| Type | Seminary |
|---|---|
| Established | 2000 |
| Affiliation | Jewish (nondenominational) |
| Location | , , 34°04′13″N118°26′18″W / 34.0702°N 118.4384°W |
| Website | ajrca |
The Academy for Jewish Religion California (AJRCA), is a Jewish seminary in Los Angeles. It trains rabbis, cantors and chaplains to serve congregations and organizations of any Jewish denomination. [1]
The school was conceived as a transdenominational alternative to the more established rabbinical schools by two Los Angeles rabbis, Stanley Levy and Stephen Robbins, later joined by a third, Mordecai Finley, who became president of the school soon after its establishment in 2001. Initially conceived as a branch of the New York City-based Academy for Jewish Religion, it soon became independent. [1]
In its first years the school was housed in a small temple in West Los Angeles, [2] later moving to the Yitzchak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. It ordained its first three rabbis in 2003, and provided a means for students to pursue rabbinical studies while still working in other jobs. [1]
In 2010 the school partnered with Claremont School of Theology (CST) to provide a Jewish component for CST's interfaith curriculum. [3] In January 2013 Tamar Frankiel became the president of the Academy for Jewish Religion, making her the first Orthodox woman to lead an American rabbinical school. [4] [5] The school itself is transdenominational, not Orthodox. [5] Later in 2013, the Academy relocated from UCLA to a building in Koreatown shared with two other Jewish organizations. [6] The Academy returned "home", to UCLA Hillel in the fall of 2017, and in 2021 it moved to the campus of Loyola Marymount University. [7] In 2022 Rabbi Joshua Hoffman was named as the president and CEO of the Academy. [8]
The Yitzchak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life is a center for Jewish cultural, religious and spiritual education at the University of California, Los Angeles. [9] [10] [11] The Hillel has been home to the Academy since the new building was dedicated in 2002. [12]
A rabbi is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as semikha—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisaic and Talmudic eras, when learned teachers assembled to codify Judaism's written and oral laws. The title "rabbi" was first used in the first century CE. In more recent centuries, the duties of a rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian minister, hence the title "pulpit rabbis", and in 19th-century Germany and the United States rabbinic activities including sermons, pastoral counseling, and representing the community to the outside, all increased in importance.
The Musar movement is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Lithuania, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term Musar (מוּסַר) is adopted from the Book of Proverbs (1:2) describing moral conduct, instruction or discipline, educating oneself on how one should act in an appropriate manner. The term was used by the Musar movement to convey the teachings regarding ethical and spiritual paths. The Musar movement made significant contributions to Musar literature and Jewish ethics. The movement has been revived in the 21st century amongst Jews of all denominations, particularly in the United States.
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who leads the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this prayer leader is often referred to as a cantor, a term also used in Christianity.
The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion is a Jewish seminary with three locations in the United States and one location in Jerusalem. It is the oldest extant 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, Ohio, New York City, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem campus is the only seminary in Israel for training Reform Jewish clergy.
Rabbinic authority in Judaism relates to the theological and communal authority attributed to rabbis and their pronouncements in matters of Jewish law. The extent of rabbinic authority differs by various Jewish groups and denominations throughout history.
Michael Berenbaum is an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer, and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust. He served as deputy director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust (1979–1980), Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) (1988–1993), and Director of the USHMM's Holocaust Research Institute (1993–1997).
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
David J. Wolpe is an American rabbi. He is Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School and the Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple. He previously taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Hunter College, and UCLA. Wolpe was named the most influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek in 2012, and among the 500 most influential Angelinos in 2016 and 2018. Wolpe now serves as the Inaugural rabbinic fellow for the ADL, and a Senior Advisor for the Maimonides Fund. Wolpe resigned from an advisory group on antisemitism assembled by Harvard President Claudine Gay in December 2023 in response to what Wolpe characterized as a hostile environment to Jews at Harvard.
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
David Ellenson was an American rabbi and academic who was known as a leader of the Reform movement in Judaism. Ellenson was director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and visiting professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University and previously president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). He previously served as president of HUC-JIR from 2001 to December 31, 2013, and was later chancellor emeritus of that college until his death. Ellenson had served as interim president following the death of his successor, Aaron D. Panken until the inauguration of Andrew Rehfeld, the 10th and current President.
David Neiman was a renowned scholar in the fields of Biblical Studies, Jewish history, and the long and often complicated relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jews.
Yeshiva University, a United States private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel, was founded in 1886. It is a research university ranked as 105th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2023.
Daniel Landes is the former director of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and New York City.
The first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clergy in Judaism were ordained as rabbis and/or cantors in the second half of the 20th century.
Amir Hussain is a scholar of religion who specializes in the study of Islam. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In November 2022 he became President of the American Academy of Religion. He has done significant publishing work with Oxford University Press, including editing the fifth editions (2018) of two of their main textbooks, World Religions: Western Traditions and World Religions: Eastern Traditions, and the third edition of A Concise Introduction to World Religions.
Itamar Rosensweig is a rabbi and maggid shiur at Yeshiva University in New York City and a dayan at the Beth Din of America, where he also serves as the editor of Jewishprudence: Thoughts on Jewish Law and Beth Din Jurisprudence. Rabbi Rosensweig is also the Rabbi at The Merion Shtiebel in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, and teaches Jewish Business Law and Ethics at YU's Sy Syms School of Business. Previously, he taught an advanced Talmud shiur at Columbia University's Kraft Center, and presently serves as the maggid shiur at the University of Pennsylvania Hillel. He is the son of Rabbi Michael Rosensweig, and grandson of Yaffa Eliach.
Jacob "Jack" Pressman was an American Conservative rabbi. He served as the rabbi of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, California, from 1950 to 1985. He was a co-founder of the American Jewish University in Bel Air. He penned a weekly column in The Beverly Hills Courier, from 2004 to 2015.
Lila Kagedan is a Canadian-born Jewish rabbi who in 2016 became the first woman with the title rabbi to be hired by an Open Orthodox synagogue. This occurred when Mount Freedom Jewish Center in New Jersey, which is open Modern Orthodox, hired Kagedan to join their "spiritual leadership team." She is currently the rabbi at Walnut Street Synagogue, an Open Orthodox synagogue in Massachusetts.
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