On May 10, 2018, American Jewish University held a dinner on the occasion of its 70th anniversary, and honored the Los Angeles families that were its Founders, back in 1948, the same year that the State of Israel was declared.
The following is the address given at the dinner by Dr. Robert Wexler, President of AJU for the last 25 years — an extraordinary summary of an extraordinary story. He graciously names the many people who played key roles over the years, while modestly omitting his own major contribution:
In 1930, a young Israeli named Shlomo Bardin made his way to Denmark to study the Danish folk high schools. These special high schools were created to overcome a strong cultural assault from nearby Germany and to instill a sense of national pride in Danish youth.
So impressed was Shlomo Bardin by what he saw and heard, that he began imagining how the principles of the Danish folk high school could be applied to the education of young American Jews. Bardin developed an educational philosophy that focused on the need to provide Jews with key educational and cultural experiences that would link them strongly to their own Jewish heritage.
Just about the same time that Bardin was pondering the future of American Jewish youth, Dr. Mordecai Kaplan was writing his masterwork, Judaism as a Civilization, which he published in 1934. Kaplan broke new ground when he insisted that Judaism should not be viewed only a religion but was rather as an entire civilization that included religion, language, ethics, literature, art, and music.
Both of these profound thinkers, Bardin and Kaplan, shared a similar philosophy of Judaism, and they were both instrumental in creating the institution that is now known as American Jewish University. Both Bardin and Kaplan were deeply committed to the notion that Jews could simultaneously be “good Jews” and “good Americans.” Bardin went so far as to claim that, “there is no conflict between American democratic ideals and Jewish ideals.”
He also said, “The richer the cultural and spiritual content of American Jewry, the greater its self-respect and dignity.” Mordecai Kaplan could easily have said the same thing.
Already in 1930, Shlomo Bardin was introduced to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. Brandeis had become an ardent Zionist, but he was also concerned about the new generation of young, American-born Jews who knew little or nothing about their Jewish heritage. These Jews were rapidly assimilating into the American mainstream, and the question now became whether they would retain the Jewish loyalties that characterized the generation of their parents.
The collaboration between Bardin and Brandeis led in 1941 to the establishment of the Summer Camp Institute in Amherst, New Hampshire.
By 1943, the program moved to Winterdale, Pennsylvania, and it was renamed the Brandeis Camp Institute. Bardin was ready to expand his operations to other parts of the country, and he began a correspondence with Julius Fligelman, a prominent Jewish leader on the west coast.
Gradually, with Fligelman’s help, a plan was put in place to open a Brandeis Camp Institute in southern California. Land was purchased in the Simi Valley, and in 1947, the Brandeis Camp Institute made the big move to California.
Meanwhile, with the influx of so many Jews into Los Angeles after World War II, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the central institution of Conservative Judaism, also began to feel the need to establish a presence in the West.
Almost simultaneously, the Bureau of Jewish Education in Los Angeles recognized the need for a school that would prepare Jewish teachers for the expected growth in the population of Jewish children. Initially, the plan called for an inter-denominational institution of higher Jewish education that would also include the Orthodox and Reform. Extensive discussions along this line took place, but the plan for an inter-denominational, pluralistic institution did not pan out as the Reform leadership decided to establish their own west coast branch of the Hebrew Union College.
Mordecai Kaplan had long dreamed of remaking the Jewish Theological Seminary in line with his vision of Judaism as a civilization. This is what Kaplan had to say about the type of school he wanted “…a kind of institution of higher learning…Instead of being a theological seminary fostering a specific denominational view of Judaism, that institution should be an American Jewish University which would do the organized thinking and planning for American-Jewish life. ”
As you just heard, Kaplan spoke of his ideal school as an “American Jewish University.” Nevertheless, that is not the actual name he proposed. Instead, Kaplan wanted JTS in New York to rename itself “The University of Judaism.” Of course, as we known, this suggestion was rejected, and instead, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Bureau of Jewish Education partnered to actualize Kaplan’s dream in Los Angeles by establishing the University of Judaism.
The UJ’s first campus was at 4th and New Hampshire at the original site of Sinai Temple. Later the school moved to Ardmore Avenue, then to Sunset Boulevard, and finally to Mulholland Drive in Bel Air.
Both institutions, the Brandeis Camp Institute and the University of Judaism grew rapidly. The two organizations had a tremendous amount in common—they shared faculty like the gifted musician, Max Helfman, and dance pioneer Benjamin Zemach; they shared scholars and administrators such as Dr. Alvin Mars, Dr. Bruce Powell, Rabbi Daniel Gordis Dr. Samuel Dinin and Dr. Max Vorspan.
And, of course, there was also significant overlap in lay leadership starting with Julius Fligelman who served as an early board chair of both institutions. Other shared board members included Ed Meltzer Sr., Max Laemmle, Max Zimmer, Frank Horny, Paul Lehmann, Willard Chotiner, and producers Dore Schary and Milton Sperling.
Shlomo Bardin led Brandeis-Bardin until 1976. At the University of Judaism, the founding president Dr. Simon Greenberg, was succeeded by Dr. David Lieber, who served as president for 29 years from 1953-1992. Both institutions also boasted two long serving board chairs—Judge Joseph Wapner at Brandeis and Jack Ostrow at the University of Judaism.
In 1953, Brandeis Bardin established Camp Alonim which for 65 years has been the cherished summer home of thousands of inspired and devoted Jewish youngsters. In 1956, the University of Judaism established its own camp, Camp Ramah in California.
Expansion followed expansion, and the UJ created its Graduate School of Nonprofit Management in 1979, followed by the undergraduate College of Letters and Science in 1982 and the Ziegler Rabbinical School in 1996.
In 2006 the Brandeis-Bardin Institute and the University of Judaism decided to take the plunge and become one institution, and that brings us to today’s celebration, as we recognize 70 years of history. Two institutions developing along parallels lines with complementary visions of the Jewish future, finally joined together to become the American Jewish University.