“Notice when holiness might be accompanying you”

Adriane Leveen, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the Hebrew Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, has been in a reflective mood. After nearly a quarter century of teaching the Hebrew Bible at HUC-JIR — first at the Los Angeles campus, then in New York — Leveen is stepping down from her full-time duties as a faculty member. Leveen has guided a generation of rabbis, cantors, and Jewish educators in their study of Judaism’s foundational text. Her scholarly contributions include the books Biblical Narratives of Israelites and their Neighbors: Strangers at the Gate (2017) and Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers (2008), as well as nearly 20 journal articles and book chapters. As she looks back on her long career at HUC-JIR, Leveen has been overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude — the dominant theme of her address at the New York campus in April, in which she thanked institutional leaders, faculty, students, librarians, support staff, security guards, maintenance staff, and beyond. We caught up with her to get her thoughts as she prepared for her next phase.

You made your debut as a faculty member at HUC-JIR’s Los Angeles campus after earning your Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley under Robert Alter, your mentor. What were your first impressions?

Adriane Leveen, Ph.D.: I loved it. I’m so grateful to the late Rabbi Dr. David Ellenson, who chaired my search committee, and to the professors — especially Isa Aron, Ph.D. and Michael Zeldin, Ph.D. — who took it upon themselves to take the newbies under their wing. Isa and Michael helped us realize that you’re not born a teacher. They studied how we teach and gave us tips about how to plan a lesson, set goals, and help students set learning goals for themselves. It got me going.

What made teaching at HUC-JIR special?

AL: It’s really about the Hebrew Bible. It’s the foundational text of Judaism. It’s incredible material. It’s profound. It’s frustrating. It’s psychologically astute. What a great look at politics and psychology. It’s timeless. These texts were written thousands of years ago, and they still speak to us in 2024 — it’s wondrous. And when you teach in a seminary, you’re teaching the central, basic text of our people to the future religious leaders of the Reform progressive community.

That’s a big responsibility.

AL: Yes. For me and for the students. That’s one of the reasons they’re motivated. They know it’s core to what they’re going to be as religious thinkers. If they’re in a pulpit, they’ll end up spending many Shabbatot sermonizing around the week’s scripture. If they’re in a hospital with somebody, they’re going to be paying attention to what the texts have to say about those moments.

How do you help students get there?

AL: I always tell them that before understanding the text so they can teach it, I want them to understand the text for themselves. What is the text saying to you? That’s the first step. Once you figure out what it means to you — which isn’t always easy, you have to dig for it and ask questions — then you can figure out how to transmit it to others.

You’ve been teaching at HUC-JR for nearly 25 years. What has changed about the teaching and learning experience in that time?

AL: When I started teaching there weren’t smartphones. The dominance of new media, computers, smartphones, artificial intelligence — the ways that knowledge is conveyed — all of that has radically changed how one teaches.

Some things never change, we assume. What’s immutable about teaching and learning for you?

AL: Learning to love what is great and meaningful and powerful in these texts. Even in moments in history when things are really difficult, the Torah is there to teach you something. It’s there to say to you: We’ve already seen this in the past and we’ve overcome it. There will be a future. We may have to work really hard to bring that future along. We cannot be passive in the face of injustice, corruption, and hatred. We have to speak up. That never changes.

You’ve described HUC-JIR students who are on the path to become religious leaders as “countercultural.” What do you mean by that?

AL: In the United States, people are becoming less religious. Yet here are our students — people who firmly believe this ancient book, the Hebrew Bible, has something profound and important to say that they need to learn, who are willing to learn this ancient language and engage in the thinking of the biblical writers — going out into that world. Our students could have been doctors, lawyers, psychologists, artists, writers, whatever. But they chose to be rabbis and cantors and Jewish educators. To serve others. That’s countercultural.

You’ll be teaching part-time at HUC-JIR next year. When you do eventually stop, what will you miss the most about teaching?

AL: I’ll miss the engagement with the students — the conversations that are created in class around meaningful issues, their questions, their challenges, the things that they see, the way they listen to one another and engage each other. I particularly love when they have ‘aha’ moments. I’ve also had the great privilege of supervising students who are working on their final projects; I marvel at what they produce. I’ll miss watching how students grow over the course of a year and the course of their time at HUC. Those are all things that I love and cherish.

You reflected on your retirement at an address at HUC-JIR’s New York campus in April. You had something to say to your students, past and present. What did you tell them?

AL: I told them: ‘I wish for you, in your journeys ahead, that you notice when holiness might be accompanying you, even in the most ordinary of interactions as well as in the urgent work ahead of you in a world that has lost its footing and a planet that desperately requires saving. This is what Leviticus 19 asks of us all.’

What would you say to a prospective student who’s considering HUC-JIR? Based on your experiences here, why should a student make this place the next step in their journey?

AL: When I started at HUC, Isa Aron — now professor emerita of education at HUC — said to me: ‘We at HUC want all people who walk through our doors to flourish. We want our professors to flourish. We want our students to flourish.’ That spirit still defines this place. Yes, it’s demanding. But there is great care and concern for making the student experience successful and preparing them for what comes next as they go out into the world.