News from the Director

Dear Students, Faculty, Alumni, and Friends of the Pines School of Graduate Studies,

As I write this message, the school year has begun, and we are on break for the fall holidays. Today is October 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s brutal attacks, a sad day of remembrance and rededication, which was observed at the College with several online and in-person programs. We also held online and in-person programs on all sites a week ago to mark the shloshim (30-day-elapsed period) of the six hostages murdered in Gaza in August. In January I participated in the College’s trip of support to Israel, when students, faculty, administrators, and staff from all our stateside sites met with our colleagues in Jerusalem. Joining me was fourth-year graduate student Chris Beecher. It was simultaneously painful and cathartic for all of us. Among other activities, we met in Tel Aviv with the brother and sister-in-law of Israeli-American hostage Keith Seigel, who is still being held prisoner in Gaza. (His wife Aviva was one of the hostages freed last November and has been active on behalf of him and all those who remain captive in Gaza.) We pray for the health and safe return of all the hostages on this first anniversary of their abduction with no clear end in sight. As you can imagine, our summer archaeology program remains on hold for now.

Back home at the PSGS, current graduate students are making good progress in their programs. We have only one Ph.D. student finishing coursework this year, but we have nine students in candidacy preparing for their comprehensive exams —that is a record number in recent memory! We also have a further eleven Ph.D. students engaged in various stages of their dissertation work, of whom we anticipate at least two will graduate this year. Additionally, there are eighteen rabbis actively pursuing DHL studies, of whom we expect that two may graduate in the spring. We have been exploring (and continue to explore) ways to refashion our DHL program that would include a cohort component with some courses and have been in conversation with our counterparts at the Jewish Theological Seminary in this regard.

At graduation ceremonies this past May, we awarded the Ph.D. degree to Steven Donnally, who continues his work as an academic advisor at Northern Kentucky University, and the DHL to Israel David Oler, rabbi of the New Reform Congregation Kadima in Deerfield, IL. The MPhil degree, marking the completion of all requirements for the Ph.D. except for the dissertation, was awarded to David Johnson, Robert Thomas Murphy, and Christopher Slane. The Master of Arts in Jewish Studies was awarded to Jonathan Beck, Thomas Carroll, and Darhla Miles. Thomas, who was also a student worker at the Klau Library, is on his way to Hamburg, Germany where he will be pursuing a further master’s degree in Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg and has been awarded a fellowship in the Cluster of Excellence, “Understanding Written Artefacts.” Additionally, Ph.D. alumnus W. David Nelson ’99 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree at Founders’ Day ceremonies in March.

Three of our advanced students currently hold mentored teaching fellowships at the University of Dayton, Xavier University, and the Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO), while a further student is teaching an introduction to Judaism course this semester at the University of Cincinnati.

In sum, the Pines School of Graduate Studies remains active. While students continue pursuing their doctoral work, we still need your tangible support for them. Think about becoming a mentor for one of them. PSGS Alumni Association Chair Michael Graves is coordinating this program. Please reach out to him to indicate your willingness to do this. It need not be particularly time-consuming, and it means a great deal to our students. Michael can be reached at michael.graves@wheaton.edu. We will have an opportunity to discuss all this further at the annual alumni luncheon at the AAR-SBL national meeting in San Diego on Sunday, November 24, about which you have recently received registration information (please join us!).

I conclude as I did a year ago: Please know how grateful we are for your continued support during these difficult times, and how much we can continue, and must strive, to achieve together for the good of our students and our world.