Hebrew Union College

Infobox_University
name = Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
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image_size =153 × 138 pixel
established =1875
type =Private
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president =Rabbi David Ellenson
undergrad =
postgrad =
doctoral =
city =Cincinnati, New York City, Los Angeles, Jerusalem
state =
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affiliations =Reform Judaism
Union for Reform Judaism
Central Conference of American Rabbis
website = [http://www.huc.edu www.huc.edu]

The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (also known as HUC, HUC-JIR, and The College-Institute) is the oldest Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.

HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem campus is the only seminary in Israel for training Reform Jewish clergy.

History

HUC was founded in 1875 under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise in Cincinnati, Ohio. A second campus in New York City was created through a merger with the rival Reform Jewish Institute of Religion in 1950 and additional campuses were added in Los Angeles, California in 1954 and Jerusalem in 1963. [ [http://www.huc.edu/about/history.shtml Hebrew Union College History] ]

Today, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is an international seminary and university of graduate studies offering a wide variety of academic and professional programs. In addition to its Rabbinical School, the College-Institute includes Schools of Graduate Studies, Education, Jewish Communal Service, sacred music, Biblical archaeology and an Israeli rabbinical program. [ [http://www.huc.edu/academics/rabbinical/jeacademics.shtml Hebrew Union College Academics] ]

The Los Angeles campus operates many of its programs and degrees in cooperation with the neighboring University of Southern California, a partnership that has lasted over 35 years. [ [http://www.huc.edu/USC/ Hebrew Union College: University of Southern California] ]

Notable faculty

Notable faculty members have included Judah Magnes, who was also the founding chancellor and president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Nelson Glueck, Moses Buttenweiser, Eugene Borowitz, Jacob Z. Lauterbach, and Debbie Friedman.

Notable graduates

* Jonathan Rosenbaum (scholar)
* Ruth Langer

Gender equality and HUC

In keeping with the tradition of gender equality in Reform Judaism, HUC has both male and female students in all its programs, including rabbinic and cantorial studies. Since its founding, the College-Institute has ordained over 2800 rabbis and over 400 cantors. As of 2007, 520 ordained rabbis and 179 invested cantors have been women. [ [http://www.huc.edu/about/statistics.shtml Hebrew Union College Statistics] ] ("See" Women and the rabbinical credential).

Resources

The HUC [http://www.huc.edu/libraries/ library] system contains one of the most extensive Jewish collections in the world with close to a million volumes on the 4 campuses. The collection includes 150 incunabula (the earliest printed books), more than 2,000 manuscript codices, and many thousands of pages of archival documents. Special collections include Jewish Americana, music, an outstanding Spinoza collection, and extensive microforms. It also houses the American Jewish Periodical Center, which preserves American Jewish periodicals and newspapers on microfilm.

The three U.S. campuses share a [http://library.cn.huc.edu:8000/cgi-bin/gw_48_0_3_4/chameleon?skin=LA&lng=en/ catalog] The Jerusalem [http://heb-union-col.exlibris.co.il/F/ catalog] is separate.

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum

The HUC-JIR Museum includes the Petrie Great Hall, Klingenstein Rare Book Room, Chaim and Rivka Heller Archives Gallery, Joseph Gallery, and Backman Gallery. The Museum presents exhibitions highlighting Jewish history, culture, and contemporary creativity.citation | title= Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion: About | publisher=ARTINFO | year=2008 | url= http://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide/22136/8654/about/hebrew-union-college-jewish-institute-of-religion-new-york/ | accessdate=2008-07-28 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.huc.edu/ Hebrew Union College Website]
* [http://www.ccarnet.org/ Central Conference of American Rabbis Website]
* [http://www.urj.org/ The Union for Reform Judaism Website]
* [http://reformjudaismmag.org/ Reform Judaism Magazine Home Page]