Our Hope: תקותנו

An introduction from Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky, dean of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies and the Gershon Kekst Graduate School, and the Blanche and Romie Shapiro Professor of Bible.

As we close the 2022–23 academic year, I am, to my own surprise, thinking a lot about hope and feeling hopeful. My surprise comes from my personal perspective, which has been reflected in my professional life. By nature, I am a happy pessimist who practices the adage, “Expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised.” I prefer to envision and digest all the ways in which things can go wrong rather than consider happier alternatives. I am convinced that my eagerness to entertain the darker side of life has focused my academic work on the darkest, most horrific passages of the Bible. 

It feels out of character for me to be thinking about and feeling hope. And yet here I am, beginning to study how the Bible expresses hope and finding myself optimistic and hopeful in my day-to-day life. 

There may be larger, post-pandemic reasons for my shift in perspective, but I want to share why this moment at List College fills me with hope.

We are graduating an extraordinary group of students who embody List College’s commitment to rigorous intellectual inquiry and to passionate and compassionate Jewish living and learning. These students will infuse and enrich every community, program, and organization they become a part of.  They give me hope that there will be in the future rich Jewish communities and committed Jews to support and lead them.     

We are preparing to welcome another large and talented incoming class. List College is thriving—and for all the right reasons. More and more students want what only we can offer. This gives me hope that what we do and how we do it is valued.     

Our current students are happy, and for good reason. Recent changes in the curriculum have made the program more manageable. Our new residence hall has enhanced our community. We offer more opportunities for career development through our new List Education and Professional Leadership (LEAP) Fellowship that integrates courses in Jewish education with hands-on experience in Jewish communal professional settings, and our new mentorship program that connects students with alumni, providing in-depth and personal career guidance for our students as they progress through the program. There is a hopeful spirit among our students that uplifts all of us who work with them. 

Hope is essential to the human spirit and to religious life, but it must be grounded in reality to not seem like empty rhetoric. We must know that what we hope for is possible. 

Despite the communal hand-wringing over the future of a Judaism that is joyful, rich, open to contemporary and critical perspectives, and that is committed to learning and community, this happy pessimist is not wringing her hands. I know the commitment, energy, and talents of our students. I know the education they receive and the contributions they make to their classrooms and to their community. Our students, program, and graduates offer us all hope—a hope that is grounded in the reality of List College—that this kind of Judaism is possible.