34 Notable alumni of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
Updated: June 13, 2026 EliteDegrees
Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion is 3712st in the world, 1st in North America, and 979st in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 34 notable alumni from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Jonathan V. Plaut
1942-2012 (aged 70)
rabbi
Jonathan V. Plaut was an American Reform rabbi and author. Plaut was the rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, MI.
2. Stuart Weinblatt
Stuart Weinblatt is a conservative rabbi who was ordained in 1979 at the Hebrew Union College. He is Chairman of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, which he founded in 2020 and Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation B'nai Tzedek, a conservative synagogue he established in 1988, which now has about 600 families. Rabbi Weinblatt has held a number of leadership posts in local...
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3. Gail Karp
1955-. (aged 71)
singer
Gail Ilene Posner Karp served as the cantor of the Reform Jewish synagogue Temple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa from 1987 - 2016. She is also employed by the Department of Defense.
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4. Jennie Mannheimer
1872-1943 (aged 71)
Jennie Mannheimer, also known professionally as Jane Manner, was an American elocutionist, acting coach, and teacher of speech and drama.
5. Kinneret Shiryon
1955-. (aged 71)
rabbi
Kinneret Shiryon is the first female rabbi in Israel. She is the spiritual leader of Kehillat Yozma, Modi'in's Reform congregation, which she helped establish in 1997; Kehillat Yozma is the first non-Orthodox congregation in Israel to receive state funding for its synagogue.
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6. Moshe Zemer
1932-2011 (aged 79)
rabbi
Moshe Zemer was a Reform Rabbi in Israel between 1963-2011. He was the co-founder of Jewish Reform institutions in Israel and served in key positions in them, including as chair of MARAM (The Council of Progressive Rabbis), board member of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, board member of the Union for Progressive Rabbis in the United States, and a...
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7. Jonah Wise
1881-1959 (aged 78)
rabbi
Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise was an American rabbi and leader of the Reform Judaism movement, who served for over thirty years as rabbi of the Central Synagogue in Manhattan and was a founder of the United Jewish Appeal, serving as its chairman from its creation in 1939 until 1958.
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8. Gary P. Zola
1952-. (aged 74)
rabbi
Gary Phillip Zola is the former executive director of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and Edward M. Ackerman Family Distinguished Professor of the American Jewish Experience & Reform Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati. Since 1998, he has served as the second executive director of The Jacob Rader Marcus...
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9. Steven Schwarzschild
1924-1989 (aged 65)
rabbi
philosopher
Steven S. Schwarzschild was a rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and editor.
10. David Philipson
1862-1949 (aged 87)
translator
rabbi
Bible translator
writer
David Philipson was an American Reform rabbi, orator, and author.
11. Walter Zanger
1935-2015 (aged 80)
tour guide
Walter Zanger, was an American-born Israeli author, tour guide and television personality. He was a contributor to newspapers, encyclopedias and magazines, and served as a member of the editorial board of the Jewish Bible Society.
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12. David Max Eichhorn
1906-1986 (aged 80)
rabbi
David Max Eichhorn was an American rabbi of Reform Judaism, a director for Hillel, a chaplain in the Army, an author, and an authority within Reform Judaism on the subjects of interfaith marriage and religious conversion.
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13. Joseph Krauskopf
1858-1923 (aged 65)
rabbi
Joseph Krauskopf was a prominent American Jewish rabbi, author, leader of Reform Judaism, founder of the National Farm School (now Delaware Valley University), and long-time (1887–1923) rabbi at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel (KI), the oldest reform synagogue in Philadelphia which under Krauskopf, became the largest reform congregation in the nation.
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14. Michael A. Meyer
1937-. (aged 89)
historian
university teacher
Michael Albert Meyer is a German-born American historian of modern Jewish history. He taught for over 50 years at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is currently the Adolph S. Ochs Emeritus Professor of Jewish History at that institution. He was one of the founders of the Association for Jewish Studies, and served as its...
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15. Tanya Segal
1957-. (aged 69)
theatrical director
rabbi
director
singer
Tanya Segal an Israeli rabbi, is the first full-time female rabbi in Poland and the first female rabbi in the Czech Republic. Segal is also a professional theatrical director, actress, singer and guitar player.
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16. Joshua L. Liebman
1907-1948 (aged 41)
rabbi
Joshua Loth Liebman was an American Reform rabbi and best-selling author, best known for the book Peace of Mind, which spent more than a year at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.
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17. Leonard Farbstein
1902-1993 (aged 91)
lawyer
politician
Leonard Farbstein was an American lawyer and politician who served seven terms as a U.S. Representative from New York from 1957 to 1971.
18. Hannah Rosenthal
1951-. (aged 75)
politician
Hannah Rosenthal is a former American government official and Jewish non-profit executive who served as the U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism from 2009 until 2012 during the Obama administration.
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19. Lewis Browne
1897-1949 (aged 52)
novelist
Lewis Browne was a writer, philosopher, lecturer and world traveller. A rabbi, Browne turned to writing popular histories and biographies including This Believing World (1926), The Graphic Bible (1928, illustrations by Mark Rothko), and The Wisdom of Israel (1945). His 1943 novel See What I Mean? was regarded as a counterpart to It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, Browne's...
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20. David Ellenson
1947-2023 (aged 76)
rabbi
David Ellenson was an American rabbi and academic who was known as a leader of the Reform movement in Judaism. Ellenson was director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and visiting professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University and previously president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). He previously served as president of...
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21. Dan Cohn-Sherbok
1945-. (aged 81)
rabbi
Dan Mark Cohn-Sherbok is a rabbi of Reform Judaism and a Jewish theologian. He is professor emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales.
22. Gunther Plaut
1912-2012 (aged 100)
military chaplain
journalist
rabbi
soldier
Wolf Gunther Plaut, was an American Reform rabbi and author of a Torah commentary who was based in Canada. Plaut was the rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto for several decades and from 1978 was its senior scholar.
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23. Alysa Stanton
1964-. (aged 62)
psychotherapist
rabbi
Alysa Stanton is an American Reform rabbi, and the first African American female rabbi. Ordained on June 6, 2009, in August 2009 she began work as a rabbi at Congregation Bayt Shalom, a small majority-white synagogue in Greenville, North Carolina, making her the first African American rabbi to lead a majority-white congregation. Stanton converted to Judaism at age 24 and...
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24. Edgar Magnin
1890-1984 (aged 94)
rabbi
Edgar Magnin was rabbi and spiritual leader of Wilshire Boulevard Temple (previously Congregation B'nai B'rith), the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, California. Magnin served at the temple for 69 years and was considered one of the most prominent Jewish leaders in the United States, sometimes called the "Rabbi to the Stars" because of his close connections to the Hollywood...
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25. Reuben Zellman
music director
rabbi
Reuben Zellman is an American teacher, author, rabbi, and musician. He became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003.
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26. Arik Ascherman
1959-. (aged 67)
rabbi
Arik Ascherman is an American-born Israeli Reform rabbi, and executive director of the Israeli human rights organization Torat Tzedek-Torah of Justice. For 21 years, starting in 1995, he served as co-director (1995–1998), executive director (1998–2010), director of special projects (2010–2012) and president and senior rabbi (2012–2017) for Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli organization.
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27. Lawrence Kushner
1943-. (aged 83)
rabbi
Lawrence Kushner is a Reform rabbi and the scholar-in-residence at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, California.
28. Richard Jacobs
1956-. (aged 70)
dancer
choreographer
rabbi
Richard Jacobs is a Reform rabbi and the president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the congregational arm of the Reform movement in North America which represents an estimated 1.5 million Reform Jews in nearly 900 synagogues across the United States and Canada. He is the first Union president to have served most of his career as a congregational...
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29. Angela Warnick Buchdahl
1972-. (aged 54)
rabbi
Angela Buchdahl is an American reform rabbi. She was the first East Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi, and the first East Asian-American to be ordained as a hazzan (cantor). In 2011 she was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of America's "Most Influential Rabbis", and in 2012 by The Daily Beast as one of America's...
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30. Judah Leon Magnes
1877-1948 (aged 71)
rabbi
Judah Leon Magnes was a prominent Reform rabbi in both the United States of America and Mandatory Palestine. He is best remembered as a leader in the pacifist movement of the World War I period, his advocacy of a binational Jewish-Arab state in Palestine, and as one of the most widely recognized voices of 20th century American Reform Judaism. Magnes...
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31. Abba Hillel Silver
1893-1963 (aged 70)
rabbi
Abba Hillel Silver was an American rabbi and Zionist leader. He was a key figure in the mobilization of American support for the founding of the State of Israel.
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32. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
1924-2014 (aged 90)
university teacher
rabbi
Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, commonly called "Reb Zalman" (full Hebrew name: Meshullam Zalman Hiyya ben Shlomo HaCohen), was an American Rabbi, writer, and activist, and one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue.
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33. Delphine Horvilleur
1974-. (aged 52)
writer
journalist
rabbi
philosopher
Delphine Horvilleur is France's third female rabbi, and (as of 2024) editorial director of the quarterly Jewish magazine Tenou’a - Atelier de pensée(s) juive(s) (Tenou'a - Workshop on Jewish thought). She leads a congregation in Paris, and is currently co-leading the Liberal Jewish Movement of France, a Jewish liberal cultural and religious association affiliated to the World Union for Progressive...
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34. Joshua L. Goldberg
1896-1994 (aged 98)
rabbi
military officer
Joshua Louis Goldberg was a Belarusian-born American rabbi, the first to be commissioned as a U.S. Navy chaplain in World War II (and only the third to serve in the Navy in its history), the first to reach the rank of Navy Captain (the equivalent of Army Colonel), and the first to retire after a full active-duty career.
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