The Jewish Theological Seminary history

The first graduate to be ordained, in 1894, was Joseph Hertz, who would go on to become the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.

Morais served as the president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America until his death in 1897.

In October 1901, a new organization was projected entitled the "Jewish Theological Seminary of America," with which the association was invited to incorporate.

The school name was modified and its charter revised in 1902 under the seminary’s second president, Solomon Schechter, whose reputation for outstanding scholarship attracted other distinguished scholars to the faculty.

As of 1904 there were 37 students in the theological department, and 120 students took a set of courses designed for teachers (which later evolved into the Teachers Institute).

In 1905, Israel Davidson joined the faculty, teaching Hebrew and Rabbinics.

Mordechai Kaplan also joined the faculty during this period and became professor of homiletics (upon Joseph Mayor Asher's death) and also the first principal of a new school within JTS known as The Teachers Institute (TI), which opened in 1909.

In 1915, Schechter was succeeded by Cyrus Adler, the President of Dropsie College.

In 1931, he appointed Finkelstein to a full professorship.

In 1937 Adler appointed Finkelstein as Provost.

But no better chancellor was found, and Adler went on to serve as President until 1940.

In 1945, JTS established a new institution, the Leadership Training Fellowship, designed to educate young people within Conservative synagogues and guide them into Jewish public service.

The first camp opened in Conover, Wisconsin in 1947.

In 1948, Lieberman became dean of the Rabbinical School.

Yochanan Muffs, who had joined the JTS faculty in 1954, was a prominent professor of Bible.

In 1957, JTS announced plans to build a satellite campus in Jerusalem for JTS rabbinical students studying in Israel.

A building was completed in 1962. (The campus eventually evolved into the home of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies.) In 1962, the seminary also acquired the Schocken Institute for Jewish Research and its library in Jerusalem.

In 1968, JTS received a charter from the State of New York to create an Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, which conferred bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.

In 1968, JTS received a charter from the State of New York to create an Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, which conferred bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Its first students enrolled in 1970.

Gerson D. Cohen became Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1972.

Cohen oversaw the appointment of Judith Hauptman as the first female professor of Talmud at JTS. Hauptman began teaching at JTS in 1973.

In 1975, the Seminary replaced the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities with the Graduate School of the Jewish Theological Seminary, which brought together JTS's non-theological academic training programs.

Both of these scholars resigned when the JTS faculty voted to ordain women as rabbis and as cantors in 1983.

He was succeeded by Gordon Tucker, who became dean of the Rabbinical School in 1984.

The first female rabbi to graduate from the school (and the first female Conservative Jewish rabbi in the world) was Amy Eilberg, who graduated and was ordained as a rabbi in 1985.

Ismar Schorsch became Chancellor of JTS in 1986.

Erica Lippitz and Marla Rosenfeld Barugel were the first women ordained as cantors by JTS (and the first female Conservative Jewish cantors in the world.) They were both ordained in 1987.

Gordon Tucker's tenure as dean of the Rabbinical School ended in 1992.

Among his accomplishments was creating the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, which was established through an endowment by William Davidson of Detroit in 1994.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jewish Theological Seminary of amer; First Edition (September 1, 1997) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 854 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0873340752 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0873340755 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 pounds Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 4.75 x 11 inches

In 1998, Henry Rosenblum was appointed Dean of the H.L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1998, becoming the first Hazzan to hold that position.

Lebeau was succeeded by Alan Kensky, and then Lebeau became dean of the Rabbinical School again in June 2002.

In 2004, Alan Mittleman joined the Jewish Philosophy department and became head of JTS's Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies.

Arnold Eisen, Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, took office as Chancellor-elect on July 1, 2006, the day after Schorsch stepped down.

In January 2007, at the start of Eisen's chancellorship, Daniel S. Nevins was named the Dean of the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, succeeding Rabbi William Lebeau.

In June 2009, Goldman Sachs executive Abby Joseph Cohen was named Chairman of the Board of JTS, the first woman to hold the position.

In October 2010, a group of prominent Muslim and Jewish scholars and leaders, joined by the heads of several Christian seminaries, met at JTS for two days to discuss and compare the situations of Islam and Judaism in America.