Tuesday, October 8, 2024
October 7, 2023 And 2024
Last year, I wrote:
I am the dean of a law school with four Jewish full-time faculty and perhaps the largest cohort of Jewish students among Los Angeles area law schools. One of those professors was in Israel for the High Holidays with his family on October 7 and taught his 1L contracts class remotely from Israel on October 9 in between visits to bomb shelters. On October 11, I attended a moving and overflowing community gathering hosted by our Jewish Law Students' Association and Associate Dean for Student Life and Spiritual Development. On October 18, for the first time in our six years hosting the weekly dinner and Bible study, my wife Courtney and I spoke to the gathered students, staff, and faculty. On October 23, another of our Jewish professors will open our monthly faculty meeting in prayer.
Now, two weeks after October 7, I feel compelled to share my thoughts, not in my capacity as dean, but as a human being and a Christian horrified by the savagery unleashed by Hamas on that day. My three dear friends on Pepperdine Caruso Law's senior leadership team also welcomed the opportunity to share their personal views as well.
Yesterday, October 7, 2024, my Courtney and I hopped on a bus in the law school parking lot with a group of students and faculty to visit the Nova Exhibition, which powerfully shows what happened at the Nova Music Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023:
At our law school dinner two weeks ago, Michael Avi Helfand, our Brenden Mann Foundation Chair in Law and Religion, shared what it has been like for Jewish students and professors at our Christian law school over the past year:
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2024/10/october-7-2023-and-2024.html