Dr. David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, will deliver the Schnurmacher Lecture in Judaic Studies at Fairfield University on Tuesday, October 7. His lecture will be the first event in a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at Fairfield University.

Dr. Ellenson's lecture, "Trends and Developments in American Judaism," will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

Dr. Ellenson received his bachelor's degree in history from the College of William & Mary in 1969. He went on to become the first master's degree graduate in religious studies at the University of Virginia in 1972. Dr. Ellenson also currently holds master's degrees from HUC - JIR and Columbia University. In 1977, he was ordained a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion's New York School, and in 1981 he received his doctorate in religion from Columbia University.

Since 1979, Dr. Ellenson has been on the faculty at HUC- JIR, where he holds the Gus Waterman Herrman Presidential Chair and is the I.H. and Anna Grancell Professor of Jewish Religious Thought at HUC - JIR in Los Angeles. Named president of HUC - JIR in 2001, Dr. Ellenson is only the eighth person in the institution's 125-year history to hold the position. The school trains religious leaders of Reform Judaism.

Dr. Ellenson is the author of "Tradition in Transition: Orthodoxy, Halakhah and the Boundaries of Modern Jewish Identity (1989)," "Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer and the Creation of a Modern Jewish Orthodoxy (1990), and "Between Tradition and Culture: The Dialectics of Jewish Religion and Identity in the Modern World (1994)."

Dr. Ellenson has also written more than 200 articles, which have appeared in publications such as The Hebrew Union College Annual, The Journal of American Academy of Religion, Religious Studies Review, The Year Book of the Leo Baeck Institute, Journal of Religion and Modern Judaism.

Born in Brookline, Mass., in 1947 and raised in Newport News, Va., Dr. Ellenson is married to Rabbi Jacqueline Koch Ellenson and has five children.

Dr. Ellenson's lecture has been made possible by a gift from the Schnurmacher Foundations. There is no charge for admission to the lecture; however, reservations are suggested. For information and reservations, please contact Judaic Studies at Fairfield University at (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066.

Posted On: 09-01-2003 09:09 AM

Volume: 35 Number: 331