Who was the "RH" of HUC's School of Education? Why This Honor, When?

This was posted by my teacher, Rabbi Stephen Arnold (OSRUI, Kallah Aleph '72) - Ira Wise '91 

Chaverai, 

RHSOE: Who was the "RH" of HUC's School of Education?  Why This Honor, When?  Rhea Hirsch, of course!  Any graduate of our alma mater's LA campus knows that!   But how many of them -- or the rest of us -- know anything about why she is so honored?

American Jewish Archives to the rescue!

Rhea Hirsch was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1878. Hirsch came under the influence of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise and the Reform Movement and was inspired to attend Hebrew Union College. She was one of the college's first students to receive a teacher's certificate.

After the loss of her husband in New York, she came to Los Angeles in 1940. When the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) founded its College of Jewish Studies at the Wilshire Temple in 1947 as the forerunner to the present Rhea Hirsch School of Education, Hirsch enrolled the first semester and continued to be a student each year for the remainder of her life.

In the ensuing years she attended classes regularly, taking over one hundred-twenty units of Jewish studies concerning every course offered by the school. Her zeal and scholarship brought her citations both from the UAHC College of Jewish Studies and the School of Education which was named in her honor in 1969. 

Rhea Hirsch had two children, Kingdon Hirsch and Rebel Dunsay. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1970.

I'll buy an ice cream sundae for anyone who already knew her bio, and will be attending our next NAORRR Convention from January 2-6, 2014 at the Wyndham in Orlando, FL.

Steve Arnold, Cincinnati '61 

(Who knows what happens west of the Mississippi?!)