Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh named a founding member of Melton Rabbinic Council

Rabbi+Elizabeth+Hersh

Lisa Mandel

Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh

Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh of Temple Emanuel has become one of the founding members of the Melton Rabbinic Council. The Melton Rabbinic Council will serve as a sounding board for major Melton ideas, directions and future initiatives. Melton is the largest pluralistic adult Jewish education network in the world. Council members are chosen based upon their involvement with Melton and their dedication to the support and advancement of adult Jewish education.

To mark the honor, Temple Emanuel President Val Turner wrote a tribute to Rabbi Hersh: 

In June of 2020, Temple Emanuel became the face of the Florence Melton School of Jewish Learning in St. Louis. Through the foresight, inspiration, and dedication of Rabbi Hersh, Temple Emanuel became the representative congregation in St. Louis of the largest pluralistic adult Jewish education network in the world. Rabbi Hersh was one of the original faculty members of Melton in St. Louis. She also taught Melton classes in Australia during her residency there. I am pleased and proud to announce that Rabbi Hersh has now become one of the faces of Melton internationally.

On Aug. 18, Rabbi Hersh accepted the invitation from Rabbi Morey Schwartz, International Director of Melton, to become one of the founding members of the Melton Rabbinic Council. The Melton Rabbinic Council will serve as a sounding board for major Melton ideas, directions and future initiatives. Council members were chosen based upon their involvement with Melton and their dedication to the support and advancement of adult Jewish education.

This high honor for Rabbi Hersh recognizes her decades-long commitment to Melton and Jewish education. Anyone who has taken a Melton course from Rabbi Hersh immediately recognizes her dedication to the Melton ideal of offering a pluralized Jewish classroom that offers students full participation in lively discussion that crosses over all spectrums of orientation and belief. Seldom will Rabbi Hersh lead a Melton class that doesn’t include students from a broad range of the Jewish spectrum and, often, even non-Jews as well.

Congratulations Rabbi Hersh, yishar kochach, may you go from strength to strength.