Mazal tov to the
Dear Class of 2025 / 5785,
It is with great joy and gratitude that we celebrate your achievements and the realization of your goals during these Ordination and Graduation Ceremonies of our 2025/5785 academic year. Your dedicated studies, hard work, and resilience during the pandemic have brought you to this wonderful moment, and the world needs your vision and leadership now more than ever. The Ordination ritual publicly celebrates the transmission of sacred leadership, and the Graduation ceremony empowers you, as you set forth to strengthen and transform communities far and wide.
It is now your consecrated task to transmit Judaism’s ethical values, tradition, and culture, from generation to generation, as you provide both inspiration and guidance to so many seeking meaning in lives well lived.
We are also privileged to congratulate our distinguished alumni honorees for your 25 years of devoted service to the Jewish people and the larger world. Your heartfelt support for Hebrew Union College strengthens our sacred mission to prepare your future colleagues, who will work by your side to carry forward your ideals.
And to our Doctor of Humane Letters and Joseph Prize recipients, we honor your commitment and accomplishments as leaders in diplomacy and government, as champions of academic inquiry and scholarship, and as advocates for fostering tolerance and understanding.
May the courage of your convictions guide all of your sacred paths to build a bright, just, and promising future for the Jewish people and all humankind.
B’hatzlachah, may you go from strength to strength!
Rabbinical Ordination
Rachael Maxine Houser
Karen Elana Martin
Rocki Shaloha Schy-Brunson
Yael Lee Farber
Timothy Gaylord
Eden F. Glaser
Leah Rose Julian
Julia Knobloch
Hannah Taylor Lybik
Charles J. Mays
Joshua Michael Shapiro
Jeffrey Michael Silverstein
Naomi Ben Ari
Smadar Bilik
Miriam Jano
Joshua (Josh) Scharff
David Sperber
Lipaz Vinitzky
Ziva Ofek
Ashira Joelle Boxman
Emma Grace Dubin
Hannah Miriam Ellenson
Jesse Aaron Epstein
James Ian Feder
Madeleine Michelle Fortney
Adam Graubart
Ora Jacobsen
Benjamin Danson Luks-Morgan
Aaron Blasband-Roth
Evan Lerner Traylor
Cantorial Ordination
Lauren Blasband-Roth
Justin Donn Callis
Sierra Jade Fox
Gabriel Samuel Moffitt Lehrman
Elizabeth Anna Reinstein
Graduation
Cincinnati
Julia Rose Olson
Rabbi Judith Schindler ’95
Rabbi Alexander Grodensky*
Yuliyan Filipov
Cassidy J. Gossage
Connor Clair Ham
Robert Arthur Ogden
Los Angeles
Jennifer Brodkey Kaufman
David N. Myers
Sebastian David Feldman
Elizabeth Glasser Frankel
Ilene Madison Baker Gindy
Allison Michelle Granet
Tori Greene, in absentia
Ross Elliot Halfant
Ashley Nicole Jones
Chloe Shauna Levian
Rebecca Levine
Rachel Diane Rybko
Nathan James Weisband
Daniele C. Williams
David Britva Beraha
Abraham Avi Levy
Daniel Patrick Soto Parker
Oren Noah Smith, in absentia
Sonia Bloom Wilk
Yuliyan Filipov
Cassady J. Gossage
Connor Clair Ham
Robert Arthur Ogden
Joel T. Wildermuth
Paige A. Beame
Shayna Leah Dollinger
Alyssa Rose Schwartz Feigelson
Allyssa Brooke Karpel-Pomerantz
Hannah Leonore Karpel-Pomerantz
Shoshana J. Levine
Sonia Deborah Franklin
Azriella R. Friedman
Zachary Joseph Miller
Margo Brooke Pellmar
Justin Noah Shapiro
Laura Elizabeth Zazueta
Benjamin Bryant Poor
Aliyah Blank summa cum laude
Elia Groode magna cum laude
Ethan Stubington
Fiona Breslin
Lily Danziger
Leorre S. Lukowiecki
Yarden Mazor
Margo Brooke Pellmar
Morgan Leah Polhemus
Benjamin Lloyd Rudy
New York
Linda G. Mills
Rabbi Alexander Grodensky
Michelle Joy Margan Carr
Reverend Jennifer S. Dant
Debra B. Landsberg
Anne Lifflander
Rabbi Daniel Seth Ross
David Benjamin Epstein
Leslie Anne Goldberg
Ilana Lauren Mulcahy
Sarina Elenbogen-Siegel
Margo Rose Wagner
Eden R. Anolick
Deborah Bell
Zachary M. Canali
David William Lester Elitzer
Hannah Miriam Ellenson
Spencer Mandell
Brooklyn Dee Michalowicz
Michael Simon Mitgang
Leah Gamoran Sherin
Ranata Jae Shlobin
Rebecca Thau
Morgan Leigh Tobey
Reyna Beth Abraham
Lauren Michelle Sharp Bernstein
Juliet Spear Gardner
Susanna Katherine Grant
Sheri Raquel Gross
Rabbi Sharon Jill Litwin
Courtney Nicole Ludlow
Scott A. Newman
Anjelica Nicole Ruiz
Lena Mara Shupper
Jessica Cindy Smiley
Susan Bauman Stuart
Clifford David Wilcox
Julia Chana Zinn
Heather Elana Zucker
Roger E. Joseph Prize
Stacy Burdett , Public Policy Strategist and Advocate Countering Antisemitism
Kol Zimra Award: Kol B’Seder at 50 Years
Rabbi Dan Freelander ’79
Cantor Jeff Klepper ’80
Honoring Our Alumni
Rabbinical Alumni Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa
Franklin DeWoskin
Holly Levin Cohn
Melinda Mersack
Bruce Pfeffer
Elissa Schwartz Ben-Naim
Alexis Deborah Berk
Caryn Michelle Greenberg
Marla Rachel Hornstein
Daniel Jonathan Moskovitz
Thomas Alpert
Jonathan Blake
Lori Cohen
Leah Cohen Tenenbaum
Randall Fleisher
Robyn Frisch
Serena Fujita
Ruth Gais
Nadia Gold
Jeffrey Goldwasser
Lev Herrnson
Elisa Izes
Dena Klein
Alison Kobey
Michael Latz
Alon Levkovitz
Seth Limmer
Joshua Minkin
Mara Nathan
Rebecca Pomerantz Shinder
Richard Prass
Eve Rudin Kleinman
Shari Shamah
Randy Sheinberg
Robert Weiner
David Widzer
Erica Burech
Erin Polansky
Eric Solomon
Helga Newmark, z”l
Daniel Treiser, z”l
Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music Cantorial Alumni Doctor of Music, honoris causa
Margaret Bruner
Jonathan Comisar
Jennifer Frost
Bradley Hyman
Jerome Krasnow
Amy Levy
Ilana Plutzer
Sergei Schwartz
David Muchnick
Diane Yomtov
School of Education Alumni – Doctor of Jewish Religious Education, honoris causa
Sharon Esther Amster Brown
Rebecca Julia Goodman
David Joseph Lewis
Amy Nicole Goodman
Regina Lewald-Fass
Julia Berger
Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management Alumni – Doctor of Jewish Nonprofit Management, honoris causa
Caron Blanke Bird
Havi Wolfson Hall
Dana Ilene Katz
Joy Sisisky
Pines School of Graduate Studies - Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa
Tarsee Li
Dean Andrew Nicholas
Timothy Saleska
Brian Webster
All degrees granted upon completion of all requirements.
