Churning Jewish World

The world is churning...I received a letter earlier in the week from Rabbi David Ellenson, president of the Hebrew Union College, my alma mater.  Ellenson spoke eloquently of the very difficult position of the College and the changes that will be necessary to maintain the College is some form. 

For those who may not know, HUC maintains four campuses:  New York, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.  The College trains rabbis, cantors, Jewish educators, Jewish social/communal service  workers; the College confers Masters, Ordination, Investiture and Doctorates. Like the Union of Reform Judaism, the College has long been a bureaucratic behemoth, kept together only because competing constituencies could not give up their little slice of heaven.

Now, it is likely the College will face the elimination of at least one, perhaps two campuses.  As well, the breadth of degrees and programs will likely be eliminated.

 the URJ's reorganization and the UJC's reorganization means that the organizational Jewish world stands on the threshold of epochal change. Five years from now it will look significantly different than it has for the past 100 years...so this is a big change.  Hopefully it will be managed correctly.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Wacko-in-Chief stood in front of the Durban Disaster and spewed not unexpected hatred.  Lots of countries such as France 'walked out' on the guy...big deal.  They walked back in.  Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that any of the countries sitting in that room care one whit about Israel...if they did, they would have stayed at home like the Americans and others.

By the way, just because I refer to him derisively does not mean he isn't dangerous. He is very dangerous.  But, he's still a wacko.