A New Chancellor

Tomorrow you may read in the paper that a new Chancellor has been chosen for the Jewish Theological Seminary. His name is Arnold Eisen, and, once upon a time, he was my thesis advisor for my bachelor's degree at Columbia University. A couple of years after my graduation, he took a professorship at Stanford. Since then, he has written a number of books on the state of modern Jewry in America.

It is interesting that Arnie Eisen is not a rabbi. On one hand it seems strange that a "lay person" should be the head of a religious movement. But, as you know from my previous postings, I don't find this all that curious. After all, in our pluralistic movement, the Chancellor of the Seminary is not the rabbinic decisior for Rabbis in the field. Instead, the Chancellor's primary responsibility is to plot the future of the Movement, to craft its vision, and to help it to achieve its goals. A professor of Modern Jewry might prove to be just the person we have been looking for.

Arnie Eisen is a very active Conservative Jew in his shul in Northern California. He is a Torah reader, a teacher in Adult Ed., and a perpetual student. My college memories are of a very bright, patient and thoughtful person who was quick to smile and at home in most any situation. With Conservative Judaism at (yet another) crossroads it will be interesting to see how a man who never taught at the Seminary and hold no degrees from it will guide that very institution and all who look to it for leadership. The search committee has sent a profound message in choosing a lay person from outside the ivory tower.