community programs in Israel.

Jerusalem Campus
HUC Los Angeles Campus

Los Angeles

Founded in 1954 to serve the second largest Jewish population in the U.S., situated adjacent to USC since 1971.

LA Campus
HUC New York Campus

New York

Founded in 1922 as an institution of pluralistic higher Jewish learning by social activist Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.

NY Campus
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Ahavat Israel

HUC-JIR is the academic leader in making the Israel experience an integral part of Jewish professional and academic training, fostering a deeper sense of identity and mutual responsibility as part of a global people.

4,000

active alumni serving around the world.

100%

of our graduates placed in meaningful careers within months after graduation.