HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.
Memorable Moment
The most memorable moment for me was a ten-minute discussion about American football with Daniel Boyarin before a lecture on the theology of the male body in Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. It was the culmination of my years at HDS studying Jewish texts, masculinity, and American Jewish life. I am grateful for this encounter and for how it would have delighted me as an undergraduate student attempting to move away from the types of masculinity I learned playing football. I'm also grateful for how it showed me never to be complacent and that there is still so much work to be done in constructing a healthy Jewish masculinity.
Message of Thanks
I would like to thank all those professors and rabbis who catered to and enabled my various and disparate interests, and humored me in my attempts to string them all together. The thanks begins in "Yiddish Studies" with Dr. Sara Feldman and Saul Zaritt, continues with my thesis advisors, Professor Ann Braude and Mac Loftin, and extends to the charitably eminent teaching of Professor Jon Levenson. To my classmates, I cannot thank you enough for the opportunity to grow with you and be challenged by you. I am walking away less sure of any truth, but more sure that truth exists.
Future Plans
I will be completing a chaplaincy residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville beginning in the fall. I hope to continue to learn about God and Torah in a more human-centered fashion.