A JTS Lecture Honoring Martin
Luther King Jr.
Volume 22, January 4, 2011
In this issue

A JTS Lecture Honoring Martin
Luther King Jr.

JTS Alumnus Gives Invocation at
Signing of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Repeal Act

“A Jew at Christmas” by
Chancellor Eisen in the
Huffington Post

Young Conservative Leaders
Contribute “Far Beyond Their
Proportions in the American
Jewish Populace”—Report
Spearheaded by JTS Professor

A Salute to Joan Rosenbaum,
Director, The Jewish Museum

What’s Happening at 3080
Broadway and in Your
Community
multicultural congregation. A former professor of Preaching at Union Theological

Making News
Seminary, he has been awarded 13 honorary degrees. Dr. Forbes has been co-chair

Admissions and Recruitment
Highlights
On Wednesday, January 19, at 7:30, the Reverend Dr.
James Alexander Forbes Jr., senior minister emeritus of
the Riverside Church, will give a lecture at JTS entitled
“Preaching the Gospel of Martin Luther King Jr.” Dr.
King became a great friend of The Jewish Theological
Seminary through Abraham Joshua Heschel, and
accepted an honorary doctorate from JTS in 1964.
Rabbi Heschel marched with Dr. King and other civil
rights leaders for voter registration rights for African
Americans in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. And in 1968, two weeks before his
assassination, Dr. King attended a Rabbinical Assembly convention.
Dr. Forbes is the ideal person to speak about the legacy of Dr. King. Dr. Forbes was
the first African American to serve as senior minister of Riverside’s renowned
of A Partnership of Faith, an interfaith organization of clergy among New York’s
Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim communities, since 1992. He is president of
the Healing of the Nations Foundation, a consultant to the Congress of National Black
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Churches, and past president of the Martin Luther King Fellows.
Do you know someone who
The lecture, which is being presented under the auspices of the Louis Finkelstein
might be interested in receiving
Institute for Religious and Social Studies, is free, but reservations are required via
this newsletter?
email or phone: publicevents@jtsa.edu or (212) 280-6093.
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Give
JTS Alumnus Gives Invocation at Signing of
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Act
Your gift will make it possible for
JTS to fulfill its mission of
educating the best and brightest
When President Obama signed the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Act into law on
December 22, 2010, in a packed auditorium at the Interior Department, JTS alumnus
Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff (RS ’76) was there to give the invocation.
Before his study and ordination at The Rabbinical School, Rabbi Resnicoff served as
a line officer in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War and with naval intelligence
in Europe. After becoming a rabbi, he served as a chaplain with the United States
Navy for many years. Rabbi Resnicoff was part of a small group of Vietnam veterans
that worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in Washington DC; he
delivered the closing prayer at the dedication of that memorial. He is a consultant on
interfaith values and interreligious affairs; a recipient of the Defense Superior Service
Medal for his work with military and civilian leaders throughout Europe, Africa, and the
Middle East while serving as the Command Chaplain for the U.S. European
Command; and a former National Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American
Jewish Committee.
The prayer given by Rabbi Resnicoff reads, in part:
" . . . Today we honor all brave men and women,
Including those who served so long without the honor they deserved.
Oh Lord our God, and God of generations past,
Help us move forward,
Toward a nation a little more united, more indivisible,
A union a bit more perfect, founded on a great deal more respect.
Let us pray that if the day has not yet dawned
When we can see the face of God in others
Then we see; at least, a face as human as our own . . . "
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“A Jew at Christmas” by Chancellor Eisen in the
Huffington Post
In a recent blog entry for the Huffington Post, Chancellor Arnold M. Eisen reflects on
the American Jewish experience of Christmastime: “As a religious Jew, I relate easily
to the satisfaction Christians take in focusing themselves and the country for one
short spell on the values that should be guiding us year-round . . . ” Read more on the
students.
Huffington Post blog page for Chancellor Eisen, where you can also sign up to
receive email alerts of his new posts.
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Young Conservative Leaders Contribute “Far
Beyond Their Proportions in the American
Jewish Populace”—Report Spearheaded by JTS
Professor
Dr. Jack Wertheimer and a team of researchers have
recently completed a report entitled “Generation of
Change: How Leaders in Their Twenties and Thirties
Are Reshaping American Jewish Life.” The team
initiated the study, under the auspices of the AVI CHAI
Foundation, to learn how Jewish women and men
between the ages of 22 and 40 who serve as leaders of
Jewish programs, initiatives, and organizations think
about Jewish concerns and their upbringing. Learn
more, and watch Dr. Wertheimer teaching List College students about the results of
the report. The report is available at www.avichai.org.
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A Salute to Joan Rosenbaum, Director, The
Jewish Museum
After 30 years of remarkable leadership, Joan Rosenbaum (who received an honorary
doctorate in Hebrew Letters from JTS in 2003) is retiring from her post as director of
The Jewish Museum, an institution that began in 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger
presented his library and 26 objects to JTS to serve as the initial establishment of a
Jewish museum. Joshua Nash, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Jewish
Museum, said that “Joan Rosenbaum is the most influential leader this institution has
had in its 106-year history.” Read Chancellor Eisen’s salute to Joan Rosenbaum and
his thoughts on the next steps in the ongoing partnership between our two institutions.
The new exhibition Marriage Contracts from The Library of The Jewish Theological
Seminary will open at The Jewish Museum in March 2011.
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What’s Happening at 3080 Broadway and in Your
Community
Dr. David Kraemer will teach a special course
(exclusively for current students of Context, the
flagship program of the Institute for Jewish Learning),
Transmitting Tradition: Biblical and Rabbinic Texts
from The Library, on January 23. • Dr. Eve Feinstein
delivers a lunchtime learning talk, “Sexual Pollution in
the Bible: From Genesis to Ezra,” on January 25. • A
panel discussion on end of life issues and the New
York Palliative Care Information Act will be held at
JTS on January 25 under the auspices of the Louis
Finkelstein Institute. • Dr. Carol Ingall discusses her new book The Women Who
Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910–1965, in a Library Book Talk on
January 31. (The Library Book Talk is free, but requires reservations: email Hector
Guzman at heguzman@jtsa.edu for more information or to register.)
On January 9, Dr. Jonathan Milgram delivers a lecture on “Judaisms of the Second
Temple Period” in Stamford, Connecticut. • January 13–15, Dr. Benjamin D.
Sommer will be speaking in California—“The Bible and Kabbalah: Divergence and
Convergence” at Stanford University and a follow-up session on January 13 and 14,
and two additional lectures in Berkeley on January 14 and 15. • Dr. Raymond
Scheindlin will deliver a lecture in Maryland on January 23: “The Bible and the
Quran”; and another, “Caged Vulture: Ibn Gabirol's Poetic Manifesto,” at Stanford
University on February 10. • Four dynamic young alumni of List College—Jennifer
Adler, Gabe Miner, Hillary Paige Yohlin Waller, and Sarah M. Waxman—will be
honored during the 59th Jewish Educators Assembly conference in Philadelphia,
January 23–26. • On January 24 and 31, Dr. Eitan Fishbane teaches a course entitled
“Jewish Mysticism and the Spiritual Life” as part of the “Hodesh Limud” at Siegal
College of Jewish Studies in Cleveland; Dr. Fishbane’s presentation will be done via
video conference. • Dr. Alan Mittleman will lecture on “Theorizing Jewish Ethics” at
Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University on January 28.
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Making News
“People of the E-Book? Observant Jews Struggle With
Sabbath in a Digital Age,” an article on the website of
The Atlantic, quotes Rabbi Daniel Nevins, who is writing
a teshuvah on the use of electronic devices on Shabbat.
• In “Judaism on the Road,” south Florida’s SunSentinel profiles JTS Rabbinic Fellow Rabbi Andy
Shugerman, who writes commentary on
midrash biweekly for Torah From JTS. • Dr. Shuly Rubin
Schwartz has an opinion piece in the Forward,
“Standing on Henrietta Szold’s Shoulders.” • New York magazine’s number-one
reason to love New York? “Because Pluralism Is Our Fundamentalism,” which
features a photo of Professor Burton Visotzky, one of the JTS leaders who have
made great strides in the cause of interreligious understanding.
Unable to attend an event, but interested in what we’re doing? You can still share in
the inspiration, wisdom, and community of JTS. Listen to lectures, programs,
performances, commentary, and more. Connect with your fellow alumni and friends of
JTS—check out our Social Media Initiatives. And visit our online community calendar
to find out about upcoming talks and events on and off campus.
You can now receive JTS Torah commentary automatically, as soon as it’s posted
online, through RSS feeds such as Live Bookmarks or Google, by signing up at
http://www.jtsa.edu/x15092.xml.
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Admissions and Recruitment Highlights
Once a month, the admissions offices let you know what’s happening in the
admissions and enrollment world at JTS. Keep up to date with JTS admissions—learn
about upcoming events and important deadlines, and read profiles of the next
generations of Jewish leaders, the students of JTS. Join our distribution list by clicking
getadmissionshighlights@jtsa.edu and sending the blank email—you don’t need to
include any text or a subject.