“We're Creating Jewish Educational Leaders Writ Large”: Lesley Litman, Ed.D., Reflects on Her Career at Hebrew Union College

After serving with distinction as Director of the Hebrew Union College Executive M.A. Program in Jewish Education (EMA), Lesley Litman, Ed.D., is stepping down from her current role and passing the reins to her School of Education colleague Kathy Schwartz, Ed.D., RJE.

Litman was recruited in 2010 to design, build, and direct the EMA, a program where she has taught and nurtured 12 cohorts. Since 2020, she has also served as Faculty Instructional Support Coordinator in the Office of the Provost, working with colleagues across all programs and campuses. Litman applied her knowledge and experience with remote learning to support the recent launch of the Rabbinical School Virtual Pathway. In addition, Litman consults for The iCenter on curriculum design and professional development in Israel education. Litman holds an Ed.D. from the Jewish Theological Seminary, an M.A. in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College in Boston, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was also a Mandel Jerusalem Fellow from 1994-96. We reached her at her office just outside of Boston to talk about her time at HUC and what’s next.

Your CV shows your time at Hebrew Union College covering some 15 years, but your association actually goes back further than that. How did you first connect with Hebrew Union College?

Lesley Litman: It really started with my connection to the Reform movement, because I lived in Israel for 10 years, and I worked at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, back in the ‘80s with the World Union for Progressive Judaism. I was a founder of the Reform Movement’s first kibbutz, Kibbutz Yahel, so I was very deeply embedded in all things Reform. In the ‘90s, I was at The Rashi School just outside of Boston, and I became connected to the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at our Los Angeles campus through one of its initiatives, Jewish Day Schools for the 21st Century. It was kind of a natural connection. Just by virtue of being in the field, it was hard not to be involved with the Rhea Hirsch School.

You have taught and served in leadership positions at a wide variety of Jewish educational settings over the years, including congregations, day schools, and youth programs of the Union for Reform Judaism. From all of those experiences, what did you draw on in shaping your approach at Hebrew Union College?

LL: All of it. When we talk about training Jewish educational leaders, that means preparing people to serve the entire field, not just a particular kind of narrow setting within the field. So we’re not creating congregational educators, or camp people, or youth people. We’re creating Jewish educational leaders writ large. And by the way, we’re not just serving the Reform movement. In a world that is much more connected, we need to see ourselves as serving any Jewish educational leader, no matter where they fall in their Jewish observance and who they’re serving, whether they’re Reconstructionist, Reform, Orthodox, or Conservative. I’m a 4th generation Reform Jew, but I did my doctorate at JTS, and I see myself as really reaching across the movements across different kinds of observance – something that’s been reflected in the EMA as well. I brought that kind of eclectic, expansive look to who our students are, and who we want to be placing in the field.

What was your experience like taking those insights into developing the EMA in 2010, launched the following year as the first non-campus based, online program at Hebrew Union College?

LL: It was a challenge, because it was countercultural. Each campus had its unique character in terms of how people teach and relate to students. But I loved it because I was able to draw on the strengths of the different campuses, and at the time I was one of the very few people in the institution that actually spent time on all the campuses. At that time, communications tended to be campus by campus, so part of my job was to help colleagues understand that our EMA students, even though they don’t sit on a campus, are part of the institution, and a part of the Hebrew Union College community that has grown over 15 years.

When we were designing the program, we felt that the biggest risk was, will we retain students? And will they feel connected to each other and to the institution? And so we created a mentoring component, and that was our secret sauce. By creating those small groups, we were able to take up to 16 students. Each mentor would have up to 4 students, and we brought in the crème de la crème of Jewish educational leaders, including Dr. Kathy Schwartz. Eventually that mentoring system also became the setting for EMA’s capstone process, where students complete a process that applies the knowledge, skills, and experiences they have gained throughout the learning in the program.

Was there anything that surprised you about building the program?

LL: One of the surprises was how deeply connected the students became to one another and to the institution. For our first 8 cohorts we had zero dropouts, so every single student who started graduated. And one of the reasons for that was, we actually had everyone do a pre-course before they came into the program to check it out and make sure it was right for them. So when they came into the program, they already knew each other, and we knew them well enough that we could build these mentoring groups and create a sense of intimacy and connection to the institution. I think that experience of building an online learning community of students in diverse locations and circumstances really laid the groundwork for Hebrew Union College’s new Virtual Pathway.

What was the arc from the EMA to the development of an online program for rabbinical students?

LL: When COVID happened I went to Provost Rabbi Andrea Weiss, and I said, “Do you want some help? Because we’ve been doing this for a decade in the EMA.” That led me to really engage with faculty across the institution, to get a glimpse inside their powerful scholarship. Learning from them has really driven home for me how extraordinary our faculty are, how deep their knowledge is, and how committed they are to high quality teaching and learning. They’ve worked in these very turbulent times to do their work in such a profound and powerful manner.

You mentioned your early connection to the Jerusalem Campus and to Israel, which has been a thread through your career. What directions have you taken that relationship in when it comes to training Jewish educators?

LL: I’m involved very broadly across the Reform movement, and I just co-chaired a process to design Reform Movement learning outcomes for Israel education, which have been ratified by the movement’s major organizations. I think what we’ve learned is that we have to engage learners with the real Israel. That’s often a struggle for students, and we have to support students in that struggle. And the educational challenge is: we can’t be teaching things to learners of any age that we will later have to un-teach, things that they will have to unlearn later. We can’t present first graders with a kind of “Disney Israel” and then say later, “Oops, that’s not really right.” So how do you do that with young children? This is where research by my colleagues Sivan Zakai and Laura Novak Winer has really helped me as a practitioner, to actualize the learning in what we do with the EMA students and in other Jewish educational settings. Because they need to know: How do we teach young learners?

Now that you are moving on from your current role, what’s coming up next for you?

LL: In addition to travel and fun and other good stuff, I’m continuing to work in Israel education. I’m spearheading an Israel curriculum for K through 12 for ARZA Canada, the Association for Reform Zionists of America. The initiative is focused on Canada, but we’re now bringing it across the globe. I am continuing to work on teaching the conflict. People who have reached out tell me they desperately need support around Israel education post-October 7th. So that’s my “heart work” right now. It’s what I think the world needs. So, however I can be supportive and helpful and enable educators to do this very important work, that’s where I see myself working over the next couple of years.