Jewish Theological Seminary of America

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The Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Inscription on Seal	"והסנה איננו אכל" (Ve-Hasneh Ainenu Ukkal "And the Bush was not consumed") -Exodus 3:2
Established	1886
School type	Private
Chancellor	Dr. Arnold Eisen
Location	New York City, New York, USA
Campus	Urban
Homepage	www.jtsa.edu

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, known in the Jewish community simply as JTS, is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism. Along with the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, it is one the movement's main rabbinical seminaries. It takes its name and basic ideology from the no longer extant Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau.

1 University
2 The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau
3 Positive-Historical Judaism in America
4 Admission of GLBT students
5 Notable Faculty
6 Notable alumni
7 See also
8 Notes

The Jewish Theological Seminary comprises five schools: Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies, which offers double degree programs with both Columbia University and Barnard College, The Graduate School, The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, H. L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music, and The Rabbinical School. The latter four schools are graduate schools.

Rabbi Zecharias Frankel (1801-1875) at one time was in the traditional wing of the nascent Reform Judaism movement. After the second Reform rabbinic conference (1845, Frankfurt, Germany) he resigned after coming to believe that their positions were exceedingly radical. In 1854 he became the head of a new rabbinical school, the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau. In his magnum opus Darkhei HaMishnah (Ways of the Mishnah) Rabbi Frankel amassed scholarly support which showed that Jewish law was not static, but rather had always developed in response to changing conditions. He called his approach towards Judaism 'Positive-Historical', which meant that one should accept Jewish law and tradition as normative, yet one must be open to changing and developing the law in the same historical fashion that Judaism has always historically developed.

About this time in America, Rabbi Sabato Morais championed the reaction to American Reform. At one time Rabbi Morais had been a voice for moderation within the coalition of Reformers. He had opposed the more radical changes, but was open to moderate changes that would not offend traditional sensibilities. After the Reform movement published the Pittsburgh Platform, Rabbi Morais recognized the futility of his efforts and began the creation of a new rabbinical school in New York City. He was soon joined by Rabbi Alexander Kohut and Rabbi Bernard Drachman, both of whom had received semicha (rabbinic ordination) at Rabbi Frankel's Breslau seminary. They shaped the curriculum and philosophy of the new school after Rabbi Frankel's seminary.

In 1902, Professor Solomon Schechter assumed presidency of JTS. In a series of papers he articulated an ideology for the nascent movement. In 1913 he presided over the creation of the United Synagogue of America. (The name was changed in 1991 to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.)

Prominent professors at the Seminary were such luminaries as Saul Lieberman, Alexander Marx, Louis Ginzberg and Louis Finkelstein and others as well.

Between 1940 and 1985, The Jewish Theological Seminary produced a radio and television show called "The Eternal Light." The show aired on Sunday afternoons, featuring well-known Jewish personalities like Chaim Potok and Elie Wiesel. Broadcasts did not involve preaching or prayer, but drew on history, literature and social issues to explore Judaism and Jewish holidays in a manner that was accessible to persons of any faith.

Effective March 26, 2007, The Jewish Theological Seminary accepts openly gay students into their rabbinical and cantorial programs. An announcement in the press, first posted on the school's website and typified by Haaretz.com has been made about the admission of and ordination of homosexual students for the rabbinate and for cantorship.

A Conservative Jewish seminary in New York has agreed to admit gays and lesbians who want to become rabbis and cantors, but declined to take a stand on whether rabbis should officiate at same-sex unions. The Jewish Theological Seminary announced its decision yesterday, more than three months after the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards authorized the ordination of gays and lesbians.

Chaim Potok, author, and rabbi
Judith Hauptman, feminist Talmudic scholar
Joseph H. Hertz, British Chief Rabbi and Author; first graduate of JTS
Norman Podhoretz, former Editor, Commentary magazine
David Gordis, President of Hebrew College
Jacob Neusner, Chair of the Judaic Studies Department at Bard College.
Arthur Green, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis and Rector of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College.
Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley.
Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah
Irwin Kula, Director of CLAL
Matthew Eisenfeld, student killed in the Jerusalem bus 18 massacres
Samuel Schafler, past president of Hebrew College, superintendent of the Chicago Board of Jewish Education

Rabbi Irwin Kula is the president of CLAL, the Center for Learning and Leadership.

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