Commencement 2013

Schedule

Sunday, June 2
Time	Event	Participants	Location
10 am to noon	Commencement Exercises	Academic, Cantorial, Rabbinical	Mishkan Tefila
12:15 to 1:15 pm	Buffet Lunch ($15 pp)	Academic, Cantorial, Rabbinical	Mishkan Tefila
1:30 to 3 pm	Rabbinical Ordination	Rabbinical	Mishkan Tefila
2 to 3:30 pm	Cantorial Ordination	Cantorial	Hebrew College
4 to 5:30 pm	Prozdor Commencement	Prozdor	Mishkan Tefila
Thursday, June 6
Time	Event	Participants	Location
6:30 to 8:30 pm	Me'ah Graduation/ Dinner ($15 pp)	Me'ah	Hebrew College

Honorary Degrees

During the June 2 commencement ceremonies at Mishkan Tefila, honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees will be awarded to the following individuals:

Anita Diamant
Journalist, Author and Lecturer

Anita Diamant is a prizewinning journalist and author of six books about contemporary Jewish practice, a collection of autobiographical essays ("Pitching My Tent") and three prior novels. Her first novel, "The Red Tent," was a national bestseller and the Booksense Book of the Year. Her other novels, "Good Harbor" and "The Last Days of Dogtown," were both national bestsellers. Diamant is the founder and former president of Mayyim Hayyim, Living Waters Community Mikveh, and the Paula J. Brody Family Education Center in Newton, Mass., a 21st-century center for Jewish learning, ritual, community and culture. She grew up in Newark, N.J., and Denver. She has a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Rabbi David Hartman
Philosopher, Academic and Theologian
(Degree to be award posthumously)

Before his death in February 2013 at age 81, Rabbi David Hartman was one of the world’s leading Jewish philosophers who promoted both Jewish pluralism and interfaith dialogue. Born in Brooklyn, Hartman received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University in New York City. From 1955 to 1971, he served as a congregational rabbi, first in the Bronx and later in Montréal. While in Montreal, he also taught and studied at McGill University and received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1973. In 1971,Hartman immigrated to Israel with his wife, Barbara, and their five children. Five years later, he founded the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he led a team of scholars in the study and teaching of classical Jewish sources and contemporary issues of Israeli society and Jewish life. Later, Hartman served for two decades as professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Hartman’s publications in Jewish philosophy have received wide recognition and become standard references in academic scholarship. He was awarded the National Jewish Book Award in 1977 for "Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest" (Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1976).

Morton L. Mandel
Philanthropist, Business Leader and Entrepreneur

Morton L. Mandel is a leading philanthropist, business leader and social entrepreneur. With his two brothers, Jack and Joseph, he helped create Premier Industrial Corp., one of the more successful companies in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. As chairman and CEO of Premier from 1957 until 1996, Mandel brought the company public in 1960. He then led Premier to record profit and revenue for 34 out of the next 36 years. Mandel now serves as chairman and CEO of Parkwood Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Parkwood Trust Co. He also serves as chairman and chief executive officer of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, a philanthropic organization including the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem, the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Mandel Center for Leadership in the Negev. Mandel serves on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was the founding president of the World Conference of Jewish Community Centers.

Barry Mesch
Provost and Stone-Teplow Families Professor of Jewish Thought
Hebrew College

Barry Mesch, an expert in medieval and modern Jewish thought, theology and the Holocaust, and the history of biblical interpretation, oversees the academic programs of the college and takes special responsibility for the Jewish studies and Hebrew language programs. In 2001, he guided the creation and administration of the first online Master of Arts in Jewish Studies program on the Internet. Prior to his arrival at Hebrew College in 1990, Mesch had a 20-year career as the founding director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville. During this time, he was instrumental in acquiring several large collections of Judaica for the university. These became the Isser and Ray Price Library, the largest Judaica collection in the southeast. His book, "Joseph Ibn Caspi, Fourteenth Century Philosopher and Exegete," was published in 1975. Mesch will step down as provost at the end of the 2012-13 academic year and continue to serve on the faculty as the Stone-Teplow Families Professor of Jewish Thought as well as a special adviser to the president.