Training Jewish Studies Teachers

Abstract

Volume 9, No.4 Summer 1991 119 donors, but if we could dangle enough money in front of History and Comparative Literature, they might see the positions we have in mind as having higher priority than they now assign to them. In ten years, we have created a modest but respectable program with a sound infrastructure for future development. We have good working relations with other administrative and academic units and with the library, as well as with Hillel and the local synagogue, although we are clearly independent of both institutions. We frequently collaborate with the International Survey of Jewish Monuments, also located on our campus. In sponsoring and cosponsoring visiting scholars and artists we have helped to enrich the Jewish intellectual life of the community, and we continue to encourage scholarly research and the development of new courses in pertinent areas. Whether our potential for growth is realized depends on our obtaining major outside funding. Training Jewish Studies Teachers Samuel Greengus Hebrew Union College~JewishInstitute of Religion In listening to the discussion today, it is clear that there are many ways to "package" Judaic or Jewish Studies. One thrust seems to be ethnicity, in that Jewish Studies can be viewed as or imagined in a manner parallel to that of "women's studies" or "African-American studies." At the same time, the label of Jewish Studies seems also to contain a diverse set of disciplines that are also at home in other departments and fields, e.g., history, literature, art, music, philosophy, etc. But we have not had as much to say today on the subject of training scholars who can teach in the fields of Jewish Studies. This is a subject very close to my heart and professional interests. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where I teach, is a graduate school and postgraduate school only. We have a long-established Rabbinical School, training rabbis for the Reform Movement of Judaism. Most of you know this. But we also offer professional programs training cantors, Jewish educators, and communal workers; and in Cincinnati we have a School of Graduate Studies, awarding a Ph.D. in Hebraic and Cognate Studies. This program is open to all faiths. A good number of our non-Jewish students are, in fact, clergy of various Christian denominations. Our Rabbinical School and Jewish professional programs have in some ways benefited from the availability of Jewish Studies at so many fine colleges 120 SHOFAR and universities. Jewish Studies at the college level have enabled young American Jews to have yet another opportunity to acquire knowledge of Judaism and Jewish culture when they are at a level of maturity beyond that of a traditional religion school. The availability of Jewish Studies during undergraduate years has helped restimulate young people to think about careers in the Jewish community. This is all to the good. But we must also think about the necessity of links that can and should exist between Jewish Studies at the undergraduate level and the necessity to develop and maintain career openings for young scholars who may wish to work in the field of Jewish Studies. What, for example, is the relationship between Jewish Studies and the classical fields of Hebraica and Judaica like Bible, intertestamental literature, Talmud, responsa, liturgy, Jewish history, philosophy, and literature? When we talk about Jewish Studies where do we insert these core areas ofJewish culture and experience? What is or should be the relationship between Jewish Studies and Judaism? Can a student become a scholar in the area of general Jewish philosophy without studying in the philosophy department of your college or university? Is Jewish philosophy recognized in the department of philosophy? Conversely, how does a Ph.D. in Philosophy deal with Jewish philosophical literature without some systematic background in Hebraic texts? The same question can be asked of departments of history, literature, etc. I am concerned about how we advise young students who wish to prepare themselves for an academic career in Jewish Studies. The range of disciplines is so broad: how much knowledge of Hebrew language and literature is needed? how much of other disciplines? These are some of the questions on my mind today. I am...