Staff and students at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies took a big step toward leaving their cramped and aging premises, with a cornerstone-laying ceremony on Monday for their new campus in Jerusalem . The institute is affiliated with the Conservative [Masorti] movement.
"We've been using a building that was a dormitory block completed in 1962," said Rabbi Professor David Golinkin, the institute's president. "This dorm that was built for 20-30 rabbinical students is now being used by thousands of students, not to mention a staff of 250. Over the past few years, we kept dividing rooms into two to make more offices, but the building doesn't get any bigger. Now everyone's very excited."
The new $20 million campus, spread across 11,000 square meters , will be located behind the Israel Museum in Givat Ram, where the dormitory building now stands. Ada Karmi-Melamede, the architect of the nearby Supreme Court building, was chosen to design the new campus in an international tender.
Karmi's design includes a glass bridge that will link the campus' front and rear buildings, a symbol of the role played by the Schechter Institute in bringing together different types of Jews within Israeli society.
When the Schechter Institute was founded in Jerusalem in 1984, there were four rabbinic students from abroad enrolled in its program. Today, there are 60 students, half Israeli and half from overseas.
Over the years, the institute has introduced a graduate Jewish Studies program (currently with 500 students) and a Jewish studies program for immigrants from the former Soviet Union . In 1987, the institute took under its wing the Tali Education Fund for Jewish enrichment studies in schools and kindergartens.
"This institute, which began as an import from abroad, has become an indigenous Israeli institution whose main purpose is to bring pluralistic Jewish studies to tens of thousands of Israelis and to bring the ideals of Conservative Judaism to the state of Israel," said Golinkin.
"There's a problem in Jerusalem with the secular Jewish population leaving the city while other populations are growing. We believe it's important for Jerusalem to remain a pluralistic city with different types of Jews and different types of people."
The new building will boost the Masorti movement in Israel , which has suffered fund-raising problems in recent years, leading to the controversial firing last year of its top professional, Rabbi Ehud Bandel.
Internationally, the Conservative movement faces a tough period ahead. Next month the movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards will rule on two highly contentious petitions regarding the ordination of gay rabbis and whether the movement's rabbis can officiate at "commitment ceremonies" for same-sex couples. Some insiders fear the rulings may cause a split in the movement.
