Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion history

In 1883, when a banquet honoring the school’s first graduating class served non-kosher food, tensions between liberals and conservatives came to a head.

The Hebrew Union College Museum (now Skirball Museum) was established in 1913.

Founded in 1922 in New York by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the renowned advocate of social justice and human rights, the Jewish Institute of Religion was conceived as an institution serving all streams of Judaism.

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and his faculty at the Jewish Institute of Religion, 1927

1947: inaugurated the first interfaith school of graduate studies located in a Jewish seminary

1948: founded the first cantorial school in North America

In 1950, a second HUC campus was created in New York through a merger with the rival Reform Jewish Institute of Religion.

A third center was opened in Los Angeles in 1954 to serve the growing Jewish community on the West Coast.

A fourth campus was opened in Jerusalem in 1963 as a postdoctoral institution, though in subsequent years its mission was expanded to include various other programs.

1969: launched the graduate program in Jewish communal service (Jewish nonprofit management today)

Since 1970, it has grown to serve as the center for the College-Institute's Year-in-Israel Program, Israel Rabbinical Program, and as the academic center and headquarters for the Progressive Movement in Israel.

1975: ordained the first woman cantor in America, Cantor Barbara J. Ostfeld

1990: established the first Clinical Pastoral Education Program in a Jewish seminary

1992: ordained the first woman rabbi in the State of Israel, Rabbi Naamah Kelman

In 1996, Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman was appointed as the 7th President of the College-Institute.

He was succeeded in 2000 by Rabbi David Ellenson as the 8th President.

In 2002 Stanton became a student at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, studying first in Jerusalem and then in Cincinnati, Ohio.