L.A. Jewish Scholar Takes Over at College

Rabbi David Ellenson, a prominent scholar in the Los Angeles Jewish community for many years, has been inaugurated as the eighth president of the school that trains clergy, educators and others for service in Judaism’s Reform movement.

A ceremony for Ellenson was held Sunday at a synagogue in Cincinnati, where the headquarters of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is located. The 127-year-old school has three other campuses, in Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York.

Ellenson was a professor at the Los Angeles campus before taking the presidency of the school. He has written and lectured extensively on modern Jewish history, ethics and thinking, covering such subjects as medical ethics and conversion to Judaism.

“Our students internalize the history and memory of the Jewish past into their very being,” Ellenson said. “This knowledge inspires them to feel a responsibility to the past and gives them the courage to respond creatively in their own voices to the demands of the present.”

A survey completed last year found that 26% of the 3,727 Jewish congregations in the United States are Reform.