At a gathering at the President Residence in Jerusalem, Chancellor Emerita Shuly Rubin Schwartz formally presented President Isaac Herzog of Israel with the honorary degree conferred upon him during 果冻传媒 May 2026 Commencement ceremony. The ceremony, which is in Hebrew, is available to watch below:

Video: Dotan Guetta, Sound: Avner Dvir

Read President Herzog speech in English here.

Video: Dotan Guetta, Sound: Avner Dvir

果冻传媒 Alumni, Professor Ed Greenstein and Dr. Beverly Gribetz offered beautiful words of Torah.

Video: Dotan Guetta, Sound: Avner Dvir

Read more about the ceremony here.

Dr. Natan M. Meir has beenappointedthe Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian. He will begin his role in September 2026, succeeding Dr. David Kraemer, who has transitioned to the faculty as Gerson D. Cohen Chair in Talmud and Rabbinic Culture.

Dr. Meir joins 果冻传媒 from Portland State University, where he served as the Lorry I. Lokey Professor of Judaic Studies and the academic director of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies. An accomplished historian, educator, and academic leader, he brings more than two decades of experience advancing Jewish Studies through teaching, scholarship, and public engagement.

In addition to his work at Portland State, Dr. Meir has lectured internationally and served as acuratorialand public history consultant, scholar-in-residence, and Jewish heritage tour expert throughout Central and Eastern Europe. He earned his BA in History and his MA, MPhil, and PhD in Jewish History from ColumbiaUniversity.

Dr. Meir also has longstanding ties to 果冻传媒. His grandfather and father both received rabbinic ordination from 果冻传媒, and as a Columbia student, he spent countless hours in The 果冻传媒 Library. Those experiences helped inspire his path as a historian and gave him a deepfoundation andappreciation for TheLibrary’sextraordinary collections and their role in shaping Jewish scholarship.

Throughout his career, Dr. Meir has been committed to making Jewish history accessible to broad audiences. His work has combined rigorous academic research with museum exhibitions, public historyprojects, community programming, and collaborative partnerships that bringscholarshipto the wider public.

As Librarian, Dr. Meir willbuild on TheLibrary’sremarkable legacy while expanding its reach as a dynamic, welcoming, and accessible resource for scholars, students, clergy, and lifelong learners. He is committed to fostering new opportunities for research, teaching, public engagement, and collaboration, ensuring that the treasures of The 果冻传媒 Library continue to inspire and educate future generations.

August 12, 2026揘ew York, NY摴炒� (果冻传媒) formally presented President Isaac Herzog of Israel with the honorary degree conferred upon him during 果冻传媒’s May 2026 Commencement ceremony. The presentation took place at a special gathering at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

Chancellor Emerita Shuly Rubin Schwartz formally presented President Herzog with the honorary degree certificate in Jerusalem on August 12, after President Herzog was unable to attend 果冻传媒’s May 2026 Commencement ceremony in person in New York. The gathering provided an opportunity to celebrate this honor while bringing together leaders of 果冻传媒 and the Conservative/Masorti movement to recognize President Herzog’s leadership and his enduring commitment to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

淭he conferral of an honorary degree from the distinguished institution of 果冻传媒 in New York upon the President of the State of Israel at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem is not only a great honor for me but also an occasion that is in its very essence a bridge between parallel and complementary worlds. It sends a message from Jerusalem that we � on both sides of the ocean � are inseparable. We are one,� said President Isaac Herzog. 淢y deepest gratitude goes to all of you at 果冻传媒. May we all continue to build together this wondrous chain of the Jewish people, a chain connecting tradition to scholarship, Judaism to the wider world, Israel to the Diaspora, and the past to the future.�

“I am thrilled that Chancellor Emerita Shuly Rubin Schwartz had the opportunity to formally present President Herzog with this honorary degree in Israel,” said Chancellor Rabbi Mike Uram. “The relationship between 果冻传媒 and the State of Israel is deep and enduring, and we are honored to recognize President Herzog’s extraordinary leadership and lifelong commitment to the Jewish people. We are also extremely proud to welcome President Herzog into the distinguished community of 果冻传媒 honorary degree recipients.”

The Hebrew language ceremony was emceed by 果冻传媒 alumna Naomi Bloom Wurtman, a Jerusalem-based Jewish cultural professional and Project Coordinator for Gesher L’Europa at the National Library of Israel. Through her work, she helps connect the National Library with Jewish communities and cultural institutions around the world.

Featured speakers included Professor Ed Greenstein, Dr. Beverly Gribetz, 果冻传媒 rabbinical student Chris Penello, and Chancellor Emerita Shuly Rubin Schwartz, who reflected on President Herzog’s deep reverence for Jewish scholarship and leadership. In her remarks, she spoke about the values they share, many of which were instilled by their families. Distinguished members of the 果冻传媒 community and leaders of the Conservative/Masorti movement joined the celebration.

A highlight of the ceremony was a communal rendition of Sim Shalom, led by Cantor Jack Chomsky. He led the prayer using a melody composed by his teacher, Hazzan Max Wohlberg z”l, the influential cantor, composer, scholar, and longtime 果冻传媒 faculty member who helped establish 果冻传媒’s cantorial school.

During 果冻传媒’s May 2026 Commencement ceremony, President Herzog received an honorary degree and delivered the Commencement address virtually. This gathering marked the formal, in-person presentation of that honor.

Read President Herzog’s speech in English here.

Learn more about 果冻传媒’s 2026 Commencement ceremony here.

Read “�” in JNS.

Photos by Mayaan Toaf / GPO

Chancellor Uram recently spent several days on the West Coast meeting with 果冻传媒 alumni, longtime friends and colleagues, current and prospective partners, and leaders across the Jewish community. 

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Camp Ramah in Ojai. There, Chancellor Uram met with 果冻传媒 students, alumni, and Ramah administrators to discuss the enduring strength of the #果冻传媒RamahConnection and the deep partnership between two of the Conservative Movement’s cornerstone institutions. 果冻传媒 Board Chair Alan Levine, and Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels celebrated Shabbat in Ojai, joyously surrounded by campers and staff. 

From camp, he traveled to Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, where he had the opportunity to engage with many local rabbis and cantors. Rabbis Erez Sherman and Nicole Guzik led a thoughtful panel conversation, exploring the future of the Conservative Movement and how 果冻传媒 can be an even stronger partner to Jewish communities on the West Coast. Together, they reflected on the unique opportunity before us to help usher in a new era of growth, learning, and impact for Jewish life across North America. 

Throughout the week, Chancellor Uram also met with many distinguished Jewish leaders and thought partners in the great Los Angeles area.  

Another memorable stop was Milken Community School, where Chancellor Uram met with representatives from several Los Angeles-area Jewish schools to discuss pathways to Jewish leadership for the next generation and the many opportunities 果冻传媒 offers students seeking to make a meaningful impact on Jewish life. 

The week was filled with meaningful conversations, renewed relationships, and new partnerships. Chancellor Uram was grateful to reconnect with so many 果冻传媒 alumni and supporters and looks forward to continuing those conversations攂oth on his next visit to the West Coast and at 果冻传媒’s campus in New York. This trip reinforced the strong bonds between 果冻传媒 and the Los Angeles Jewish community and the shared commitment to strengthening Jewish learning, leadership, and community攏o matter the distance. 

At the recent international Women’s League for Conservative Judaism (WLCJ) Convention in Alexandria, Virginia, attendees gathered for four days of learning, leadership, and community. Centered on the theme “Engage, Enrich, Empower: Forging a Stronger Tomorrow,” the convention offered opportunities to deepen Jewish learning, strengthen leadership skills, and advance fundraising efforts, all with an eye toward building a stronger future for Conservative Judaism.

Chancellor Mike Uram was an honored guest and addressed a packed room of WLCJ leaders. In his remarks, he reflected on the future of Conservative Judaism, emphasizing the importance of creating meaningful Jewish experiences, investing in people, welcoming all who seek connection, and embracing innovation while remaining firmly rooted in Jewish tradition. He also celebrated the enduring partnership between WLCJ and 果冻传媒, expressing his gratitude for the extraordinary leadership WLCJ members provide in their congregations and for the profound impact they have on strengthening Jewish life across North America.

2026 High Holiday Webinar Series

August 17, 24, and 31, 2026
Online
1:00�2:00 p.m. ET

What does it mean to prepare and show up for the High Holidays in our own time? This three-part series explores how Jewish tradition has preserved, interpreted, and renewed the themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur through sacred objects, timeless texts, and personal prayer. Together, we’ll explore the objects that have carried Jewish tradition across centuries, engage with ancient texts with compassion and honesty, and reflect on how our own voices become part of the ongoing story of Jewish prayer and renewal.  

果冻传媒 faculty members, Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Rabbi Naomi Kalish, and Cantor Rabbi Shoshi Levin Goldberg will offer insight into how our pasts shape our presence as we enter the Days of Awe.

Session Topics and Faculty

August 17, 2026

Objects of Awe: The Meaning of the High Holidays Through Treasures from the 果冻传媒 Library

With Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, 果冻传媒

Learn more

August 24, 2026

Fear, Trauma, and the High Holidays: Reading Ancient Texts with Compassion

With Rabbi Naomi Kalish, Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education; Assistant Professor of Pastoral Education, 果冻传媒

Learn more

August 31, 2026

From Nothing to Nothing: Finding Your Own Voice in Prayer 

With Cantor Rabbi Shoshi Levin Goldberg, Director, H.L. Miller Cantorial School, 果冻传媒

Learn more

If you have previously registered for another session in this series, your registration admits you to all sessions in the series, and you may attend as many as you檇 like. 

July 23, 2026

There is a lot to mourn right now, as American Jews. It often feels like the earth is shifting beneath our feet. Some of our greatest sources of pride and comfort that once felt immutable are at risk. Many of our ancestors fled to this country seeking the promise and protections of democracy. We are thinking more about our safety. We are frequently unsure what our place is in spaces that used to feel like home. The relationship between the US and Israel is uncertain. The foundations of democracy, in the US and in Israel, are being chipped away before our eyes. We are in pain and feeling the temperature rise around nearly every conversation, especially if it has to do with Israel. So much is broken.  

It would be hard to find a better metaphor for the experience of American Jews today, than the confluence of America Sesquicentennial falling within the three weeks leading up to Tishah Be檃v. In this period, we consider the brokenness of the Jewish people, the ways internal divisions and external enemies have led to profound destruction in our history.   

Are these the worst times that the Jews have endured? Tishah Be檃v would remind us that this is not even close. We have endured and survived profound challenges. From those experiences, we have strengthened our sense of responsibility to help others who are suffering. Emma Lazarus, best known for her poem “The New Colossus,” inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, was born to a wealthy, fairly assimilated Sephardic Jewish New York family. By 1883, in her Epistle to the Hebrews, she was advocating for a stronger sense of Jewish peoplehood, informed by the legacy of Jewish exile, that must awaken a sense of kinship and responsibility to Jews suffering antisemitism in Europe. 淲hen the life and property of a Jew in the uttermost provinces of the Caucuses are attacked, the dignity of a Jew in free America is humiliated. We who are prosperous and independent have not sufficient homogeneity to champion on the ground of a common creed, common stock, a common history, a common heritage of misfortune, the rights of the lowest and poorest Jew-peddler who flees, for life and liberty of thought, from Slavonic mobs. Until we are all free, we are none of us free.�  

The destruction of the Temple was a catastrophe. It represented the loss of a religious center, a cultural center, and an entire way of life. It led to exile, alienation, and the need to reinvent Judaism itself. Are we in a moment of such a profound shift as American Jews in our relationship with the American political landscape, in our relationship with Israel, that is as significant a sea change as the time after the destruction of the Temple?  

Two rabbinic texts from the post-destruction period can help us plot a way forward.  

A midrash from Lamentations Rabba is based on , 淔or Mount Zion, which is desolate; foxes walk on it.� 

Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Akiva � were ascending to Jerusalemhen they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox emerging from the place of the Holy of Holies. They began weeping. Rabbi Akiva laughed. They said, 楢kiva, you astonish us; we are weeping and you are laughing.� He said, 榃hy are you weeping?� They said, 楽hall we not weep?… the verse 楩or Mount Zion, which is desolate; foxes walk on it,� has been fulfilled!�  He said: 楾his is why I am laughing.f the words of Uriya have come true: �So said the Holy One of Hosts: Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will be heaps� (Jeremiah 26:18), the words of Zechariah will be realized: �So said the Holy One of hosts: Old men and old women will again sit in the squares of Jerusalem and the city squares will be filled with boys and girls playing.� (Zechariah 8:4-5).  

I was joyful that the words of Uriya were realized, because ultimately the words of Zechariah are destined to be realized.�  

They said to him, 楢kiva, you have comforted us.� 

The pendulum of history finds us in a frightening place. It may yet get worse. It may take a long time, but it will eventually swing back, if we continue working towards justice, democracy, and repair. We cannot do this work, however, if we succumb to despair.  

A story from the Talmud,, recalls:

The sages teach that after the Temple’s destruction, some Jews embraced extreme asceticism. They stopped eating meat and drinking wine because those offerings could no longer be brought to the Temple. Rabbi Yehoshua challenged them: If they would no longer eat meat, should they also stop eating bread, since grain offerings had ceased? Perhaps they would live on fruit. Then should they stop eating fruit because first-fruit offerings had ceased? Perhaps they would drink water. Then should they stop drinking water because water libations had ceased? Eventually, they fell silent. 

Extreme grief can lead us toward unsustainable forms of self-denial. We cannot survive if we deny ourselves all joy. We cannot live governed entirely by fear, anger, and despair. But neither can we pretend that nothing has happened. 

Rabbi Yehoshua therefore teaches: 楳y children, come, and I will tell you. Not to mourn at all is impossible, as the Temple has been destroyed. But mourning excessively is not sustainable. Rather, the Sages said: A person may plaster her house, but she must leave a small amount unplastered.  A person may prepare what he needs for a meal but leaves out a small item…A woman adorns herself, but leaves out a small item.�

The lesson is profound. To live as a Jew is to move forward with eyes open to suffering, injustice, and loss. There are days when mourning is necessary. We must allow ourselves those days. And then we must rise and return to life. We must return to the work of healing, justice, and peace making.  

We live in a time of tremendous loss. Many of us carry not only grief for what has already happened but dread about what may yet come. If we refuse to experience loss, we will never experience joy.  And then we need to paint our homes, prepare our meals, and adorn ourselves. We must sustain ourselves so that we can continue the work before us, to channel our fear and anger into action and connection. Resisting despair is part of what it means to be in relationship with God. We cultivate hope not by ignoring suffering, but by seeing it clearly and continuing the work. 

The poet Adrienne Rich (from Dreams Before Waking, 1983) wrote : 

What would it mean to live in a city whose people were changing each other’s despair into hope? 

You yourself must change it. 

What would it feel like to know your country was changing? 

You yourself must change it. 

Though your life felt arduous, new, unmapped, and strange� 

What would it mean to stand on the first page of the edge of despair? 

Tishah Be’av is the beginning of the path towards the Days of Awe, when we dress ourselves and our sanctuaries in white, like a fresh page that has just been turned. We pray for a new beginning, giving voice to grief and loss while making room for hope. We remember and name the challenges we are experiencing and partner with God to renew our days for a better future.  

At the recent Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) conference in Evanston, Illinois, we celebrated the graduation of 13 participants in the Certificate in Judaica and Hebraica librarianship program. Featuring more than 90 participants from across the United States, Canada, and 12 European countries, this international online program between 果冻传媒 and AJL is designed for librarians hoping to further careers in Judaica librarianship. Participants complete 5 courses and a 100-hour in-person internship, bringing their schoolwork outside the classroom.

In a session entitled 淵our Future Colleagues and Their Work: Graduates of the 果冻传媒/AJL Certificate in Judaica and Hebraica Librarianship Program,� our recent graduates and others nearing graduation presented on their internship projects from leading research libraries and collections of Judaica across the globe. One participant described the history of collecting Judaica at the newly formed, post-unification University of Potsdam in Germany, and among the graduates who weren’t at the conference was an intern at the Danish National Library in Copenhagen. In the United States, a graduate created a geospatial map of 18th-century Jewish Philadelphia businesses based on business cards in the University of Pennsylvania’s collection, and another processed the digital archival collection of Hanoch Levi, an Israeli playwright whose plays were featured at a Stanford University program.

Several participants also interned at The Library of 果冻传媒. Their projects included cataloging kabbalistic manuscripts and co-curating an online exhibition of secular and religious work in different languages.

A few treasures from The 果冻传媒 Library that our participants encountered during their internships

After the presentation, participants, lecturers, and internship supervisors had the opportunity to connect socially (many for the first time in person!) at a happy hour.

It was gratifying to gather and to meet so many members of the certificate program community, and we are excited about their future contributions to the field of Judaica librarianship.

For more information about the program, click here.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library ServicesRE-254902-OLS-23. 果冻传媒 and AJL are grateful for their generous support.