 |
|||||||||||
               |
|
FIRST ONLINE MAJS GRADUATE CARVES OUT A HUMANISTIC PATH As a young girl growing up in a Satmar home in Toronto's Hasidic community during the 1960s, Eva Goldfinger would devour any and every Jewish source that she could find, sneaking in and reading forbidden secular texts by flashlight under her pillow at night. Buffeted by competing messages—"girls don't need to study" versus "use the fine mind that God gave you"—she ultimately rejected the strict sex roles and exacting God of her She is also still an ardent student of Jewish texts—and the first graduate of Hebrew College Online's Master of Arts in Jewish Studies degree program. For a woman who has fiercely charted her own course in life and Jewish education, the self-paced, home-based online MAJS program provided the perfect option for graduate study at a crucial turning point in Goldfinger's career. Pushing her congregational commitment to a new level as she turned 50, Goldfinger decided to enroll in a 60-credit rabbinic program offered by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism in Farmington Hills, Mich. But to fulfill the Institute's requirements for ordination, she needed to complete an accredited master's degree program in Judaic studies. Finding no desirable option in her area, she faced the daunting prospect of having to uproot herself, her family and her work. Goldfinger would have none of that. "Unless I could do this online or at a distance, it wouldn't have been possible," she says. Nor would she have proceeded if she couldn't locate a program that was deep and intensive, respected differences among movements within Judaism and took pains not to treat 50-year-old students like college freshmen. When she visited Hebrew College in 2001 to "interview" Provost Dr. Barry Mesch about the online Jewish Studies master's program, Goldfinger found the program—and the teachers—she was looking for. "A major reason that I chose Hebrew College was the faculty," she stresses. "They demonstrated a high level of intellect, gentleness, respectfulness, openness and acceptance." In the past four years, Goldfinger has likewise wowed the faculty. "Eva is a whirlwind of energy," says Hebrew College Online Dean Nathan Ehrlich. "I'm impressed with her ability to keep a lot of balls in the air at one time." Observes Barry Mesch: "She's an amazing writer, tenacious and persevering, with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge." Indeed, Goldfinger's pursuit of the online MAJS program—and the rabbinate—is just the latest stage of a lifelong quest for truth, one that expanded in her 20s and 30s as she pulled further away from her Satmar moorings. In the process, Goldfinger's source of truth became scientific observation and evidence, rather than the authority of a supernatural being or sacred text. Letting go of a belief in an existing supernatural and active God in the Torah and Jewish history, she remained nonetheless passionately committed to Jewish values, culture, learning and am Yisrael. While seeking a Jewish school for her children, Goldfinger eventually found a like-minded community at Oraynu Congregation and within the movement of Secular Humanistic Judaism. "I loved the people and the ideas and jumped in with both feet," she says. That's putting it lightly. Goldfinger went on to become co-leader of Oraynu, write the book Basic Ideas of Secular Humanistic Judaism (International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews, May 1996), develop curricula and present lectures based on those ideas, and prepare for the rabbinate. When Goldfinger began the online MAJS program, she viewed it less as a means to rabbinic ordination than as an opportunity to expand her Judaic knowledge within a serious community of learners. Logging on to the Hebrew College Online MAJS website from her home in Greater Toronto, she became engaged in a spirited, ongoing conversation with fellow students and professors. "I found that in every class, at least one to three other students were as interested as I was in having an intense exchange of ideas," Goldfinger recalls. "Many of us communicated online every day." Her professors went online on a daily-to-weekly basis to address student questions and concerns, but she could always use email or the phone to get a more timely response. "It's difficult to do this on an Internet basis," Goldfinger says, citing several of her instructors who mastered the art. "An online professor needs to be interactive and ask the types of questions that require thinking and discussion." It also helps when the courseware runs smoothly. During her four-year stint online, Goldfinger found that any technical glitches got addressed within two hours. "A major reason that I chose Hebrew College was the faculty," Goldfinger stresses. "They demonstrated a high level of intellect, gentleness, respectfulness, openness and acceptance." A good thing, in her case. When Barry Mesch taught the first online MAJS course, he recalls finding postings from Goldfinger that ranged from 3:00 in the afternoon to 3:00 in the morning. "She says she doesn't need many hours of sleep, and I can see how that is," says Mesch. Equipped with her freshly minted MAJS degree, Goldfinger has no plans for R&R. She expects to become ordained in October and looks forward to applying what she's learned at Hebrew College to her own unique path as rabbi, teacher and curriculum developer within Secular Humanistic Judaism. Propelling her forward, as always, is the pursuit of knowledge and truth. "I believe that Jewish perpetuation begins with Jewish knowledge," she says, "and ensuring Jewish perpetuation is one of my deepest purposes in life." More information about the Hebrew College Online Master of Arts in Jewish Studies program is available at hebrewcollege.edu/onlinedegree. |
|||||||||
religious upbringing. She became a feminist in her teens, studied philosophy, psychology and the sciences in college in her 20s and embraced Secular Humanistic Judaism in her 30s. Today, Goldfinger is a psychotherapist, a leader of the Oraynu Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Toronto and a popular guest lecturer at Jewish organizations and other congregations in the movement throughout the United States and Canada.