University of Judaism Gets $22-Million Gift

BEL-AIR — Rabbinical students will be able to complete their training and be ordained on the West Coast for the first time thanks to an anonymous gift of $22 million to the University of Judaism, school administrators announced Tuesday.

The gift from a family foundation is one of the largest ever made to a U.S. Jewish educational institution, said Robert Wexler, president of the campus on Mulholland Drive atop the Sepulveda Pass.

Wexler said the establishment of a four-year rabbinical school “reflects a coming-of-age for the Los Angeles-area Jewish community,” which has a population of more than half a million Jews--second only to the New York City area’s 1.9 million.

Until now, seminarians interested in becoming rabbis in the centrist Conservative branch of Judaism could study two years at the University of Judaism, but then had to go to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York to complete training and receive ordination.

Likewise, aspiring Reform and Orthodox rabbis cannot complete their studies in Los Angeles schools.

Students in the liberal Reform wing can take two years of rabbinical classes at a branch of Hebrew Union College near USC, but then must take final studies for ordination at campuses in Cincinnati or New York. Orthodox rabbi candidates may take classes at Yeshiva of Los Angeles, but must finish their studies and be ordained at the seminary run by Yeshiva College of New York.

The first home-grown rabbis, expected to be ordained in about three years, will fill a void in local Jewish life, Wexler said. “In Christianity, it would be unthinkable that a Lutheran minister or an Episcopal priest could be ordained at only one institution,” he commented.

Of 30 seminarians now taking classes at the University’s Ruth and Allen Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, about half have already made commitments to continue their studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York after one year of study in Jerusalem, Wexler said.

The others can now choose whether to remain until ordination, Wexler said.

In contrast to the five- or six-year course of study required by the New York seminary, the local seminary will squeeze the program into four 12-month years, requiring only a summer of study in Israel instead of an entire year.

The money will make it possible for the students to complete their studies here by funding an endowment that will support an expanded faculty of full seminary size.

“The big surprise was when the donor insisted that it be anonymous, although in Judaism one of the highest forms of charity is giving anonymously,” Wexler said.

Asked in an interview if the anonymous donor was the Milken Family Foundation, Wexler said it was not. “There are a lot of families that could do this,” said the university president, adding that he hoped the donation will inspire others to contribute large sums for Jewish education.

The Milken Foundation, which supports many Jewish and non-Jewish schools and causes with large donations, caused a stir just last week with a $5-million donation to the Jewish high school being built by the Stephen S. Wise Temple, also atop the Sepulveda Pass. In exchange, the school was renamed Milken Community High School.

Although the name refers to the entire family, there have been protests that the name is usually associated with the family’s best-known member, convicted swindler Michael Milken.

The donation to the University of Judaism is one of the biggest to a U.S. Jewish educational institution in more than 25 years.

According to a list of major private gifts in the Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac last year, the largest donation to a Jewish institution was $40 million to Yeshiva University in New York in 1993. Wexler said that the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York received a $15-million gift within the last two years.

It does not approach the sums given some non-Jewish schools, such as the gift in 1993 by publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg to USC and the University of Pennsylvania of $120 million each. Sir Harold Acton gave New York University a gift of art, land and cash estimated to be worth $125 million to $500 million. Asbury Theological Seminary, a conservative Protestant institution in Kentucky, received $53 million in a 1990 gift.

The new training ground for rabbis will face a different religious climate in Los Angeles than exists on the East Coast, Wexler said.

“Only about 25% of Jews join a synagogue in the Los Angeles area, compared to a much higher rate elsewhere,” Wexler said. “The question is not where [local Jews] will affiliate, but whether they will.”

The new seminary will combine emphasis on traditional Jewish texts with spiritual development and practical rabbinical skills, said Rabbi Daniel Gordis, dean of the Ziegler school.

“The Jewish community faces many critical issues in the coming century, not the least of which is creating the kind of Jewish leadership we will need for our continued survival as a people with a compelling role in the world,” Gordis said.

The University of Judaism is part of an expanding array of Jewish institutions in the Sepulveda Pass.

It has about 200 full-time students, evenly divided between graduate and undergraduate students. Lee College, its four-year liberal arts school, will probably remain its largest component, Wexler said.

The campus sits below Stephen S. Wise Temple, one of the largest synagogues in the country, on the east side of the San Diego Freeway. On the west side of the pass, the Hebrew Union College Skirball Cultural Museum will open next spring. Above the museum is the campus of Milken Community High School.