ROSH CHODESH SIVAN 

Renewing Torah Amidst a Circle of Listening Companions 

By Rabbi Daniel Klein, Dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College

COMMENCEMENT & ORDINATION 2025/5785

Celebrating Our Graduates

With immense joy for the occasion and deep gratitude for our community, Hebrew College ordained twelve new rabbis and awarded graduate certificates to four Jewish educators at our Commencement and Ordination ceremonies this past Sunday. “I don’t need to tell you that you are stepping into leadership as educators and as rabbis in a very challenging moment,” said Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld. “A moment that will call upon you to live and work from a place of deep empathy, humility, courage, and compassion.” Rabbi Anisfeld’s charge was echoed and reflected by remarks from Rabbi David Saperstein, Bishop Mariann Budde, Idit Klein and Dr. Maya Arad, our honorary degree and award recipients, each honored for a career devoted to the values which make Hebrew College strong. May our passionate and caring graduates and ordainees enter this new season of their leadership motivated by these powerful words from Idit Klein: “Ease and home. Belonging. That is what each of us deserves to feel at least somewhere in the world, certainly in the Jewish community.”

Pictured top: Post-ordination celebrating; Honorary degree recipient Rabbi David Saperstein and Rabbi Or Rose; Rabbi Naomi Gurt Lind `25; Benjamin Shevach Award recipient Idit Klein and President Anisfeld. Bottom: Honorary degree recipient Bishop Mariann Budde.

Coming Close to the Divine

By Rabbi Danny Stein `23, The Selma and Lawrence Ruben Base UWS in New York City

We no longer have a Mishkan or a Temple in Jerusalem. But often, a separation still remains that actually prevents us from accessing the Divine. So what if we flip this narrative? What if, rather than creating barriers to prevent us from death, we remove barriers to bring us closer to life?

In ḥasidic terms, we can call these barriers the “klipot.” Literally meaning “shells,” they conceal our direct connection to the Divine. The more we can shed our klipot, the closer we connect to God, Torah, and each other. On a psychological level, the klipot are our insecurities, our hesitations, and all that is holding us back from experiencing the Divine. They are that small voice in our head that says, “No, probably not.” As any free spirit knows, we live our most meaningful lives when we shed away our klipot.

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TAMID ADULT LEARNING TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

Jewish Journey to Central Europe

From May 5-15, a group of Tamid of Hebrew College adult learners traveled to Central Europe to explore and trace the story of Ashkenazi Jewry, using the major centers of Prague (pictured above), Vienna and Budapest to remember and learn about the past and to better understand the complex nature of our own contemporary Jewish identity, belief and practice. Led by Hebrew College Me'ah instructor Rabbi Lenny Gordon — who also taught a Tamid adult learning course "The Jewish Experience in Central Europe" this spring — travelers learned how Central Europe was the cradle and center of Ashkenazi Jewish civilization until the 13th and 14th centuries, and in the wake of the Crusades, the Black Plague and unrelenting Christian persecution, expulsions and massacres, the center of European Jewish life and creativity shifted eastward to Poland. 

Tamid of Hebrew College has partnered with Tzedek America to offer our next travel experience — an immigration justice trip to the Arizona-Mexico border November 10-13. Visit Phoenix, Tucson, and Nogales, Arizona and meet with organizations and people directly affected by and enforcing the flow of migrants from Mexico to the U.S. "Visiting the border now is especially important given the current political climate, as immigration remains one of the most urgent and debated issues in American public life," says Tamid Director Kim Bodemer. "As a people who were once gerim — strangers in a strange land — we will explore the Jewish obligations and ethical responsibilities toward immigrants today."  

Hebrew College is reimagining Jewish learning and leadership for an interconnected world, making our lives more meaningful, our communities more vibrant, and our world more whole.