Alumni Hebrew College Community Remembers the Life and Legacy of Alumnus Dr. Arnold Band

“How lucky we were to have had such a wonderful teacher and scholar at a time in our lives when it really mattered.” Carl Kamin, Hebrew College alumna shared these words about teacher, scholar, and Jewish Studies pioneer Dr. Arnold Bland upon his passing on July 7, 2024, who made a home at Hebrew College as a student and teacher before his long career at UCLA.

“Hebrew College was my second home. My experience there shaped my entire life,” recounted Dr. Band when we spoke to him in 2022 during Hebrew College’s centennial year. He spent every weekday afternoon as a teenager at Hebrew Teachers College in Roxbury, Mass., studying Hebrew language and Jewish Studies with classmates who would become his friends for life. Dr. Band graduated from Prozdor in 1945 and received his Bachelor of Jewish Education in 1949 and his Master of Hebrew Letters in 1951.

Dr. Band was an Associate Professor at Hebrew College from 1954-1959. Prozdor alumna Barbara Speyer remembers fondly her time in his classroom: “He was an extremely demanding teacher and we memorized so many lists of Hebrew vocabulary and the months of the year and became fluent in Hebrew…One Sunday morning, I walked into Prozdor and said to him, ‘Arnie, halamti b’ivrit.’ He responded, ‘Ha im hay vant mah she halamt?’ (‘Arnie, I dreamt in Hebrew.’ ‘Did you understand what you dreamt?’)…He was a perfectionist and passionate about teaching.”

“We were these know-nothing teenagers in 1956 lucky enough to walk into a classroom and have as our teacher Arnie Band,” says Carol Kamin, another of Dr. Band’s students. “Here was a young man, not that much older than us, whose love of Hebrew literature made us all sit up and notice.”

Beyond his dynamic teaching, Dr. Band was a lively presence in the Hebrew College community. “Every Chanukah Hebrew College would hold a party for students and faculty,” says Ruth Smith, formerly Perlman. “Arnie and I would dance together. He was a good dancer as well as an excellent academic and teacher.”

Dr. Band cared deeply about passing his own adolescent connection to Hebrew College on to his students. Robert Feingold, another Hebrew College alumnus, recalled the thirtieth reunion for his Prozdor class, which Arnie attended as guest of honor, telling the alumni, “You didn’t go to Hebrew school together, you GREW UP together.”

Feingold continued: “Arnie Band, also a Jewish teen from Boston, was the only teacher to whom we often referred by his first name. Until that event in ‘88, we never realized how our experience at Hebrew college had shaped our future. Every classmate was a clergyman, Jewish professional, teacher, outstanding lay leader, oleh, a Jewish resource in their community…How many lives can a teacher mold?”

In 1959 Dr. Band took a post at UCLA, where he enjoyed a long and distinguished career until his retirement in 1994. Marking the news of Arnie’s passing on H-Judaic, an online network for Jewish Studies academics, Professor Jonathan Sarna, a Prozdor alumnus, wrote, “H-Judaic is greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Prof Arnold J. Band (1930-2024), one of the pioneering scholars of Hebrew literature in the United States, a founder and former president of the Association for Jewish Studies, and a friend and mentor to many of the foremost Jewish Studies scholars in the United States today.”

We are so grateful that Dr. Arnold Bond shared his experiences at Hebrew College in our Centennial volume Hiddushim and in this article published during our Centennial year. He had a long and deep relationship with Hebrew College, as a student and an instructor, and we remember his legacy with profound gratitude. Zichrona livracha, may his memory be a blessing.

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