Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, a builder and pioneer of Reform Judaism, devoted his life to Jewish learning. As president (1971–1996) and chancellor (1996–2000) of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, he ordained America’s first woman rabbi (1972) and cantor (1975), Israel’s first Reform rabbi (1980) and woman rabbi (1992); enlarged HUC-JIR’s facilities, programs, and enrollment in Los Angeles, New York, Jerusalem, and Cincinnati; and initiated the required Year-In-Israel program for rabbinical, cantorial, and education students. A refugee from Nazi Germany, he helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In gratitude to his wife Deanna, children Marc and Rachel, and colleagues, he recently wrote: “I thank you, O God, [for setting] my portion among those who study Torah.”

Zecher Tsaddik Livrachah.