The Board of Governors of
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
invites you to celebrate the inauguration of

THE RABBI AARON D. PANKEN PROFESSORS

RABBI DVORA E. WEISBERG, PH.D.

Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Rabbinics,
Jack H. Skirball Campus, Los Angeles

Saturday, February 9, 2019 at 5:00 pm / Havdalah & Hors D’oeuvres
Hosted by Rabbi Amy and Gary Perlin in Los Angeles

RABBI JOSEPH A. SKLOOT, PH.D.

Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of
Modern Jewish Intellectual History, New York

Monday, April 8, 2019 at 5:30 pm / Reception
HUC-JIR/New York

JENNIFER GRAYSON, PH.D.

Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of History, Cincinnati

Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 12:00 pm / Luncheon
HUC-JIR/Cincinnati

RABBI DALIA MARX, PH.D.

Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash,
Taube Family Campus, Jerusalem

Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 9:00 am / Shabbat Service and Lunch
HUC-JIR/Taube Family Campus, Jerusalem

Additional information will be provided in advance.
For more information, contact Andrea Kann
at akann@huc.edu or (212) 824-2255.

With Gratitude

There are times when the word “gratitude” feels wholly inadequate, and this is one of them. I can only hope that you know how much your generosity has meant to the HUC-JIR family and to my own family. What you chose to do — and the short time frame in which you chose to do it — will forever be etched in my mind as proof that good things can emerge from the most painful. And although this letter is, by necessity, going out to hundreds with the same words, please rest assured that every “thank you” feels entirely personal to me.

Thank you for honoring Aaron’s memory, his legacy, and his priorities — to ensure that the next generations have great teachers, because he knew that great teachers shaped him.

Thank you for saying yes right away. I know how many organizations are asking you to support their worthy causes, and your contribution speaks volumes.

I would love the chance to thank you in person, and so I hope you will consider joining me at a reception in the coming months to recognize you and the other remarkable donors who made the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professorships possible. You helped build something lasting and healing. And however insufficient the word “grateful” is, I really am.

Jennifer Grayson, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of History at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati with a joint appointment at Xavier University, holds a Ph.D. in History from The Johns Hopkins University (2017) and a M.Phil. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge (2013). A promising scholar, she researches Arabic speaking Jewish communities in the medieval Islamic world. Her current book project traces changes in the relationship between Jewish government officials, the Babylonian geonim, and the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad between the tenth and twelfth centuries.

Rabbi Dalia Marx ’02, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at the Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem, received her doctorate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was ordained at HUC-JIR in 2002. A tenth-generation Jerusalemite who has taught Reform rabbinical students in Israel, Germany, and the U.S., her most recent book is About Time: Journeys in the Jewish Israeli Calendar (Yediot Sfarim, 2018, in Hebrew). She is co-editor of the new Israeli Reform Movement prayer book, author of When I Sleep and When I Wake: On Prayers between Dusk and Dawn (Yediot Sfarim, 2010, in Hebrew) and A Feminist Commentary of the Babylonian Talmud (Mohr Siebeck, 2013, in English), and a regular contributor to 929, adding a Reform feminist voice to this online Israeli Bible commentary.

Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot ’10, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History at HUC-JIR/New York, received his doctorate at Columbia University (2017) and was ordained at HUC-JIR in 2010. A warm and engaging teacher and mentor, his dissertation on “Printing, Hebrew Book Culture and Sefer Hasidim” explores the effects of printing on Hebrew texts during the sixteenth century. Before coming to the College-Institute, he served as Associate Rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Dvora E. Weisberg ’11, Ph.D., Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Rabbinics and Director of the School of Rabbinical Studies at the Jack H. Skirball Campus in Los Angeles, received her doctorate in Talmud and Rabbinic Literature from The Jewish Theological Seminary and was ordained at HUC-JIR in 2011. A beloved teacher and skilled administrator, she is the author of Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism (University Press of New England/Brandeis University Press, 2009) and the forthcoming volume, Menahot/A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud (Mohr Siebeck).