Ackerman Professorship

This faculty position, held by Dr. Gary P. Zola, formalized the collaboration of the RRJ with HUC-JIR. Now all of RRJ’s programs at the seminary are developed and facilitated as official academic programs for rabbinic, cantorial, educational, and graduate students. With the full support of the resources, staff, and facilities of the Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, our various activities have a more central profile in the students’ perception and participation.

Annual Seminars & Institutes

These programs, conducted on HUC campuses, feature lectures, seminars, and worship services that reflect the history, thought, and liturgical traditions of American Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR faculty, rabbis, cantors, and Reform Jewish leaders are among the teachers. These seminars and intensives facilitate a major encounter with classic Reform for students during the formative early years of their study.

Cross Campus Intensives

Students from all three U.S. campuses - Cincinnati, Los Angles, and New York - have the opportunity to gather in Cincinnati for an intensive week of study exploring documents, events, and liturgy of historic Reform Judaism. In 2019, participants traveled to Charleston, South Carolina where the first effort to create an organized Reform movement in America began to unfold in 1824.

Annual Roots of Reform Judaism Service & Concert

Held at the HUC Murstein Chapel in Jerusalem. The choir includes cantorial students, Israeli Reform cantors, and local professional singers.