[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 163 (Wednesday, October 16, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5837-S5838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. ANDREW REHFELD

 Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Dr. 
Andrew Rehfeld, who will be inaugurated as the 10th President of Hebrew 
Union College Jewish Institute of Religion on Sunday, October 27, 2019.
  Founded in Cincinnati, OH in 1875, Hebrew Union College--Jewish 
Institute of Religion, or HUC-JIR, is today a premier institution of 
higher Jewish learning and the center of academic, spiritual, and 
professional leadership development for Reform Judaism. Over the past 
144 years, HUC-JIR has grown into one of this Nation's most 
distinguished Jewish seminaries, and literally thousands of its 
rabbinical and cantorial alumni have been leading a Jewish renaissance 
in North America, Israel, and around the globe. HUC-JIR is also 
internationally recognized for teaching and mentoring students to serve 
as Jewish educators and communal leaders in synagogues, schools, 
Hillel's, hospitals, camps, the U.S. military, and Jewish organizations 
worldwide. For more than 70 years, HUC-JIR's Pines School of Graduate 
Studies has been conferring Ph.D. degrees on scholars of all religious 
traditions who have gone on to teach in colleges, universities, and 
seminaries around the world. Today, HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, 
Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York, all of which are vital centers 
for educational and cultural outreach to those of all faiths and 
backgrounds.

[[Page S5838]]

  Dr. Andrew Rehfeld, the new president of HUC-JIR, is a leading 
political scientist and distinguished Jewish communal leader. Dr. 
Rehfeld's career has bridged both the academic and professional worlds 
as associate professor of political science at Washington University 
and as president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. Elected 
on December 18, 2018 by the HUC-JIR Board of Governors after a national 
search, he began his tenure on April 1, 2019, succeeding the late Rabbi 
Aaron Panken.
  Dr. Rehfeld is married to Dr. Miggie Greenberg, a board-certified 
psychiatrist and director of outpatient psychiatry at St. Louis 
University. They have two children: Emma, who is the music and T'filah 
coordinator at Larchmont Temple in Larchmont, NY, and Hoben, who is an 
artist currently working in St. Louis.
  I salute HUC-JIR on this milestone occasion, and I congratulate Dr. 
Rehfeld and wish him all the best.

                          ____________________