soul

of blessed memory

Reform Leader Was A Transformative Force

Richard Siegel, director
emeritus of the HUC-JIR
Zelikow School of
Jewish Nonprofit
Management, died July
12, 2018, in Los Angeles,
Calif.
He was a transforma-
Siegel
tive force in the Jewish
world, through his com-
mitment to strengthening professional
education, enhancing Jewish culture
and advancing contemporary Jewish
identity formation. He was dedicated for
more than four decades to strengthening
Jewish American life as an educator, an
author, an advocate of Jewish culture and
arts, and as a leader.
Siegel contributed to American Jewish
life and culture as Hillel director, as
author of The Jewish Catalog, as head
of the National Foundation of Jewish
Culture and as director of the Zelikow
School of Jewish Nonprofit Management.
He led the transformation of HUC-JIR’s
School of Jewish Communal Service,
which was established in 1968 as the
first Jewish communal service graduate
program in America to address the need

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for more highly trained and Jewishly
committed professionals in Jewish life.
He created a new strategic plan for
the Zelikow School that envisioned a
dynamic center for Jewish professional
leadership, both in the school’s tradi-
tional master’s degree graduate program
as well as in a newly conceived program
of professional development for Jewish
communal professionals already working
in the field.
Siegel was responsible for its transfor-
mation into the Zelikow School of Jewish
Nonprofit Management, renamed with
a major gift from Marcie and Howard
Zelikow that would enable it to broaden
its impact, both geographically and
across the range of Jewish professional
fields, in preparing nonprofit profession-
als for leadership careers in the Jewish
community. Furthermore, as a teacher
and a mentor for countless students,
he played a pivotal role in ensuring the
Jewish future by helping to foster the
next generation of Jewish leaders.
Siegel had a distinguished career as
a Jewish communal professional, edi-
tor and cultural entrepreneur. He was
the executive director of the National

Foundation for Jewish Culture (renamed
the Foundation for Jewish Culture)
for 16 years and served 28 years at the
organization (1978-2006). His work at
the Foundation was credited with put-
ting Jewish culture, in general, and the
arts, in particular, into the conversation
about contemporary Jewish identity. He
created the Jewish Endowment for the
Arts and Humanities to provide fund-
ing support for artists, scholars and
cultural institutions, and he initiated
such programs as the Fund for Jewish
Documentary Filmmaking, the Fund for
New Play Commissions in Jewish Theater
and the 6-Points Fellowships in the Arts.
He also organized major national and
international conferences and festivals
in theater, dance, music, literature and
visual arts, and produced several award-
winning National Public Radio programs.
Previously, he was the first Hillel director
at the SUNY at Stony Brook (1974-1978),
where he founded the Long Island Jewish
Arts Festival, which became the model
for similar festivals around the country.
Siegel received an M.A. in
Contemporary Jewish Studies (now
the Hornstein Program) at Brandeis

University in 1972 and an M.A. in Jewish
history from the Jewish Theological
Seminary in 1974. His master’s thesis
at Brandeis, A Theoretical Construct
for a Jewish Whole Earth Catalog, was
subsequently developed into The Jewish
Catalog (JPS, 1973), the best-selling guide
to the Jewish counter-culture of the
1960s. He wrote numerous chapters and
articles on contemporary Jewish culture,
as well as several strategic plans and field
studies, including The Commission Report
on the Future of Jewish Culture in America
(2002).
Among his awards and honors
were the Bernard Reisman Award for
Excellence in Jewish Communal Service
from Brandeis University (2002), the
Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in
Cultural Leadership from the National
Foundation for Jewish Culture (2004)
and the Career Achievement Award from
the Jewish Communal Professionals of
Southern California (2015).
He is survived by his beloved wife,
Rabbi Laura Geller, senior rabbi emerita
of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills; and
their children, Andy, Ruth, Josh and
Elana. •