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Email this pageHUC-JIR/Jerusalem Harvests a New Crop of Rabbis
The Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion ordained six rabbis at an academic convocation on November 20 in the Blaustein Auditorium of Mercaz Shimshon-Beit Shmuel, the World Union’s education and culture center in Jerusalem.
The six were Judith Edelman-Green, Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni, Jehiel Benjamin Gruber, Zipora Livneh, Oded Mazor and Dalia Tibon Lagziel, bringing to 65 the number of rabbis who have undergone smicha at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem since it began rabbinical training in 1975. They were ordained by Rabbi David Ellenson, president of HUC-JIR.
Judith Edelman-Green grew up in the Reform Movement in the US and made aliya in1984. She has taught Judaism using creative techniques in Stockholm, Prague, Moscow, Manchester, New York, Madison, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and throughout Israel. She has included the deaf through sign language in prayer. She is currently working to create a community for adults with special needs in Kfar Sava called Kfar Rimon.
Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni holds a BSW from Haifa University and an MA in Jewish education from HUC-JIR/New York. She has worked for twenty years at The Midrasha at Oranim College, a center for the renewal of Jewish life in Israel, where she works on developing workshops on Jewish identity for teens and adults, group facilitation, developing young Jewish community leadership, and programs for new immigrants. She is currently serving as rabbi at Niggun Halev, an independent congregation in Nahalal, in the Jezreel Valley.
Jehiel Benjamin Gruber attended the Netiv Meir Yeshiva and later combined military service with advanced college-level courses at the Hesder Yeshiva in Yerucham, of which he was a founding member. He spent two years teaching Judaism in Portland, Oregon, where his spirit was captured by liberal Judaism. He has an MA in Jewish philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During his rabbinical studies he was active with the Israel Religious Action Center, Progressive movement congregations, and the movement’s Mechina pre-army gap-year program. He is currently the rabbi of Kibbutz Yahel and will soon be moving to the Arava.
Zipora Livneh came to Israel from Poland with her family in 1950. Most of her parents’ relatives perished at Sobibor, and their suffering led her to see education as her calling, believing that in this field she could realize her desire to make the world a better place in which to live. She earned a Master's Degree from Hebrew University in modern Jewish history and educational counseling, and for 33 years worked as an educator, teaching history and citizenship at Jerusalem-area schools.
Oded Mazor grew up in a family deeply involved with liberal Judaism in both Germany and Israel. He is the son of Rabbi Yehoram Mazor, one of the first graduates of HUC-JIR/Jerusalem’s rabbinical program and formerly spiritual leader of the Progressive congregation in Ramat Hasharon. Oded completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Jewish thought at Hebrew University, and for the past two years has served as the educational coordinator and rabbinical assistant at Jerusalem’s Congregation Kol Haneshama, and as rabbi of the Tali School.
Dalia Tibon Lagziel was born in Haifa and has a BA from at Haifa University's Jewish Studies faculty. She first encountered liberal Judaism at the Leo Baeck Education Center’s Beit Midrash for Educational Leadership, and for the past eight years has worked at the center, directing its communal Jewish education program. She is now completing her MA in Jewish thought at Haifa University. For the past two years, she has served as student rabbi at Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Zichron Yaakov, where she and her husband make their home.
The November convocation also saw the first seven graduates of the Jerusalem campus’ program in Pluralistic Jewish Education, which is part of a Master’s Degree track in Jewish education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Melton Centre for Jewish Education. The seven were Michal Burstein-Azrieli, Maital Cohen-Sabag, Nitza Harel-Attias, Oded Mazor, Lior Nevo, Israela Ravid and Rinat Safania.
Rabbi Michael Melchior, a former cabinet minister, deputy minister and Knesset member, was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of his many years of work on behalf of Jewish and religious causes, most prominently in the field of coexistence. He was a keynote speaker last March at Connections 2009, the World Union’s most recent international convention.
Left to right: Rabbi Naamah Kelman, HUC-JIR/Jerusalem dean; ordinands Jehiel Benjamin Gruber, Zipora Livneh, Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni, Judith Edelman-Green, Dalia Tibon Lagziel and Oded Mazor; Rabbi Prof. David Ellenson, HUC-JIR president; and Rabbi Dr. Michael Marmur, vice president for academic affairs.
