President's Update
March 16, 2021 | 3 Nisan 5781
Dear friends,
It is a great joy to share with you some exciting news about Hebrew College’s new home.
After an extraordinary three-year journey—working diligently with an ever-growing group of dedicated board members, community leaders, donors, alumni, faculty, staff, and students to develop a strategic vision for Hebrew College’s next chapter and to identify a new home for our sacred work—we have found a destination that embodies Hebrew College’s core values of deep Jewish learning and leadership in service of a more vibrant, creative, and inclusive community.
In December 2022, we will relocate to a new shared campus and interdisciplinary hub for Jewish life on the grounds of Temple Reyim on Washington Street in the Auburndale neighborhood of Newton, MA.
We are so fortunate to have Temple Reyim as our key partner on this new campus. Temple Reyim, led by Hebrew College alumnus Rabbi Dan Berman, is a warm and welcoming Conservative and inclusive egalitarian Jewish community. Joining our campus collaborative will be 9 other dynamic Jewish organizations, developing a post-pandemic shared space that can provide a national model for communal innovation and sustainability and serve the evolving needs of an ever-changing Jewish community. Our founding campus partners include:
Our commitment to collaboration is reflected in the space and design of our new campus. The building will include newly renovated 25,000 square feet of existing space and an additional new 15,800 square feet of state-of-the-art facilities. To encourage collaboration, shared resources will include a renovated performance space, classrooms, a recording studio, a light-filled Beit Midrash, the Hebrew College library and lounge, Beit Neshama (a space for breath, movement, and contemplative practice), communal meeting rooms, and a central courtyard.
We are especially gratified that we are meeting the key goals set forth nearly four years ago by the Hebrew College Board of Trustees when we made the decision to sell the College’s current campus: to eliminate debt, reduce operating costs, rededicate resources to people and programs, and seek new opportunities for strategic partnership and collaboration. We will indeed move to our new home operating with a sustainable budget, working closely with a variety of wonderful mission-aligned organizations, and poised for growth.
As part of this move, we have launched Branching Out, Building Together, our Capital Campaign to raise $9.5 million by October 15, 2021. With $5.8 million in generous leadership gifts already confirmed, we are more than halfway there. When we reach $9.5 million, we will receive a generous $1 million challenge grant from a major philanthropic foundation, securing our future in this vibrant new hub for Jewish learning, community, and innovation.
As we prepare for this exciting move in December 2022, Hebrew College will celebrate its Centennial during the coming academic year. This momentous milestone fills us with gratitude, humility, and an awesome sense of responsibility for the future of this beloved communal institution.
We are thrilled to be planting seeds now for our next century, as we continue to nurture leaders and learners, to infuse Jewish life with substance, spirit, creativity, and compassion, and to engage the wisdom of our unfolding tradition as a resource for living together in a diverse and interconnected world.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or to our Board of Trustees Chair, Andy Offit, if you have any questions.
B’virkat shalom,
