At JTS, Goodbye Wissenschaft, Hello Relevance

What, then, is left for JTS to do? It can focus anew on what most secular Jewish studies programs can never hope to provide: relevance and passion. It can be a place where enthusiastic instructors trans- late ancient texts into timely and inspiring wisdom. It can be a place where budding Jewish professionals become enraptured with Jewish values, sources, history, culture and the Jewish homeland. It can be a place where (as the new JTS mission statement puts it) Judaism "is thoroughly grounded in Jewish texts, history and practices, and fully engaged with the societies and cultures of the present."