For the next program in Hebrew College Adult Learning’s free, monthly GROW series, we examine social justice and the the fight against racism. We hope you will spend an hour with us for this and future programs in our series, to gather, reflect, observe, and wrestle with topics that will deepen your Jewish learning.
Date: June 18, 2024 | 12-1 PM EST/9-10 AM PST | Zoom Program: Jews and the Call for Social Justice: Lessons Learned inThe Fight Against Racism Instructor:Marc L Dollinger
As the nation’s racial reckoning continues, more American Jews are eager to explore important, yet challenging, questions and issues around Jews, whiteness, privilege, and racial justice. Join Professor Marc Dollinger , author of the upcoming revised edition of Black Power, Jewish Politics, as he shares his experience as a white male scholar writing and teaching in 2024 about Jews and social justice. Hear about the perspective and understanding Professor Dollinger gained in his own steep learning curve between the publication of the first edition of the book in 2018 and today. How does Professor Dollinger’s personal journey reflect our own learning process when it comes to race and the meaning of equity? On the eve of Juneteenth, join us for this important conversation.
ABOUT OUR INSTRUCTOR
Marc Dollinger is the Goldman Research Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University, gifting him the platform to talk about his passion for Jewish social justice. He is a past board president of both Brandeis-Hillel Day School and the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, and has served on the board of Jewish LearningWorks, URJ Camp Newman, Brandeis Marin Jewish Day School, the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, and Ha-maqom. Currently, he serves on the board of the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Federation in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dollinger was named the volunteer of the year in 2008 by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco. In 2015, the Jewish Community Relations Council awarded him the year’s Courageous Leader for his work at San Francisco State University, a sometimes-hostile campus for Jews. He has appeared in a PBS television show, American Jerusalem, offering insights into the history of San Francisco Jews, and then enjoyed 8 minutes of fame on NBC’s prime-time “Who Do You Think You Are?” teaching academy-award winning actress Helen Hunt about her San Francisco Jewish roots.
You can dedicate a GROW session in memory or in honor of a dear one and you and your name will be shared with gratitude in the session. Simply click the link below, fill in the secure form, and indicate in the text box that this is your GROW sponsorship [suggested minimum gift of $180].
Join Hadar Institute Dean Rabbi Shai Held, President on April 4, 2024 for a discussion about his new book “Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life” with respondents Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College, and Dr Jerome Groopman, author, physician, and scientist.
Rabbi Held calls his book an “act of recovery.” In 15 chapters — backed up by 130 pages of notes and citations — it sets out to restore the idea that Judaism is animated by love, no matter what the reader might have heard about a fierce, vengeful “Old Testament God.” It’s a love that manifests itself in acts of “loving kindness,” in the way Jews are supposed to behave with family and neighbors, and how Jews practice their responsibility to the wider world.
The event will be in person at Harvard Hillel and livestreamed.
Please join us for the 2024 JTFGB Grant Ceremony on Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 5 p.m. Celebrate JTFGB’s achievement, honor JTFGB students, learn about the process and the organizations that JTFGB selected for grants this year.
Board 1 focused on the issue of housing, while committing to allocate at least one grant to an organization based in Israel. Board 2 focused on the issue of mental health, also committing to the allocation of at least one grant to an Israeli nonprofit organization.
On February 27, we lost a matriarch of the Jewish environmental movement. Rabbi Ellen Bernstein of blessed memory. Please join us as we honor Ellen’s legacy, and reflect on the insightful teachings in her final published work, Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Songs of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisis.
Online registration for our May 9th Spring Gala, Branching Out, Blossoming Together, has closed.
If you would like to make a gala or tribute gift celebrating Hebrew College or one of our honorees, please visit our main giving page and include any special notes in the message section.
If you plan to attend the event and wish to reserve a spot for this evening, please contact Rosa Franck at rfranck@hebrewcollege.edu.
You Are Invited!
Please join us for Hebrew College’s 2024 Gala Celebration “Branching Out. Blossoming Together” on Thursday, May 9, 2024, in-person at our shared campus in Newton. Together, we will celebrate the successful completion of our capital campaign, lift up our core values of Jewish community, learning, and creativity, and rededicate ourselves to hope.
Jehuda Reinharz, PhD President and CEO Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation
Jehuda Reinharz, PhD was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1944. He received his high school education in Germany and immigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1961.
Dr. Reinharz earned concurrent bachelor’s degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He earned his master’s degree in medieval Jewish history from Harvard University in 1968 and his doctorate in modern Jewish history from Brandeis University in 1972. From 1972 to 1982, he was professor of Jewish history at the University of Michigan.
In 1982, he became the Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. From 1994-2010, he served as the seventh president of Brandeis University. In January 2011, Dr. Reinharz assumed the presidency of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation.
With Dr. Reinharz’s leadership and vision, the Mandel Foundation awarded Hebrew College a challenge grant of $1 million early in our capital campaign. His early support helped galvanize our efforts, inspiring others to join, and we are thrilled to honor him as we celebrate the conclusion of the campaign and begin our next chapter.
Dr. Reinharz is the author or co-author of more than one hundred articles and thirty-four books in various languages. His Jew in the Modern World, (3rd edition 2011), co-edited with Paul Mendes-Flohr, is one of the most widely adopted college texts in modern Jewish history. His two-volume biography of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, has won many prizes in Israel and the United States. His current book deals with the history of the Jordan River.
Dr. Reinharz is the recipient of nine honorary doctorates. He served as chairman of the International Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science from 2018 to 2021 and serves on a number of other boards and advisory committees.
Rabbi Adina Allen `14 Cofounder and Creative Director
Jewish Studio Project
Rabbi Adina Allen ’14 is a spiritual leader, writer, and educator who grew up in an art studio where she learned firsthand the power of creativity for connecting to self and to the Sacred. She is cofounder and creative director of Jewish Studio Project (JSP), an organization that is seeding a future in which every person is connected to their creativity as a force for healing, liberation and social transformation. Hebrew College is delighted to honor Adina this year as we celebrate the role of Jewish creativity and the arts within our institution and prepare to partner with Jewish Studio Project on the launch of their work in Boston.
Based on the work of her mother, renowned art therapist Pat B. Allen, and her time in the Hebrew College beit midrash, Adina developed the Jewish Studio Process, a methodology for unlocking creativity, which she has brought to thousands of activists, educators, artists, and clergy across the country. A national media contributor, popular speaker, and workshop leader, Rabbi Allen’s writing can be found in scholarly as well as mainstream publications, and on her website at adina-allen.com. Her original research on using creative process to generate contemporary midrash was published in the CCAR Journal in 2013 and her chapter, “What Else Could This Be?” appeared in the edited volume Creative Provocations: Speculations on the Future of Creativity, Technology & Learning, Spring Press 2023. She is a recipient of the Covenant Foundation’s 2018 Pomegranate Prize for emerging Jewish Educators and is a fellow of the Open Dor Project for spiritual Jewish entrepreneurs.
David Hoffman Treasurer, Hebrew College Board of Trustees; Global Energy Head, Oliver Wyman, ret.
David Hoffman enjoyed a rewarding 30-year career consulting with clients worldwide as the leader of the Global Energy practice at Oliver Wyman, where he specialized in strategic planning, organization transformation, post-merger integration and operational improvement. David holds expertise in competitive diagnostics, customer/market segmentation, organization design, and growth assessment methodologies. In retirement, David pursues a diverse set of passions including studying diplomacy and fostering the perpetuation and growth of the Jewish community.
Over the past six years, Hoffman’s profound dedication to Hebrew College has helped to reshape our institution and secure our financial future. As a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, Board of Trustees, and most recently as Treasurer, his time and expertise in organization transformation and operational improvement have proved essential to Hebrew College’s success. He has been involved in the oversight and betterment of the College’s financial and operational activities, including: strategic planning, a department-by-department review and enhancement of non-philanthropic revenue, and the implementation of our new Student Information System.
Beyond Hebrew College, Hoffman’s commitment to the Jewish community of Greater Boston is evidenced by his tenure on the board of Boston University Hillel, including a stint as Finance Chair, and his consultation work with area day schools to develop growth-focused strategic plans.
Hoffman received his BS and MBA from Boston University where he was an active member of BU Hillel. He and his wife, Beryl, of more than 35 years, enjoy traveling and spending time with their two grown children, daughter-in-law and two grandsons.
Esther Award
Rachel Fish, PhD Cofounder of the nonprofit Boundless
Rachel Fish, PhD cofounded the nonprofit Boundless, a think-action tank partnering with community leaders across North America to revitalize Israel education and take bold collective action to combat Jew-hatred. Dr. Fish also serves as Special Advisor to The Brandeis University Presidential Initiative to Counter Antisemitism in Higher Education. She is also an associate research professor at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. In addition, Dr. Fish teaches Israeli history and society at The George Washington University as Visiting Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
Previously, Dr. Fish was the executive director of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. Rachel also served as Senior Advisor and Resident Scholar at the Paul E. Singer Foundation in New York City and Executive Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, where she trained the next generation of academics in the field of Israel Studies.
Her dissertation, “Configurations of Bi-nationalism: The Transformation of Bi-nationalism and Palestine/Israel 1920’s-Present,” examines the history of bi-nationalism and alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel. She has served on the faculty at Brandeis University, Harvard University, and The George Washington University, and has written articles for several publications in the mainstream press and academic journals, and co-edited the book Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century.
Live Music
Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer `14, Rosh Tefillah & Artist-in-Residence, and Students
Honorary Host
Suzanne Priebatsch, Hebrew College Trustee
Host Committee
Geraldine Acuña Sunshine
Susan and Aron Ain
Pat and John Allen
Rabbi Sharon and Shimon Cohen Anisfeld
Mark Atkins and Miho Sato
Jayne and Harvey Beker
Joan and Steve Belkin
Michelle and Darren Black
Helaine and Bill Braunig
Dorothea and Sheldon Buckler
Ellen Carno and Neil Liefer
Harvey and Marsha Chasen
Carol and Carl Chudnofsky
Ellen Cohen Kaplan and Jeff Kaplan
The Cutler Family
Rabbi Jevin Eagle
Ruth Ann and Edward Feinberg
Deborah and Ron Feinstein
Renée and Steven Finn
The Fish Family
Fern Fisher and Jack Eiferman
Linda and Michael Frieze
Elkan and Zelda Gamzu
The Gann Family
Laure and Hal Garnick
Mike and Catharyn Gildesgame
Louise Goldberg Citron
Lillian and Richard Gray
Harold Grinspoon and Diane Troderman
Dara and David Grossman
Louis Grossman and Amy Gerson
Sheri and Eli Gurock
Rabbi Maury Hoberman, MD
Ari, Sandra, Adam, and Ben Hoffman; Molly Hoffman; Beryl Hoffman
Elizabeth and Daniel Jick
Rabbi Dan Judson and Dr. Sandy Falk
Nancy Kaplan Belsky and Mark Belsky
Bob Karasov and Hanna Bloomfield
Jeffrey Kasowitz
Robin and Mark Kasowitz
Judith and William Kates
Rabbi Avi and Robert Killip
Drs. Edwin and Roselyn Kolodny
Michele Koppelman
Larry Kraus and Sara Smolover
Lizbeth and George Krupp
Lydia Kukoff
Alice and Rabbi Van Lanckton
Ruth Langer and Jonathan D. Sarna
Sara S. Lee
Marcia and Alan Leifer
Diana Lloyd and Jordan Hershman
Yitz Magence
Anne and Rabbi Rim Meirowitz
Annette and Michael Miller
Daniel Miller
Tara Mohr and Eric Ries
Beth and Michael Moskowitz
Myra Musicant and Howard Cohen
Jessica and Chuck Myers
Rabbi Suzanne and Andy Offit
Robin Paige Polishook
Seth Priebatsch, Daniella Priebatsch Place and Skyler Place
Suzanne Priebatsch
Shulamit Reinharz
Mara Riemer Goldstein and Robert Goldstein
Terry Rosenberg and Elliot Schildkrout
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman and Dr. Ned Saltzman
Rabbi Ma’ayan and Rick Sands
Susan and Bob Schechter
Rosalie and Jim Shane
Judy and Mark Shankman
Susan Shevitz and Lawrence Bailis
Amy and Ross Silverstein
Rabbi Becky Silverstein and Naomi Sobel
Polly Gambrill Slavet
Diana Smith and Barry Cohen
Susan and James Snider
Myra Snyder, MAJS`00, Me’ah`97 and Robert Snyder
Sarah Sonnenfeld Noked
Laurene Sperling
Carol and Steven Targum
Drs. Bob and Shari Thurer
Suzy and Herb Tobin
Julie and Steven Weil
Laura Wiessen and Rabbi Steven Lewis
Arnee R. and Walter A. Winshall
For event reservations, please bookmark this page and watch for our online rsvp form and evite.
Reservations and sponsorships of certain levels (see below) include the opportunity to celebrate our community with a digital tribute “ad” or message. The deadline for sharing your predesigned tributes, text, and/or logos is April 17, 2024. Kindly submit your materials to mtavan@hebrewcollege.edu.
One-line tribute message and one reservation:
$500 – Our Cup Runneth Over
$360 – Join Us & Support Us
$180 – Join Us
Student price:
Current Hebrew College student: $54
Corporate Sponsors
Corporate Sponsorships
Support an incredible community while gaining exposure to over 14,000 households! All Corporate Sponsors at or above $1,800 receive a full-page ad with the giving level banner in our virtual tribute book, recognition at the event and online, and entrance to the in-person celebration.
Shutafim/Partners: $10,000 to $19,999 Haverim/Friends: $5,000 to $9,999 Yedidim/Companions: $1,800 to $4,999 Supporters: $1,000 to $1,799
Additional levels and benefits are available. Please contact Mia Tavan at mtavan@hebrewcollege.edu with questions or to submit your high-resolution logo and tribute book text. Thank you!
Event Committee
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
Nancy Kaplan Belsky
Rosa Franck
Laure Garnick
Rabbi Dan Judson
Wendy Linden
Rabbi Jessica Lowenthal `19
Suzanne Priebatsch
Rabbi Or Rose
Susan Schechter
Myra Snyder
Monica Steiner
For the next program in Hebrew College Adult Learning’s free, monthly GROW series, we examine storytelling. We hope you will spend an hour with us for this and future programs in our series, to gather, reflect, observe, and wrestle with topics that will deepen your Jewish learning.
Date: April 10, 2024 | 12-1 PM EST/9-10 AM PST | Zoom Program: With Strong Hands and Outstretched Arms: The Journey out of Egypt Instructor: Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Hebrew College President
The image of God’s strong hand and outstretched arm simultaneously comforts and challenges us. No place, no matter how desperate, is beyond the reach of God’s redeeming hand. Yet, confronted with the urgent problem of human suffering, then and in our own time, we must struggle to understand our own place in the story. What is the role of human beings in bringing about an end to suffering and injustice? How do we cultivate a sense of humility, without encouraging a sense of helplessness in the face of an unredeemed world? A closer look at the opening chapters of Exodus reveals that the image of God’s “strong hand and outstretched arm” has reverberations throughout the story of our departure from Egypt — and it holds out for us a message not of human passivity but of radical partnership between human beings and God.
ABOUT OUR INSTRUCTOR
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld has been president of Hebrew College since 2018. She came to Hebrew College in 2005 and served first as Dean of Students for one year and then as Dean of the Rabbinical School for 11 years, from 2006-2017. Rabbi Anisfeld graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1990 and subsequently spent 15 years working in pluralistic settings as a Hillel rabbi at Tufts University, Yale University, and Harvard University. She has been a regular summer faculty member for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel since 1993 and is co-editor of two volumes of women’s writings on Passover, The Women’s Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder and The Women’s Passover Companion: Women’s Reflections on the Festival of Freedom.
From 2011-2013, Rabbi Anisfeld was named to Newsweek‘s list of Top 50 Influential Rabbis in America, and in 2015, was named one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by The Jerusalem Post. She writes and teaches widely, weaving together Torah, rabbinic commentary, and contemporary poetry and literature in her wise and compassionate approach to the complexities of the human experience and the search for healing and hope in a beautiful but fractured world.
DEDICATE A SESSION
You can dedicate a GROW session in memory or in honor of a dear one and you and your name will be shared with gratitude in the session. Simply click the link below, fill in the secure form, and indicate in the text box that this is your GROW sponsorship [suggested minimum gift of $180].
Date: June 18, 2024 | 12-1 PM EST/9-10 AM PST | Zoom Program: Jews and the Call for Social Justice: Lessons Learned in the fight Against Racism Instructor: Marc L. Dollinger Join us:Register now
As the nation’s racial reckoning continues, more American Jews are eager to explore important, yet challenging, questions and issues around Jews, whiteness, privilege, and racial justice. Join Professor Marc Dollinger , author of the upcoming revised edition of Black Power, Jewish Politics, as he shares his experience as a white male scholar writing and teaching in 2024 about Jews and social justice. Hear about the perspective and understanding Professor Dollinger gained in his own steep learning curve between the publication of the first edition of the book in 2018 and today. How does Professor Dollinger’s personal journey reflect our own learning process when it comes to race and the meaning of equity? On the eve of Juneteenth, join us for this important conversation.
is the Goldman Research Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University, gifting him the platform to talk about his passion for Jewish social justice. He is a past board president of both Brandeis-Hillel Day School and the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, and has served on the board of Jewish LearningWorks, URJ Camp Newman, Brandeis Marin Jewish Day School, the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, and Ha-maqom. Currently, he serves on the board of the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Federation in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Rabbi Held calls his book an “act of recovery.” In 15 chapters — backed up by 130 pages of notes and citations — it sets out to restore the idea that Judaism is animated by love, no matter what the reader might have heard about a fierce, vengeful “Old Testament God.” It’s a love that manifests itself in acts of “loving kindness,” in the way Jews are supposed to behave with family and neighbors, and how Jews practice their responsibility to the wider world.
On February 27, we lost a matriarch of the Jewish environmental movement. Rabbi Ellen Bernstein of blessed memory. Please join us as we honor Ellen’s legacy, and reflect on the insightful teachings in her final published work, Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Songs of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisis.
Jehuda Reinharz, PhD
Rabbi Adina Allen `14
David Hoffman
Rachel Fish, PhD
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld has been president of 
Free Monthly GROW Program