Reform Jewish Seminary Chief Resigns Under Cloud

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, the respected leader of Reform Judaism’s central seminary who pushed to expand rabbinical education on the West Coast, has resigned his post because of inappropriate “personal relationships” before he became president in 1996.

Zimmerman, who is credited with bringing unity and collegiality to the four-campus Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, will undergo counseling during a two-year suspension of his rabbinical duties, according to a statement submitted by the seminary.

The 11th-generation family rabbi submitted his resignation Monday after the ethics committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis recommended his suspension. The committee will review his case in two years at the earliest.

Details were confidential.

The seminary has campuses in New York, Cincinnati--where Zimmerman worked--Jerusalem and Los

Angeles. At the L.A. campus, officials broke the news Tuesday afternoon at a gathering of students and staff, said Dean Lewis M. Barth.

“People were very distressed because Rabbi Zimmerman has been a remarkably positive presence in the life of the college,” Barth said.

He credited Zimmerman with the “openness” to embrace plans to expand the Los Angeles campus’ rabbinical education to a full four-year program. The first ordination of Reform rabbis on the West Coast will occur in 2002; previously, students had to finish the last two years at the other campuses.

Barth said the four-campus system will move forward despite Zimmerman’s departure. Provost Norman Cohen will be acting president.

Born in Canada in 1942, Zimmerman attended the University of Toronto and was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1970. He was senior rabbi at New York’s Central Synagogue from 1972 to 1985 and at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas until 1995. He was president of the Central Conference from 1993 to 1995.

Religion News Service contributed to this story.