For the first time in its 78-year history, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion yesterday awarded earned Doctorates in Philosophy to a Christian clergyman and an Israeli scholar, both of whom have been studying at the Reform college since 1950. In addition, 13 graduates were ordained rabbis at the college’s commencement exercises here.
The Christian clergyman, the Rev. Ronald M. Hals, a Lutheran pastor, has held fellowships in the college’s Interfaith Graduate Fellowship Program since 1950. Besides Rev. Hals, there were six other Christian scholars studying at the College this year under the interfaith graduate program inaugurated in 1947.
The Israeli scholar, Matitiahu Tsevat, a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, taught a class in Hebrew while studying at the College. A native of Germany, Mr. Tsevat migrated to Palestine in 1938 and has both studied and taught in schools there. Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, received an honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters.
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