I have read with great interest Rabbi Ammi Hirsch's thoughtful letter to HUC Interim President David Ellenson and Dean Joshua Holo regarding the now chatter-consequential address of Michael Chabon to the HUC-LA ordinees and degree recipients. Ammi referred to it as a “commencement speech”–a secular term I do not consider “religiously” descriptive. (Although references to HUC-JIR as one's “alma mater” ring just as inauthentic and are still in routine usage. For a generation now, HUC has been internally granted the moniker “our yeshiva” on the one hand and–often from the same lips–hailed as “your alma mater.” This is notably symbolic. More below.)
Ammi raises some very important issues, and I think his crie de coeur Is shared privately by hundreds of Reform rabbis. That is because he is asking pointed questions and seeking definitive answers we all know very well do not exist.
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