JTS 127th Commencement Exercises April 29, 2021 Order of the Exercises סדר טקס הסיום Alan Levine, Esq., Virtual Procession Chair, Board of Trustees, Presiding Invocation Rabbi David Eligberg The National Anthems Eliana Kissner, Jacob Sandler Daniella Risman, Accompanied by Joyce Rosenzweig Commencement Address Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Chancellor Conferring of Honorary Degrees Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Chancellor Conferring of Degrees in Course Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Chancellor Dr. Stephen Garfinkel, Acting Provost Gershon Kekst Graduate School Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky, Dean Remarks on Behalf of the Graduates: Daniel Ross Goodman William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education Dr. Shira D. Epstein, Dean Remarks on Behalf of the Graduates: Eva Rebecca Bogomolny Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky, Dean Remarks on Behalf of the Graduates: Ariel Elizabeth Inker H. L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music Cantor Nancy Abramson, Director The Rabbinical School Rabbi Daniel S. Nevins, Dean Remarks on Behalf of the Graduates: Shoshana Arielle Abramowitz In Recognition Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Chancellor Music by Mike Cohen and the Kleztraphobix Closing Montage 1 Greetings from the Board Chair דברי ראש הועד On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Advisory Boards, let me extend a personal yishar ko’ah and mazal tov to our graduates, and to their families and friends, on this joyous occasion. Though we cannot be together on campus, we could not be prouder of the talented and stellar group of rabbis, cantors, educators, scholars, and future lay leaders that JTS sends out today to serve our Jewish communities and the larger world. As lay leaders of this great institution, we never lose sight of the overriding purpose of our commitment to The Jewish Theological Seminary: to do our part in the education and training of the next generation of Jewish leaders. JTS is the preeminent institution of Jewish higher education in North America, creating an environment that is, to quote our mission statement, “pluralist and authentic, traditional and egalitarian.” Today we celebrate the graduates who embody this vision and will carry it forward. You are taking your next steps at a moment of formidable challenges in the world. Yet we firmly believe that your time at JTS has given you the education, the wisdom, and the resilience to meet those challenges and, indeed, to help others meet them. It is our prayer that each of you makes your unique contribution to the Jewish communities wherever you serve, and that in doing so you bring great credit to the reputation that JTS has earned over the 135 years of its existence. B’shalom, Alan Levine, Esq. Chair, Board of Trustees, JTS 2 Greetings from the Chancellor דברי הנגידה It is my great pleasure to congratulate our graduates, their friends and families, and their teachers on this joyful occasion. When our graduates began their studies at JTS, none of us could have imagined that their course of study would be completed virtually as a result of a historic global pandemic. Their achievements and this celebration thus take on additional import in light of the extraordinary efforts involved in reaching this milestone. Mazal tov! At The Jewish Theological Seminary, our students immerse themselves in studying the texts, ideas, history, and literature of the Jewish people in a deep, substantive, and finely nuanced way. As leaders—rabbis, cantors, educators, communal professionals, scholars, and lay leaders—they will bring this precious tradition forward with passion, creativity, and expertise to nourish communities with a Judaism that can anchor us— intellectually, morally, religiously, and spiritually—in the contemporary world. I believe we have done this well for those marking completion today. May the JTS learning and community that our students have experienced provide them with lifelong sustenance, and may we all benefit from the fruits of their labors. Thanks to our graduates, the future of the Jewish community—and our world—will burn brightly. Shuly Rubin Schwartz Chancellor, JTS 3 Honorary Degrees תארי כבוד Ms. Geraldine Brooks Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa Sponsored by Alan M. Klein, Esq. Dr. Marjorie Lehman An award-winning journalist and novelist, your extraordinary contributions to literature and society have earned both popular and critical acclaim. A graduate of the University of Sydney, you began your career at the Sydney Morning Herald, before winning the Greg Shackleton Australian News Correspondents Scholarship to attend Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. For more than a decade you worked as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, founding the paper’s Australasian bureau and later serving as Middle East bureau chief and United Nations Correspondent, covering conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. With your husband, the late Tony Horwitz, you received the Overseas Press Club Award for your coverage of the first Gulf War. You are the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, including the Pulitzer Prize winner March. In two of your acclaimed works you focused your insightful gaze on the Jewish past. With People of the Book, you imagined the journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a rare illuminated manuscript, through centuries of exile and war, blending fact and fiction into a stirring testament to the people of many faiths who risked all to save this priceless work. And in The Sacred Chord, you breathed life into one of our tradition’s richest and most enigmatic figures, King David, with your adroit storytelling and keenly drawn detail. You are also the author of three works of non-fiction, one of which, Nine Parts of Desire—in which you explored the lives of Muslim women in the Middle East in the wake of Islamic fundamentalism—has been translated into more than 25 languages. You were awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement and named an Officer in the Order of Australia. Your explorations of the meaning of faith and religion, in ordinary life and in global crises and conflicts, in fiction and journalism, have helped us better understand the world we inhabit. 4 תארי כבוד HONORARY DEGREES Lord Rothschild (Jacob) Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa Sponsored by Daniel J. Beller, Esq. Dr. David C. Kraemer The Fourth Baron Rothschild, you have combined a distinguished career in finance with a commitment to furthering your family’s mission of supporting Israel and the wider Jewish community. Deeply conscious of your Jewish roots, you are the visionary president and former chair of Yad Hanadiv, a Rothschild foundation dedicated to creating resources for advancing Israel as a healthy, vibrant, democratic society, committed to Jewish values and equal opportunity for the benefit of all its inhabitants. Yad Hanadiv funded the building of Israel’s Knesset, dedicated in 1966, and later its Supreme Court, which you personally saw through to completion. Yad Hanadiv is currently involved in building the magnificent new National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, which will serve people of all faiths with links to Jewish communities worldwide. You have spent the past thirty years dedicated to this project of a library without borders, due to open in 2022. During your tenure at Yad Hanadiv, you have also steered the foundation to focus on a wide range of activities in such areas as academic excellence, the environment, education, and the advancement of opportunity for Israel’s Arab community. You have generously involved yourself in the needs of your home country, through your work with the Rothschild Foundation, which you chair, as well as your role as supporter and benefactor of key British arts institutions. You have spearheaded efforts to restore, preserve, and sustain sites of cultural heritage such as England’s National Gallery, Somerset House, Spencer House, and Waddesdon, a former Rothschild family estate that you have transformed into one of the most popular British National Trust properties. Alongside your philanthropic work, your business acumen has served you well in your roles chairing RIT Capital Management, from which you stepped down in 2019, and Five Arrows Limited, a family investment company. Your lifelong dedication to nurturing society and culture, both in Israel and Britain, will be felt for generations to come. 5 תארי כבוד HONORARY DEGREES Professor Avigdor Shinan Doctor of Hebrew Letters, honoris causa Sponsored by Ms. Mimi Alperin Dr. Burton L. Visotzky Over the course of your stellar academic career, you have elucidated key themes in your principal fields of research not only to fellow scholars but to the entire Jewish people. Born in Czechoslovakia to survivors of the Shoah, your family made aliyah when you were very young. A graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, you have remained there throughout your academic career, serving as professor of Hebrew Literature, department chair, chair of General Studies, and dean of students, before attaining emeritus status in 2014. Throughout your career, you remained one of Hebrew University’s most popular professors. You frequently taught as visiting faculty at other institutions in Israel, Europe, and the United States— including for numerous periods at JTS. Since your first visit as a post-doctoral student in 1979, your relationship with JTS has served as a source of inspiration to your scholarship. Your vital work encompasses Midrash, rabbinic interpretation of Scripture, exemplified in your critical edition of Exodus Rabbah; Jewish liturgy, exemplified in your Avi Chai Siddur; and Targum, Aramaic translation of Scripture, exemplified by your monograph on the relationship of rabbinic lore and Aramaic translations. You published over thirty works as author or editor, and more than four-score articles, in Hebrew and English. You served as editor of Kiryat Sefer, the bibliographical quarterly of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. At the same time, your commitment to using your scholarship to help the Jewish people understand, respect, and cherish the beauty and depth of ancient Judaism has led you to deliver more than 4000 public lectures.