Local News
May 9, 2008
BHU Acting Head Leaving
Baltimore Hebrew University’s acting president will become head of British center as BHU searches for new president.
Rochelle Eisenberg
Staff Reporter
Dr. David S. Ariel, Baltimore Hebrew University’s acting president since last fall, recently announced he will leave that position to become president of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in Oxford, Great Britain.
He is expected to remain at BHU through the middle of this summer.
“I think I have been able to help provide the vision for the future, to help get the budget into alignment, and help build an institution worthy of Baltimore Jewish community,” said Dr. Ariel, who previously served as president of the Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Cleveland for 25 years.
Dr. Ariel was hired after former BHU President Dr. Rela Mintz Geffen resigned in the spring of 2007. Arriving at a time of financial instability and concerns about the institution’s viability, Dr. Ariel helped develop a long-term strategy for the school, hired a director of professional programs to oversee the master’s in Jewish education degree and Jewish communal service program, and began to advance partnerships with other local universities.
“Dr. Ariel put us in a good academic position with a strong faculty,” said Erika P. Schon, chair of BHU’s board of trustees.
During the past year, Dr. Ariel also began addressing the school’s financial situation, in which it must raise funds to replace the $500,000 the university is losing from its parent organization, the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, over a five-year period.
To secure BHU’s long-term viability, he helped facilitate budget cuts, for both this year and the upcoming fiscal year, and was involved in the school’s fund-raising efforts, which Ms. Schon termed “one of the university’s most successful local campaigns.”
BHU is now conducting a nationwide search for a new president, she said. According to Ms. Schon, the university’s priorities are securing a new leader who will ramp up the school’s development effort, provide the institution with a stable financial model and work towards securing a long-term home. The Associated is requiring BHU to leave its current location at 5800 Park Heights Ave. by the summer of 2010.
Now that the academic program is in place, the “academic pedigree [of the new president] may not be the most important,” said Ms. Schon. “We are looking for a president that takes a pragmatic approach and has knowledge of running a university model.”
Dr. Ariel, who received a one-year contract at BHU, has agreed to help transition a new president if one comes on board before his departure. He will officially begin serving as president of the Oxford Centre Oct. 1.
The Oxford Centre offers Judaic studies courses to Oxford University students at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate levels.