Centennial Celebration Recap
Celebrating 100 Years Together!
Thank you to everyone who joined us in person and virtually on June 2, 2022 for Hebrew College’s milestone Centennial Celebration: Remember. Renew. Reimagine.
Watch the Honoree video
Our Honorees: Embracing Our Past, Building Our Future
Mark Atkins and Miho Sato
Mark Atkins is a retired entrepreneur and longtime volunteer at Hebrew College. In 1990, he co-founded Vality Technology, Inc., a Big Data software company, where he served as Chairman and CEO until 2002, when Ascential Software (IBM) acquired the company. From 2002 until 2012, he served as Chairman and CEO of Invention Machine Inc., a global innovation software system that was acquired by IHS. From 2013 until 2018, he served as an adjunct professor at The University of Massachusetts-Boston College of Management, where he taught Entrepreneurial and Global Strategic Marketing courses to MBA and undergraduate students. Over the past decade, he has also served as a Board Director, consultant, and mentor to several technology companies.
Mark is a member of the Board of Overseers of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is a past Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Hebrew College and a former board member of the University of Massachusetts Foundation, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston, and The Vilna Shul. He is also a former trustee of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) New England, and served on the AJC National Board of Governors from 2015 until 2018. He was an honoree and recipient of the Vilna Visionary Leadership Award, as well as the recipient of the Distinguished Business Leader Award by the University of Massachusetts College of Management. In May 2017, Mark delivered the keynote address at the College of Management Convocation for the University of Massachusetts-Boston School of Management. In 2019, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Hebrew College. Mark received his MBA from Babson College and his BA from The University of Massachusetts-Boston, where he set up The Mark E. Atkins Scholarship Endowment.
Miho Sato is a classically trained soprano singer and licensed broker. She graduated from Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, and studied at the Boston University Opera Institute. In 2004, she founded Urban Realty Group, which primarily served the Japanese community in Greater Boston. Her company was acquired by a publicly traded Japanese relocation company in 2014. She assists her partner, Mark Atkins, in managing their real estate holdings. She also continues to perform in classical concerts in Japan and Boston. She is the mother of two adult children, Akiba and Sarah.
Jack Eiferman
Jack Eiferman is an attorney at the Boston-based law firm of Goulston & Storrs. Over the past four decades, he has worked on a wide range of legal issues that face businesses and nonprofit organizations, including many in the health care, education, cultural and trade association sectors. Jack is a past Chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Tax-Exempt Committee and served on the Committee of the Boston Bar Association that last revised the nonprofit corporation laws. He is the author of several chapters in the Massachusetts law treatise for nonprofit corporations, which is used as a guide for lawyers concerning the legal challenges faced by practitioners and solutions to those problems.
Jack is a graduate of the Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York. He received a BA from The State University of New York at Albany, a Masters of Public Health from Yale University, and a JD from Rutgers University. He and his wife, Fern Fisher, are the parents of Bennett, Julia, and Reva, and the grandparents of Ronit and Leo. They are members of Temple Beth Zion and Congregation Kehillah Israel in Brookline. Jack is also the secretary of the Hebrew College Board of Trustees.
Deborah Feinstein, MAJS`07, Me’ah`99
Deborah Feinstein was a Museum Director/educator/curator for over 25 years. With her first graduate degree in Islamic art from Harvard University, Deborah lectured on religious, historical, and cultural connection of the three major religions through the visual arts in numerous universities and museum venues. She was also the Director/Curator of the Holyoke Museum in Holyoke, Mass., as well as an educational consultant for exhibits at the Springfield Museum of Art in Springfield, Massachusetts. Working for an international exhibit design firm, Christopher Chadbourne and Associates, Deborah was project manager and an exhibit writer. For the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, Deborah designed and wrote the panels for “The Boston Jewish Experience: Reconnect to the Tapestry” exhibit.
After completing the master’s program in Jewish Studies at Hebrew College, Deborah has used the visual image as an interpretative tool in creating Jewish illuminated manuscripts. Her volunteer life has been full … being president of the Board of Directors for the Vilna Shul for 5 years, Chair of the Capital Campaign that raised $4 million for its renovation, co-chair of numerous missions in Europe for USHMM, co-chairperson for the Wings of Memory Society of New England for the USHMM, a Hebrew College overseer and member of the Leadership council, and member of many committees at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, Mass.
Myra Musicant & Howard Cohen
with the project development team for our new campus: Isabel Acuna, Paul Bouton, Karen Dubrovsky, and Pam Goodman
Myra is Treasurer of the Hebrew College Board of Trustees. She graduated magna cum laude from Smith College with a major in religion. She studied in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University for 3 1/2 years while in graduate school. She received a master’s degree from the Simmons Graduate Program in Management. She obtained her CPA and had 7 years’ experience with the firm of Coopers & Lybrand. Myra was a member of the board of trustees at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Boston, serving as Treasurer and First Vice President. She is an alumna of the Me’ah program at Hebrew College. Myra has dedicated her life to volunteering in non-profit organizations. Currently, she is a hospice volunteer at Hebrew SeniorLife.
Howard Earl Cohen is the founder and chair of the board of Beacon Communities LLC. He serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency Advisory Committee, and the Department of Housing and Community Development Housing Preservation Advisory Committee. Howard holds a BA summa cum laude in economics from Washington University of St. Louis and a JD cum laude from Harvard Law School. He also co-founded and served as chair of the board of New Lease for Homeless Families. He serves as chair of the real estate committees at both Hebrew College and Hebrew SeniorLife. He chaired the community committee that resulted in the creation of Jewish Arts Collaborative and served as its initial board chair.
Myra and Howard are both active members of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, where they have proudly helped the congregation grow from 50 to 350 members. At various times Myra and Howard served as Board Chair, President, and staff members. Myra and Howard have been married for 48 years. Myra and Howard have three married children and seven grandchildren, all of whom live in the Greater Boston area.
WITH GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF THE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT TEAM FOR OUR NEW CAMPUS
Pam Goodman, Development The role of the developer is to present a proposed development to the public, obtain the required permits, and coordinate all the other professionals necessary to plan, build, and occupy a property. No one does this better than Pam. In her forty-year career, Pam has developed over seventy-five properties consisting of over 10,000 apartments. She has an extraordinary ability to listen, learn, respond, and implement.
Paul Bouton, Legal Counsel Hidden in every multi-use, mixed ownership development is a complex legal structure. No one in Boston builds these structure better than Paul. Paul, working with Liz Ross, the counsel for the Temple, created a unique form of condominium ownership that responds to a complex mix of exclusive and shared spaces required by the use of the property by the College and the Temple.
Karen Dubrovsky, Architect Karen and her architectural firm PCA are known for their ability to design functional yet exciting places. The mix of multiple users of the Temple space required her to “shoehorn” a lot of uses into a confined space and satisfy many constituents. Karen brought her patience, communication skills, and artistic eye to this task and we believe that the result will be an amazingly beautiful addition to the Jewish community.
Isabel Acuna, Construction Manager Someone has to make sure that what others have planned can be built on price and in time. Isabel from WaypointKLA, Inc. personifies the best of the construction management skills: Exquisite attention to each detail, endless coordination of tasks, and direct but not confrontational communication.
Watch the "Reimagine" Video
Reimagine Hebrew College’s new shared campus in Newton with us!
Conversations with Faculty and Alumni
You Shall Teach Your Children
Panelist Bios
Rabbi Dan Judson, PhD
Hebrew College Dean & Chief Academic Officer
Rabbi Judson was appointed Dean of the Rabbinical School in 2018. Previously, he oversaw the professional development program, and served as the placement director for the Rabbinical School. He received his doctorate in Jewish history from Brandeis University where his research focused on the history of American synagogue finances. His book, Pennies for Heaven: A History of American Synagogues and Money, was published in 2018. Dan served on the national faculty of the Union for Reform Judaism, consulting to synagogues across the country on financial matters. His research on synagogues which have eliminated dues was featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, NPR, The New York Jewish Week, and Reform Judaism Magazine. He was also the Rabbi of Temple Beth David in Canton, MA for 10 years and co-authored a number of books on Jewish rituals for Jewish Lights Publishing, including: The Rituals and Practices of a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Personal Spiritual Renewal and The Jewish Pregnancy Book: A Resource for the Soul, Body and Mind During Pregnancy, Birth and the First Three Months.
Dr. Jonathan Sarna
Brandeis University Professor of American Jewish History
Dr. Jonathan Sarna is University Professor and the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He is also past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.
Dubbed by The Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America’s fifty most influential American Jews, he was Chief Historian for the 350th commemoration of the American Jewish community and is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion and life. In 2009, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds four honorary degrees.
Born in Philadelphia, and raised in New York and Boston, Dr. Sarna attended Brandeis University, the Boston Hebrew College, Merkaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, and Yale University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1979.
From 1979-1990, Dr. Sarna taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he rose to become Professor of American Jewish history and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience. He has also taught at Harvard, Yale, the University of Cincinnati, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Dr. Sarna came back to Brandeis in 1990 to teach American Jewish history in its Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He chaired that department three different times, chaired Brandeis’ Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program twice, and now directs its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He also chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.
Educating for Hope Across Difference
Panelist Bios
Rabbi Jane Kanarek
Hebrew College Associate Dean & Professor of Rabbinics
Rabbi Dr. Jane Kanarek is Associate Professor of Rabbinics and Associate Dean of Academic Development and Advising at Hebrew College. She is the author of Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law and the co-editor of Learning to Read Talmud: What It Looks Like and How It Happens and Motherhood in the Jewish Cultural Imagination, both of which were finalists for the National Jewish Book Awards.
Rabbi Or Rose
Director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College
Rabbi Or Rose is the founding Director of the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and Associate Dean of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007-2017).
In addition to his work at Hebrew College, Rabbi Rose has taught for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Hebrew College Me’ah community eduction program, and in a variety of other academic, religious, and civic contexts throughout North America and in Israel.
A prolific author and editor, his recent publications include: Words To Live By: Sacred Sources for Interreligious Engagement (co-editor, Orbis) and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Essential Teachings (co-editor, Orbis). Rabbi Rose is also the creator of the weekly scriptural commentary series 70 Faces of Torah, curator of the web-based project PsalmSeason, and co-publisher of the Journal of Interreligious Studies.
Dr. Susie Tanchel
Hebrew College Vice President
Dr. Susie Tanchel joined Hebrew College in the summer of 2020, after serving as Head of School at JCDS, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School.
During her 9 year tenure at JCDS, Tanchel was an accomplished and deeply beloved leader, guiding the school to preeminence as a national model of excellence in pluralistic Jewish education, and creatively embodying its abiding commitments to community, centrality of Hebrew language, and teaching the whole child.
She was a recipient of the 2018 Covenant Award for Jewish Educators.
View the Historical Timeline
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Watch the Musical Performances
“Ki Me’olam”
Words from Hallel. Music by Rabbi Micah Shapiro `17. Produced by Rabbi Micah Shapiro and Eitan Kantor.
:כִ י מֵ עֹולָ ם וְ עַ ד עֹולָ ם אַ תָ ה אֵ ל
Before time and forever You are God, beyond what we can possibly know.
Musicians
Yoni Battat ∙ Oud
Rabbi Minna Bromberg`10 ∙ Vocals
Leah Carnow ∙ Vocals
Rafi Ellenson ∙ Percussion
Rabbi David Fainsilber`14 ∙ Vocals
Rabbi Mónica Gomery`17 ∙ Vocals
Cantor Becky Khitrik`14 ∙ Clarinet, Vocals
Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg`17 ∙ Vocals
Ryan Leszner ∙ Vocals
Jackson Mercer ∙ Vocals
Cantor Dara Rosenblatt`18 ∙ Vocals
Rabbi Micah Shapiro`17 ∙ Guitar, Vocals
“Ashreichem”
Performed live by Hebrew College rabbinical alumni Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg`17, Rabbi David Fainsilber`14, and Rabbi Micah Shapiro`17. View the Hebrew and English text here.
Event Planning Committee
Rabbi Suzanne Offit `09, Chair
Renée Finn, Me’ah `00
Rabbi Jessica Lowenthal `19
Myra L. Snyder, MAJS`01, Me’ah`97
Carol Targum, Me’ah `07,`17
Host Committee
Geraldine Acuña Sunshine and Gabriel Sunshine
Julie Altman and Alex Sagan
Rabbi Sharon and Shimon Cohen Anisfeld
Rabbi Marc Baker
Brenda and Stéphane Bancel
Beverly Bavly
Harvey and Jayne Beker
Nancy Kaplan Belsky and Mark Belsky
Diane and Chester Black
Michelle and Darren Black
Terrie and Brad Bloom
Dana Blumberg and Robert Kraft
Helaine and William Braunig
Dorothea and Sheldon Buckler
Carol and Carl Chudnofsky
Louise Citron
Laura and Aaron Cohen
Leslie and Alan Crane
Dorit Harverd and Richard Dale
Miriam Daniel and Laurence Wolff
Suzanne and David Diamond
Robert Feingold
Ron Feinstein
Renée and Steven Finn
Fern Fisher
Marjorie R. Freiman
Amy Gerson and Louis Grossman
Nurit and Jacob Gilon
Rachel and Allan Goldstein
Sandy Goldstein and Michael Buonaiuto
Paula and James Gould
Lillian and Richard Gray
Lisa Gross and Richard Hoffman
Sheri and Eli Gurock
Judge Rand Hoch (ret.)
Sherry Israel
Dorian Goldman and Marvin Israelow
Cantor Marcie Jonas
Alison and Isaac Judd
Rabbi Dan Judson and Dr. Sandy Falk
Carolann Kamens Wiznia
Sharlene Kamens Finkel
Toby Kamens Rodman
Faith and Bernard Kaplan
Jen Kaplan and Susie Tanchel
Judith and William Kates
Marsha Katz Slotnick
Stuart Kleeman
Roselyn and Edwin Kolodny
Rabbi Jamie and Harold Kotler
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman
Ruth Langer and Jonathan Sarna
Rabbi David Lerner and Sharon Levin
Debbie and Richard McNeil
Anne and Rabbi Rim Meirowitz
Dan Miller
Susan Miron and Burton Fine
Beth and Michael Moskowitz
Sara Moss and Michael Gould
Rabbi Suzanne and Andrew Offit
The Priebatsch Family Fund: Suzanne Priebatsch and Norman Priebatsch z’l, Daniella Priebatsch Place, Seth Priebatsch
Ina and Jerry Regosin
Terry Rosenberg and Elliot Schildkrout
Rudnick Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Ronni Sachs Kotler
Rabbi Sonia and Dr. Ned Saltzman
Rabbi Ma’ayan and Rick Sands
Susan and Bob Schechter
Pamela and James Schwartz
Rosalie and Jim Shane
Susan Shevitz and Larry Bailis
Rosalyn and Richard Slifka
Susan and James Snider
Denise Littlefield Sobel
Rabbi David Starr
Theodore and David Teplow
Arnee R. and Walter A. Winshall
Marni and Bob Wise
Justin Wyner
Corporate Sponsors
Haverim/Friends Level
Yedidim/Companions
Introducing Hiddushim: Hebrew College's Centennial Volume
Hiddushim, Hebrew College’s special centennial book, was commissioned by the College for its 100th year. Edited by Dr. Michael Fishbane, Rabbi Arthur Green and Dr. Jonathan Sarna, the book includes a compilation of essays on Jewish studies alongside powerful personal memoirs from the College’s earliest years until today.
Learn more & purchase Hiddushim