News Highlights Commencement 2025:
David Saperstein Remarks

How gratifying it is to receive this honor from this groundbreaking, influential Jewish college and seminary. It is made even more special for me by those with whom I am being honored this day: a gifted crafter of Hebrew literature, that language at once sacred and customary – and so central to the ethos and course of study of this institution; with a champion of social justice and equal rights for all including those of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities; and with a good friend, inspiring religious leader, visionary colleague and key ally whose voice of conscience, at a crucial crossroads for America and the world, spoke truth to power in the living embodiment of the prophetic witness so central to this institution, to Judaism, indeed to all the Abrahamic faiths.

To those varied graduates of Hebrew College, rabbis and those with other degrees, new and seasoned, who serve the Jewish people in academia, in Hillels, in hospice, in day schools you have my abiding appreciation. But a special shout out to those rabbis who are or will serve congregations. I chose a different path for most of my rabbinate — but bless you in choosing a truly unique path among all other professions on earth – that of congregational clergy — for I believe in the continuing, indispensable role of the synagogue, so central to Jewish life. A unique profession? A bold claim? Perhaps. But I submit to you that there is no other job anywhere that allows one person to interact as holistically with every stage of the lives of others: from birth to death, in good times and in bad, celebrating and mourning, teaching and counseling, comforting and inspiring, shaping the lives of those who choose to interact with them. What a sacred calling with which we have been blessed; what an extraordinary profession!

It means so much to me that this honor is given by a Jewish institution whose curriculum, training and social justice aesthetic is the embodiment and affirmation for the work of tzedek hevrati, of tikkun olam, that has been the lifelong passion of my heart.

Allow me, then, a brief reflection on why social justice is and should be so central to Jewish life and to our Jewish identity — and must remain so in North America, in Israel as recent events so dramatically testify, indeed everywhere Jews dwell.

First, because God says so. Is it not self-evident that we cannot fulfill our destiny to be a light to the nations, that we cannot respond to God’s central call to us to be a holy people, if we retreat from struggles for justice, peace, and equality in our nation and in our world?

Three thousand years of our mothers and fathers have insisted that we Jews do not continue for continuity’s sake alone, do not exist for existence’s sake alone – but are called for a holy purpose and a holy mission: to be God’s partners in shaping a better and more hopeful world for all God’s children. “You shall be holy, for the Eternal your God is holy,” God commands. And how, does our Judaism tell us, can we strive to be like God, can we manifest that holiness? By feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, and removing the stumbling block before the blind; by speaking out against injustice and paying the laborer a fair and timely wage; by tearing apart the chains of the oppressed and by sheltering the homeless; by, preserving God’s creation for endless generations yet unborn; by creating courts of justice and a marketplace, indeed an economic system, that is fair, honest, and equitable.

That Hebrew College, under the inspiring leadership of President Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, in its integration of social justice themes into its rabbinic training, in the dedicated and creative social justice efforts of its student body, and in the vibrant new efforts in the interfaith arena of its Miller Center and the continuing remarkable work of my friend Rabbi Or Rose — embraces this vision of Judaism ensures that it is felt in the impressive social justice work your rabbis are doing in synagogues and other Jewish institutions throughout North America and across the globe.

And second, we cannot meet the challenges of Jewish continuity without addressing the central role of social justice in our community.

Polls have repeatedly shown that commitment to, or involvement in, tikkun olam is, in every stream of Judaism, one of, if not the most common organizing principle and expression of Jewish identity for American Jews – including the communities that are key targets of our continuity efforts – the young and the unaffiliated. Any program of Jewish continuity that does not build on that reality will not succeed. For if the Judaism we offer our young does not speak to the great moral issues of their lives, and of the world they will inherit from us — for so many of them, it will fail to capture their imagination, their engagement or their loyalty.

So may all you at Hebrew College continue, m’chayil l’chayil, from strength to strength, in your historic work of weaving together Torah, Avodah, U’gemilut Hasadim into a luminous tallit of Jewish life for generations to come.

Thank you for all you do; thank for this great honor.