Conservative Judaism by Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg: July 2008

July 7, 2008 / 4 Tammuz 5768

Dear Friends,

As I complete my first official year as chancellor of JTS, I want to
share with you this report on some of the things we have accomplished
this year, along with several reflections about what lies ahead. It
was of course a remarkable year for me, filled with the daily
pleasures of getting to know the people and programs of a wonderful
institution, including many hundreds of the individuals who support
JTS with their contributions and good counsel. The academic year now
ending was also, I think you will agree, a very fine one for JTS, and
in some ways truly extraordinary.

Among the highlights for this past year at JTS, are the following:

* The creation of the Diane and Howard Wohl Office of Alumni
Affairs.
* 104 graduates receiving 110 degrees at our recent commencement
exercises.
* 618 students studying and learning in our classrooms.
* A new provost and new dean of The Rabbinical School, along with
the new chancellor and several new professors.
* The development and adoption of a new curriculum for The
Rabbinical School.
* A 150 percent increase in our new institutional grants support,
and greater revenue from our fund-raising campaign than from
last year's, including contributions from dozens of new
supporters.
* Expanded interdenominational and interfaith efforts.
* Major milestones in the celebration of the twentieth anniversary
of the Conservative Movement's investiture of female
cantors and the first anniversary of the decision to admit
openly gay and lesbian cantorial and rabbinical students.
* The first-year success of the pilot program of the Mitzvah
Initiative, a Conservative Movement-wide conversation and
exploration developed by JTS faculty and staff.

BUILDING ON OUR TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE

Let's begin with what was not at all new: fulfillment of our
core vision of teaching and learning at the highest level of
excellence. I had many occasions to witness this achievement
first-hand: conversing with students and faculty about their work,
reading student papers and scholarly publications by our faculty, and
participating in a wide range of seminars and workshops. Our faculty,
as always, reached thousands of people beyond the institution's
walls by traveling the globe giving lectures and concerts, chairing
panels, and participating in conferences on a remarkable, wide variety
of topics. This year as every year, our faculty produced some truly
important works in Jewish scholarship (and, to break the mold, an
adventure story set in the world of the Mediterranean in the year
1031).

This year, JTS and its faculty, students, and staff have been covered
or cited in print, online, and on screen by major media outlets like
Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Forward, Haaretz, JTA, Jerusalem
Post, Jewish Week, Lilith, New York Sun, New York Times, Newsweek,
PBS, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Religion News Service, Reuters,
Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Newsweek recently named
Rabbi Michael Greenbaum, our vice chancellor and chief operating
officer, to its "Top 50 Influential Rabbis in America"
list.

But perhaps the greatest recognition of JTS's achievement in the
area of teaching and learning occurred a few weeks ago under the tent
in the JTS courtyard when, in the presence of several hundred friends
and family members, we observed our 114th commencement. This school
year 104 graduates received 110 degrees. Many of our graduates are
immediately going on to assume leadership positions in their fields. A
good number graduated with awards and distinctions. All of them
constituted the first cohort to be served at once by our newly
established Diane and Howard Wohl Office of Alumni
Affairs--itself a major achievement of the year just ended.

The Wohl Office of Alumni Affairs, under the direction of recent
Graduate School alumna Rochelle Rudnick, is planning and implementing
a comprehensive and diversified outreach service. This will enable us
not only to stay in touch with the graduates of JTS's five
schools and keep the present and past of this great institution linked
firmly to its future: it will also enable us to draw more effectively
on their accumulated talent--to bring leading rabbis, cantors,
educators, scholars, and lay leaders together, in varying combinations
at varying points in their careers, for the task of reimagining and
transforming Jewish institutions and communities. I will offer further
details about our 114th commencement exercises later in this report.

NEW RABBINICAL SCHOOL CURRICULUM FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

JTS has long been justly proud of the academic and professional
preparation it affords its students. The mark our graduates have
consistently made on Jewish life is the best evidence of the quality
of their training. But we also know that JTS must constantly update
its curricular offerings and professional training to suit the changed
reality in which our graduates will be working. My "listening
tour" around the United States and Canada during my year as
chancellor-elect revealed a strong consensus among rabbis,
congregants, lay leaders of synagogues, and others that the training
of rabbis in particular needed revision to meet unprecedented
challenges. That is why I promised last September that the first order
of business during my chancellorship would be a curricular review of
the rabbinical and cantorial schools. Task forces were formed to
undertake each review, composed of the dean of the school, faculty,
students, and alumni. The rabbinical school task force began sharing
its proposals several months ago, and in May the final draft of its
report was presented to the faculty, reported to the Board of
Trustees, and proudly adopted as The Rabbinical School's new
curriculum. Implementation will begin at once.

The new course of study builds upon existing strengths while engaging
our students in the shifting realities of the religious, sociological,
and technological contexts of North America and Israel, thus providing
new tools for a successful rabbinate.

Highlights include:

* Tighter integration of the study of classical texts with
practical halakhah to help meet the needs of congregants and
students.
* Moving the Israel program from year three to year two in order
to strengthen Hebrew skills at an earlier stage and provide
students greater benefits from the cultural enrichment gained by
spending time in Israel. The program in Israel will be
lengthened to include a six-week summer ulpan (spoken-Hebrew
immersion program) that will be combined with volunteer projects
and touring. Students' exposure to the Masorti Movement,
Conservative Yeshiva, and diverse communities outside of
Jerusalem will be broadened.
* Greatly expanded training in pastoral counseling skills.
* Intensification and integration of professional skills, with new
emphasis on leadership skills in the classroom, boardroom,
media, and society.
* New courses in areas of contemporary urgency such as redefining
Conservative Judaism, nonprofit management, and the use of new
media.
* The adoption of a concentration leading to a departmental
master's degree by each student.
* The opportunity for students focused on halakhah to train as
modern poskim (rabbinic experts).
* The introduction of minimester courses each winter on such
topics as "The Tapestry of Faith in New York City,"
"Major Organizations of the American Jewish
Community," and "Social Justice and the
Rabbi."

Two related developments should also be mentioned in connection with
this transformation of the curriculum of The Rabbinical School.

First: we recognize that many of the challenges faced by rabbis are
not unique to Conservative Judaism--and that a key piece of the
skill set of every successful rabbi is the ability to learn from and
cooperate with colleagues from across the denominational spectrum.
That is why we were delighted when the Schusterman Foundation
presented us with the opportunity to participate in a dramatic,
innovative program that will join rabbinical students from JTS and HUC
in joint study beginning this coming fall. We believe it is the first
time these or any institutions have partnered in such an effort; we
are confident the result will be a new level of professional
achievement and cooperation.

Second: we recognize that not everything a future rabbi needs to learn
can be crammed into a five-year curriculum at school; indeed, much
that a rabbi needs to know can only be identified, let alone learned
and taught, once that rabbi is out in the field and on the job. That
is why JTS has committed to expanding its continuing education courses
for rabbis. We would like the admission of every student to our
program to mark the beginning of a lifelong association. A generous
grant from the Legacy Heritage Fund Limited is enabling us to begin
this process with the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Enrichment Initiative,
a two-year program for selected congregational rabbis who are in
evolving positions of rabbinic leadership in small to medium-sized
pulpits. Participants will convene at JTS for intensive summer
seminars on honing their professional skills, conducted by experts in
management and leadership development who also understand the
complexities of the rabbinate. Video-conferencing technology will
facilitate a virtual beit midrash throughout the year, enabling
participants to study in hevruta and engage in dialogue with a JTS
professor.

The Rabbinical School students who hold our named merit fellowships
continue to live up to our high expectations for them. To list only a
few of many accomplishments, Crown Fellow Gail Swedroe served this
year as a gabbai in the Women's League Seminary Synagogue; Rabbi
Michael Ragozin was ordained at commencement this year, the first
Gladstein Fellow to receive ordination; Neubauer Family Fellow Zachary
Silver is spending part of the summer leading college volunteers on a
trip to Ghana; Peter Miller Family Fellow Nina Redl, who is also a PhD
candidate in The Graduate School, will present a paper in Europe; and
Wolkin Fellow Aaron Weininger has been serving as Chair of the JTS
Committee on Inclusion, which organized "Hazak Hazak
V'nithazek." Our first cohort of Schusterman Rabbinical Fellows
join all our fellows in distinction and achievement, and we are all
excited to see what they produce.

Now that we have completed the restructuring of the rabbinical
curriculum, we are deeply engaged in the curricular review of the H.
L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music. The task force
charged with that review is due to report in December. It will be
complemented by the work of a third committee, to be formed this
coming fall, that will be charged with adding focus and depth to the
world-renowned degree programs of The Graduate School.

THE LIBRARY: HISTORIC TREASURES AND HIGH TECHNOLOGY

Our repository of invaluable Judaic texts is becoming more accessible
via current technology. The Sylvia and Harry Rebell Digitial
Collections are now available on The Library's website: this
ever-growing digital library provides access to some of our most
important collections in electronic form. The Library has also
undertaken a program of regular loans of exceptional Hebrew
manuscripts to the medieval department at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, which will culiminate with the loan of our Prato Haggadah to a
special exhibit at the Met in 2009.

MITZVAH INITIATIVE--JTS FACILITATES MOVEMENT-WIDE EXAMINATION AND
CONVERSATION

JTS serves North American Jewry, and particularly the Conservative
Movement, not only by training many of its future leaders but by
teaching professionals and laity alike--bringing to bear the
resources of the single largest faculty of Jewish Studies outside
Israel in ways that enrich the lives of our congregations and
communities. A noteworthy example of this impact is the Mitzvah
Initiative that began this year in seven pilot congregations around
the United States and that--once evaluated and refined--will
be made available to many others in 2009. The idea is to counter
simplistic dichotomies of "law versus love" or
"freedom versus commandment" by engaging Conservative Jews
in thoughtful dialogue about mitzvah: what commands them, obligates
them, engages them. For what do they feel responsible as Jews? What
distinctive Jewish behaviors do they perform out of love--and
why? There are many "reasons for the commandments"
articulated in Jewish tradition, and many ideas about the source of
religious authority. The Mitzvah Initiative pilot groups began with
honest conversation about these themes, and then moved on to study and
encounter with a wide range of mitzvot, from kashrut to social
justice, using discussion guides and curricula prepared by JTS.

This coming year, an educator hired by JTS will work along with Rabbi
Marc Wolf, assistant vice chancellor, and in partnership with
representatives of the various arms of the Conservative Movement, to
develop parallel curricula for these organizations. Our hope is that
congregations from coast to coast and in Canada--along with
Men's Club and Women's League chapters, USYers and Ramah
campers, educators, cantors and rabbis, as well as students and
faculty at JTS--will join in study and conversation about
mitzvah, a core element of Judaism since its inception and a core
unifying element in Conservatieve Judaism. This will, I hope, increase
their understanding of Conservative Judaism and their commitment to
it--their sense that, "Yes, this is the conversation of
which I want to be a part, this is a community of which I am proud to
be a part." Increased observance--individual and
collective--is also a desired outcome.

I am proud to report that this past week about fifty participants in
the Mitzvah Initiative in the New York metropolitan area met and
studied together at JTS, joined through video-conferencing technology
with fellow congregants in Chicago. The discussion was lively, the
questioning intense. Many wanted to know about the next steps: Greater
congregational commitment? Higher levels of individual observance? I
can't wait to see what next year brings.

CONTINUING LEADERSHIP IN INTERDENOMINATIONAL AND INTERFAITH PROGRAMS

I recently went to Washington DC with JTS professor, Dr. Burton
Visotzky, for Pope Benedict XVI's historic meeting with about 40
Jewish leaders among a group of some 156 representatives of six
religious traditions at a gathering sponsored by the Secretariat of
Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops. The pope dwelled in his remarks on the importance
of religious freedom and religious faith, emphasizing the need for
tolerance, dialogue, and bridge-building between the world's
religions, even as we affirm the importance of our differences.

At JTS, interfaith programming, outreach, and social-service
activities have been important for decades. From my perspective, the
pope's meeting with Jewish leaders was a newsworthy event, one
more in a long history of JTS's participation in interreligious
dialogue. On the Friday before we went to Washington, Burt Visotzky
and I went to the 96th Street Mosque, the largest in Manhattan, to
meet with its lay and professional leadership. A few weeks later, Burt
addressed the assembled congregation during Friday prayers, and the
mosque's imam, Shamsi Ali, came to JTS to give a sermon at
Minhah entitled, "Muslim and Jewish Relations in New York City
and the US." Over the decades, JTS has hosted many non-Jewish
religious leaders and scholars, including the rector of the
thousand-year-old Al-Azhar University in Cairo; Buddhist monks from
Burma (now Myanmar); and Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The
State Department has long recognized these ventures and has repeatedly
asked JTS to host visiting clerics. We are justly proud of our
longstanding good relations and fruitful partnerships with our
Christian neighbor on Seminary Row, Union Theological Seminary, a
relationship that we hope to expand in coming years. We are also in
conversation with a major Catholic institution about possible
partnerships.

I am absolutely committed to continuing and increasing JTS's
role in interfaith relations, demonstrating that commitent to God and
tradition can go hand in hand with mutual tolerance and respect. Jews
have a religious obligation to live in peace with their neighbors.
Jews have never been content to be a people off to the side, talking
only to God and one another; we are meant to be out in the world,
doing good things for the world. And under the auspices of the
Va'ad Gemilut Hasadim, this summer members of the JTS community
will join members of the 96th Street Mosque to feed hungry people at
the BCI soup kitchen, which is hosted by the Broadway Presbyterian
Church.

In the coming months, I will be working with faculty to further build
on the seventy-year success story of the Louis Finkelstein Institute.
The institute will concentrate henceforth on three areas: Judaism and
health/medicine, Judaism and public policy, and interfaith activity
and issues. These areas have long been important to Chancellor Louis
Finkelstein's eponymous institute; it will now benefit even more
from a clearly defined mission. This past spring, LFI sponsored
"Authors Forum: Religion--Politics, Policy, Power,"
three discussions on such topics as the Jewish perspectives on stem
cell research, physician-assisted suicide, the participation of Jews
in the political arena of the larger society, and the provocative
question, "Has the God of Liberalism Failed?"

FACULTY APPOINTMENTS

This has of course been my first official year as the seventh
chancellor of JTS. This past year has also seen the selection and
installation of other key academic leaders and faculty members at 3080
Broadway.

Dr. Alan Cooper assumed the office of provost on July 1, 2007. Alan is
the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies and first joined our
faculty as a professor of Bible in 1997. Among his many other
accomplishments in academia, in 1998 Alan was appointed professor of
Bible at the Union Theological Seminary, becoming the first person to
hold professorships at both JTS and Union.

Rabbi Daniel Nevins also began his tenure as the Pearl Resnick Dean of
The Rabbinical School of JTS on July 1. Danny's deep appreciation for
the Conservative Movement's standards, its principles, and its
pluralistic nature have been invaluable. His halakhic writings include
several responsa approved by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
as well as co-authorship of "Homosexuality, Human Dignity and
Halakhah," a responsum arguing for the normalization of the
status of gay and lesbian Jews that was approved by the CJLS.

Of course, JTS continues to boast a world-class faculty and a notable
student:faculty ratio. For the 2007-2008 year, our faculty numbered
sixty-three full-time and sixty-eight part-time members, several of
them new appointees, including both Rabbi Danny Nevins and myself.

For the upcoming academic year 2008-2009, we are adding to the roster
of our faculty and inaugurating a new dean of the William Davidson
Graduate School of Jewish Education.

Dr. Barry Holtz, Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish
Education, succeeds Steven Brown as dean of The Davidson School. Barry
has long been a leader in The Davidson School and in the field of
Jewish education. A world-renowned scholar and expert on curriculum,
professional development, and adult learning, Barry is an individual
equally familiar with the issues of the academy and the issues in the
field. He began his new position at JTS on July 1, 2008.

Two new senior faculty also entered our ranks July 1. Dr. Benjamin D.
Sommer, formerly of Northwestern University, joins the JTS faculty as
professor of Bible. Dr. Sommer has a special interest in biblical
theology and the impact of the Bible on contemporary Jewish thought
and education. Dr. Stefanie Siegmund joins us from the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor as associate professor of Jewish History. A
specialist in early modern Jewish history and gender studies, Dr.
Siegmund is the first Women's League Professor of Jewish Gender and
Women's Studies.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES AND INCREASED COMMUNITY OUTREACH

JTS has a long history of community outreach and education,
dispatching rabbis to congregations around the country. Rabbi David
Ackerman expands this effort in his role as rabbi, National Outreach,
creating and implementing adult-education programming across the
United States. Before coming to JTS, David was spiritual leader of
Tiferet Bet Israel in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, for more than fifteen
years.

I must insert a personal thank-you and farewell at this point. I have
relied heavily this year on the support and counsel of Rabbi Carol
Davidson, vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement. After nearly
twenty years as a member of the JTS community, first as a rabbinical
student and then as a member of the staff, Carol is leaving to become
associate executive director for External Affairs at the Jewish Board
of Family and Children's Services. We are all sorry to be losing
her creativity, hard work, intellect, and selflessness, as well as the
extraordinary personal gifts that have made her beloved by many of
JTS's most loyal supporters. Among her many contributions to
JTS, Carol founded the Va'ad Gemilut Hasadim: Susan and Jack Rudin
Center for Community Outreach and strengthened our fund-raising
efforts, which are the backbone of financial support for the
institution. Carol will continue working for tikkun 'olam in her
new role. Of course she will always be a valued member of our
community. I hope that Carol, as a graduate of The Rabbinical School,
and like all our alumni, will always feel that enrollment in JTS is
enrollment for life. The search is underway for her successor.

MILESTONES IN EGALITARIANISM AND INCLUSIVENESS

In December, the twentieth anniversary of the ordination of female
cantors in Conservative Judaism was celebrated with Kol Ishah, a
sold-out gala concert sponsored by the Women's League for
Conservative Judaism in conjunction with the H. L. Miller Cantorial
School and College of Jewish Music and the Cantors Assembly. The event
included performances by women cantors from across the country and the
premiere of a special Sheheheyanu by award-winning composer Hazzan
Joanna Selznick Dulkin.

In March, we marked the first anniversary of the decision to admit
openly gay and lesbian cantorial and rabbinical students with
"Hazak Hazak V'nithazek: Celebrating Strength Through
Inclusion," a full day devoted to joyous learning, celebration,
and song. We celebrated not only the admission of gay and lesbian
students to our rabbinical and cantorial schools but also the process
of honest outreach and spirited discussion that led up to that
decision and that followed upon it this year.

COMMENCEMENT--CELEBRATING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR STUDENTS,
WELCOMING OUR DISTINGUISHED FRIENDS

JTS recently held its 114th commencement exercises, the culmination of
every school year. The ceremony was a wonderful event, with 104
graduates receiving 110 degrees: 8 new hazzanim from H. L. Miller
Cantorial School; 24 newly ordained rabbis; 20 graduates from The
Davidson School; 26 from The Graduate School; and 32 from the Albert
A. List College of Jewish Studies.

This school year, JTS had 618 students: 137 in The Rabbinical School;
43 in H. L. Miller Cantorial School; 151 in The Graduate School; 106
in The Davidson School; and 181 undergraduates in List College.

We awarded four honorary degrees to an impressive list of luminaries:
Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg of the Fox Chase Cancer Center and the
University of Pennsylvania, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Medicine for his discovery of the antibody for the hepatitis B virus;
Professor Moshe Halbertal of the Hebrew University, the Shalom Hartman
Institute, and New York University Law School, one of the
world's leading experts on the history and philosophy of Jewish
law; Dean Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School, a distinguished
educator and expert on human rights legislation; and US Congresswoman
Nita M. Lowey of New York's eighteenth congressional district,
long a supporter of the State of Israel and advocate for women,
children, and families.

Audrey and Yale Asbell became the newest members of JTS's Society of
Fellows, an association of men and women who have demonstrated
devotion to the highest ideals of Judaism and to the principles of
social justice and concern for the broader community. They are people
of extraordinary and diverse talents who have made an enormous impact
on the welfare of JTS.

The commencement address was given by Dean Koh, who served for three
years as assistant secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor. In it, he spoke of the urgency of restoring America's
reputation as the world's preeminent defender of human rights,
and was received with a standing ovation from the audience when he
noted that in the decades following World War II, the US was
"regarded as the nation that valued human rights and that spoke
out against injustice and dictatorship and tried to practice what we
preach."

I found it a fitting end to my first, formal year as chancellor that a
child of Korean immigrants, who has done so much work in the secular
world in the areas of law and values, would join us at commencement
and speak about those same values.

MINDFUL PLANNING TO ENSURE A PROSPEROUS FUTURE

Like any fiscally responsible institution--educational or
otherwise--we recognize that our country is in the midst of
difficult economic times. Because JTS is committed to having a
balanced budget, we are taking prudent steps to make sure we achieve
that goal: nothing draconian, nothing that will reduce our
programming, nothing that will significantly change the number or
quality of our faculty and staff. At the same time, as I noted
earlier, there is good financial news to report. New institutional
grants increased by over 150 percent this year. This is further proof
of what I learned firsthand in countless conversations these past
twelve months: that funders, themselves facing increasing demands and
pressures, recognize the critical importance of the work undertaken on
this campus. Our fund-raising campaign raised more money this year
than the previous year, because our supporters recognize the
importance of what we do: the leaders we train, the heritage we
preserve and transmit, the innovation and vitality we bring to Jewish
life in America and beyond.

I look forward to hearing from and partnering with all of you as we
continue to build the history of The Jewish Theological Seminary in
the years to come.

Yours,

arnold eisen signature 2

Chancellor Arnold Eisen

Conservative Judaism by Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

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