Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and a longtime advocate for social justice, will deliver the commencement address at Hebrew College’s 82nd graduation ceremony on June 3. A prolific writer, speaker and political activist, Messinger will also receive an honorary degree.

Since assuming leadership of ajws in 1998, Messinger has transformed the organization—currently an international development organization providing support to more than 200 grassroots social change projects in Africa, Asia and the Americas—into one of the most vital Jewish institutions in the country. Before joining ajws, she served for eight years as Manhattan Borough President. Among her many awards, Messinger received the Jewish Council for Public Affairs’ prestigious Albert D. Chernin Award in February 2006 in honor of her work to end the genocide in Darfur.

Ruth Messinger

Other honorary degrees will be presented to Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) President Nick Carter and Hebrew College Overseer Enid Shapiro.

As President of ANTS for the past three years, the Reverend Dr. Nick Carter has collaborated with HC on a number of interfaith initiatives, most notably the Interreligious Center on Public Life (ICPL). He is dedicated to the pursuit of peace and justice, which he promoted while serving as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Beverly, Mass., for more than ten years and as Executive Director of sane/freeze in the late 1980s.

Enid Shapiro’s passion for tikkun olam led her to earn a degree in social work and to serve in leadership positions at Jewish Memorial Hospital and at Jewish Family and Children’s Service. Founder of the Hadassah Social Work Council, she has been a member of the board of the Fellowship in Israel for Arab-Jewish Youth for over 40 years.

A separate commencement ceremony will be held in New York City on Sunday, June 24, for the 169 Me’ah graduates from the metropolitan New York region. Me’ah graduates Mimi Alperin Me’ah’03 and Rich Pzena Me’ah’04 will receive honorary degrees on the occasion. Alperin, who has been instrumental in building HC ’s greater New York constituency, is incoming President of the American Jewish Committee and founder and first President of Congregation Or Zarua, one of the first New York City Me’ah sites. Pzena, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pzena Investment Management in Manhattan, brought Me’ah to his home state of New Jersey and the Me’ah Graduate Institute (MGI) to the Greater New York region. He also serves on the region’s Me’ah Advisory Committee.

Hebrew College’s highest academic honor, the Dr. Benjamin J. Shevach Memorial Award for distinguished achievement in Jewish educational leadership, will be awarded to Rabbi Jeffrey A. Summit. Executive Director of Tufts University’s Hillel Foundation and the University’s Jewish Chaplain, he teaches in Tufts’ Judaic Studies program and Department of Music.

The Louis Hillson Memorial Award for distinguished leadership in and commitment to Jewish education will be given to Dr. Gilda Oran, an expert on open classroom teaching with special regard to Hebrew language development. She is an adjunct faculty member at the George Washington University Judaic Studies program and a visiting faculty member at Hebrew College. Yavneh alumnus and 1997 M.J.Ed. graduate Jonathan Golden, Chair of the History Department at Gann Academy, will receive the Sydney Hillson Memorial Award for achievement in Jewish education.

The Cantor-Educator Program will graduate its first class of four this year. Fourteen students will receive Master of Arts in Jewish Studies (M.A.J.S.) and Master of Jewish Education (M.J.Ed.) degrees, and one student will receive a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies degree. Ten graduates will receive certificates in Hebrew Language Teaching, and others will receive certificates in the Cantorial Arts, Early Childhood, Hebrew Language Teaching and Mentoring, Jewish Communal and Clinical Social Work, Jewish Family Education, Jewish Liturgical Music and Jewish Special Education.

A separate ceremony will be held on June 3 for the 173 graduates of Prozdor High School. In addition, 195 Me’ah graduates from Greater Boston sites and 25 Me’ah graduates from Baltimore will receive certificates.


back to top