Task Force Work

The goals, quick-start initiatives, and internal capacity building will move our institution forward in very important ways.  There remain four other sensitive issues that arose during our strategic planning process that need further study: evaluating our programs in Israel; the use and management of our property and buildings; the management of our academic resources (libraries, etc); and the best way to manage our North American Rabbinical School to ensure that HUC can deliver on our goal of educational excellence while attracting highly-qualified and higher numbers of students we need to fulfill our mission.  These task forces will be led by those with professional expertise in the area being explored, with frequent and regular feedback of key stakeholders including Board members, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and funders.

Each task force is to examine all areas related to the question facing the task force, consult appropriate experts inside and outside HUC and understand available resources, determine a series of alternate plans of action, and make a recommendation about the preferred plan of action for Board consideration based on the 4 strategic goals above.

Israel Program Evaluation Task Force

Co-Chairs:

Yaron Horovitz, Chair of the Jerusalem Board of Advisors
Miriam Heller Stern, Director, School of Education

Summary:

The mission of HUC-JIR as affirmed by the Board in 2017 commits us to work in North America and Israel without differentiation.  And our work in Israel has significantly expanded over the last decades of the 20th century.  This task force seeks to prioritize the work we are doing and ask what is essential that we continue, what opportunities do we have to expand our mission-impact, and what programs might be better suited to partner with other institutions to do more effectively?

Real Estate and Property Management Task Force

Co-Chairs:

Marty Cohen, Chair, Buildings and Grounds Committee
Amy Goldberg, CFO

Summary:

With new opportunities arising for partnerships, and the nature of work and study changing during the pandemic, as well as the changing texture of life in US cities, there are questions about whether our current buildings and locations (within the cities we currently operate) allow us to maximize mission and financial impact.

Libraries Task Force

Co-Chairs:

John Kampen, Chair, Alumni Leadership Council (& Pines School graduate)
Joshua Holo, Dean, HUC/Los Angeles

Summary:

The HUC-JIR library system counts among our most prominent mission-based assets. Our faculty and external community have identified three key benefits to our maintaining our library collection: the holdings themselves are an important academic resource for our students and faculty; the library enhances HUC’s reputation as a serious scholarly institution; and it is important for HUC to maintain ownership of this precious resource as a legacy for the Jewish People. As we face maintaining a library system that fewer people are using, the Task Force will ask some fundamental questions concerning how to increase its use and impact, reducing our costs or both, and possibly in partnerships with other academic institutions.

Task Force on the Configuration of the HUC-JIR Rabbinical School

Co-chairs:

Rabbi David Stern, Member, Board of Governors; Former Chair, CCAR
Rabbi Andrea Weiss, Provost

Summary:

Our institutional goals, current trends, and the exigencies of the moment mandate that we confront the most sensitive and challenging topic facing the College-Institute: the configuration of the rabbinical school. This task force will examine the benefits and costs of maintaining North American rabbinical programs in three locations. The task force will assess our ability to achieve our strategic goals and fulfill our academic mission in our present three campus model or in alternative configurations. The task force will make a recommendation regarding the number and location of stateside rabbinical school sites that we conclude we can successfully and responsibly manage while achieving educational excellence, providing a high-quality student experience, and ensuring that we can achieve financial sustainability.