Celebrating the New York Graduation Ceremonies for the Class of 2026/5786

On May 4, 2026, Hebrew Union College celebrated the graduation of 35 exceptional students. With fourteen graduates receiving their Master of Arts in Religious Education, five receiving a Master of Arts in Jewish Nonprofit Management, five receiving a Master of Sacred Music and eleven getting a Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature, the entire community engaged in a deeply reflective celebration at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.

Watch the full ceremony:

The ceremony also honored 37 alumni from the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, the Rabbinical school, the School of Education for 25 years of service. Each alum was granted an honorary doctorate at the ceremony. The graduation was the first of three North American graduations, which will be followed by Cincinnati and Los Angeles.

In his remarks, Rabbi Rick Jacobs '82, Member of the Board of Governors and President of the Union for Reform Judaism, said this:

Some mistakenly believe that honorary degrees are not earned, but they are.  Twenty-five years of serving the Jewish people with all of one's heart and soul deserves more than just our admiration and so we now have new Doctors of Divinity and Religious Education.

Judah Cohen, Ph.D., Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost, opened the ceremony with a spirit of unity and continuity, saying:

By being together as one congregation, we affirm that Jewish leadership demands far more than accumulated knowledge or technical skill. To be Jewish leaders, we answer the call for something deeper: a willingness to give ourselves in service to others, to open our hearts across generations, and to accept our sacred trust as a lifetime of challenge and change, both in the world, and in ourselves.

Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D., Gus W. Herrman President and Professor of Political Thought, continued the theme of continuity, welcoming the graduates and alumni to think about the purpose of Reform Judaism, and to go forward secure in its meaning.

At the College, the principles of Reform Judaism require an unshakable commitment to liberal Jewish education upon which our institution was founded. … So I ask you: keep and remember. Remember those who came before-not to preserve their forms, but to carry forward their purpose. Keep faith with the education that has shaped you. Let it guide your service.

President Rehfeld then introduced the commencement speaker and the recipient of the Sherut L'Am - Service to the People - Award, Rabbi David Saperstein, noting:

Class of 2026, you have chosen a path of sacred service. There is no better person to send you into that work than the man - who was also our ordination speaker at our alumni's ordination 25 years ago - from whom we are about to hear.

Rabbi Saperstein, in accepting the award and addressing the graduates, alumni, and assembled guests, declared:

This celebration takes place at an extraordinary moment. In the ebb and flow of history, there come times when we arrive at a crossroads. Future generations will be shaped by the path we choose. Sometimes the implications are self-evident; for others, only hindsight reveals the consequences of our choices with stunning clarity - as Robert Frost famously observed, "and that made all the difference."

The following degrees were conferred:

• Nine cantors received their Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, marking the first year cantors have received a Doctor of Divinity, rather than a Doctor of Music
• 26 rabbis received their Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa
• Three alumni received their Doctor of Jewish Religious Education, honoris causa
• Five students received their Master of Sacred Music
• Eleven students received their Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature
• Fourteen students received their Master of Arts in Religious Education
• Five students received their Master of Arts in Jewish Nonprofit Management

Confirmation of degrees was offered by Board of Governors Chair David B. Edelson, and member Rabbi Rick Jacobs '82, President of the Union for Reform Judaism. Edelson left the graduates with these parting words:

To this year's graduates: Lead with courage, serve with integrity, maintain your senses of humor, and embody the values of justice, compassion, and dignity. The arc of the moral universe does not bend on its own. It bends because people like you choose to bend it.

Cantor Jill Abramson, Director of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, led those gathered in Tzvika Pik's setting of Shehecheyanu.

Rabbi Michael Marmur left us with these parting words:

May we all have the will to create and debate, to decry, and to defend. To speak out and to lean in. To learn and to teach.

The full program can be found here.

More information about Graduation and Ordination can be found here.