By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Future rabbis (from left) Debra Kassoff, Michael Shulman, John A. Linder, Dalia Sara Marx and Yair Robinson, five of the 19 students being ordained by Hebrew Union College Saturday, in the school chapel. (Steven M. Heppich photo) | ZOOM |

For 120 years, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has ordained rabbis who have shaped Jewish life and education in communities across the world.

On Saturday, 19 students will stand in Isaac M. Wise Temple, the synagogue that bears the name of the man who founded American Reform Judaism and the nation's oldest institution of Jewish higher education.

Their names will join 2,586 others who helped make the Reform movement what is now - the largest and fastest-growing denomination in American Jewry.

"It does reflect how long Hebrew Union College has been playing this type of role in American and worldwide Jewish life," said HUC president Rabbi David Ellenson. "One hundred twenty is certainly a significant anniversary. It is a moment when we can pause and feel a great sense of pride in what we have accomplished."

Students study for five years on one of four of the college's campuses - Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York and Jerusalem - and have access to renowned libraries, archives, museum collections and biblical archeology excavations.

Here are the stories of five of those students:

Debra Kassoff, 32

Just call her the South's itinerant rabbi.

After ordination, the Columbia, Md., native will become the first rabbi to work for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, a Jackson, Miss.-based not-for-profit organization that provides educational and rabbinic services to small Jewish communities, documents and preserves the history of the southern Jewish experience, and promotes a strong Jewish cultural presence in a 12-state region.

Kassoff will visit congregations in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama to teach and lead services. She'll also recruit rabbis to take full-time pulpits in small communities. In Mississippi, for example, there are only two full-time rabbis in the state.

"The issue for the South is not a money problem," she said. "For many of these congregations, it's a population issue. There are so few Jews left that people won't go there. Many of these communities are going to disappear in a generation or two, but some of them are viable."

IF YOU GO

What: Commencement ceremony at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. When: 8 p.m. Thursday. Where: Isaac M. Wise Temple, Amberley Village. Information: HUC President Rabbi David Ellenson will confer degrees upon 17 students for Master of Hebrew Letters degrees, one for a Master of Arts degree, five for Master of Philosophy degrees and three for Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Dr. C. Hassell Bullock, professor of Old Testament and the Franklin S. Dyrness chairman of biblical studies at Wheaton College in Illinois, will give the commencement address. What: 120th ordination of 19 rabbis at HUC. When: 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Where: Isaac M. Wise (Plum Street) Temple, downtown. Information: Rabbi Uri Regev, executive director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism from Jerusalem, will speak. The organization includes congregations and communities in nearly 40 countries, encompassing more than 1,200 Reform, Progressive, Liberal and Reconstructionist congregations and more than 1.5 million members throughout the world. Both ceremonies are open to the public, but guests must present photo identification. For information, call (513) 221-1875.

For communities too small for a full-time rabbi, Kassoff will connect them with others to form clusters that are intended to build a more vibrant Jewish community. Kassoff discovered a passion for strengthening these communities when she served as a student rabbi in Greenville, Miss., which was part of her program at HUC.

"Ultimately, I'm doing whatever I can to bring Jewish life and culture back to communities where it has been struggling for a while. My hope in going into this is we will be able to contribute to a climate where it's easier to be Jewish."

As it says on the institute's Web site, "Shalom, y'all."

John Linder, 45

The Buffalo, N.Y., native spent six years as a community and labor organizer and 10 years in the family scrap metal recycling business before deciding he wanted to be a rabbi. It has been a long journey from United Alloys & Steel Corp. to Israel for the required year of study, and to Cincinnati to complete his education.

"The trigger was when my wife and I had a child," he said. "It was over 11 years ago. That was, for me, the re-entry point into the synagogue, as a father. That was the beginning of a process that ultimately led me to leave the family business."

His parents' initial reaction?

"With some levity, my parents said, 'What kind of job is this for a nice Jewish boy?' I told them, 'You taught me to follow my heart and that's what I'm doing.' "

Linder's heart will lead him in July to Congregation B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Glenview, Ill.

Dalia Sara Marx, 36

In Marx's native Jerusalem, Judaism looks far different than it does in America.

"Either you're completely secular, you never go to temple, or you're religious, and religious means orthodox," she said. She grew up in a typical Israeli family, she said, secular with a warm approach to Jewish heritage. But around her bat mitzvah, the time of religious responsibility, she began to explore her Jewish identity.

"My search led me to the Israeli Reform youth movement where I found partners to this exploration and commitment," Marx said. "In those days, an unorthodox religious identity was quite rare, and sometimes I had a difficult time explaining my path in Judaism to friends and relatives."

She became deeply involved in that movement and during her required two-year service joined a section of the army that combines security with building a kibbutz, a closed communal way of life in which everyone shares resources and cultural life. She lived there for seven years. After that, she earned a bachelor's degree in Semitic linguistics and women's studies and a master's in rabbinic literature at the Hebrew University. But she still wondered how she could bring good to the world. That's what brought about the decision to join HUC's Jerusalem campus.

"I can be a good teacher and a good leader," she said. "I'm not going to find the cure to cancer or to AIDS. I'm not going to walk on the moon. But I can make Judaism more dear to Israeli kids."

Marx will go back to her homeland at the end of July and teach liturgy to both Israeli and American students for HUC.

"My job will be to teach rabbinic students, but I also hope to teach in more informal circles," she said. "I want to show people you can be Jewish in many different ways. There's not only one recipe to being a good Jew. The tent is big. You can be an authentic Jew in many different ways. You don't have to buy a package deal from anyone else.

Yair Robinson, 27

When Robinson steps forward to be ordained, it will be a moment that has been 13 years in the making.

"It is all I've ever wanted to do in terms of a career, a calling," he said.

The way his father, Harold L. Robinson, interacted with people as a rabbi influenced his son's vision of a rabbinate. The Cape Cod, Mass., native remembers going on hospital visits and watching how his father interacted with people. Robinson attended his Torah study classes, and early in his teens, decided that he, too, wanted to become a rabbi.

"I saw it being very much my own calling," Robinson said.

The elder rabbi will give his son a blessing during the ordination ceremony, the same one he participated in as a student when he was ordained from HUC in 1974. He is now an admiral-designate and will soon be in charge of the U.S. Navy Reserve chaplain corps. He was also the chaplain who conducted the televised services in Houston for the Columbia astronauts who died.

After ordination, Robinson will move to Pennsylvania to serve as the assistant rabbi for Congregation Shir Ami of Bucks County.

"When you work 13 years for a moment, it's a little awesome in the literal sense of the word," he said.

Michael Shulman, 29

For the first time, Wise Temple will have three rabbis. And Shulman will be the third, starting July 1. After serving as the rabbinic intern there for two years, the Cleveland native will serve as an assistant rabbi in the same congregation where he'll be ordained.

Shulman started out wanting to be a Jewish educator. In fact, he taught religious school throughout his college career at Georgetown University. But he changed his mind when he discovered that teaching is a big part of what it means to be a congregational rabbi.

Shulman will also receive his master's degree in education from Xavier University through a joint program with that school. The experience will help with his supervisory and administrative duties at the synagogue, one that's known for its depth of programming.

It's an honor, Shulman said, to be part of the congregation that symbolizes the history and evolution of Reform Judaism.

"I never thought I'd be at a place with such a history and status," he said. "It's very special."

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com