January 16, 2009

By Danielle Earls

Influential Rabbi Max Ticktin Receives Hillel's

85th Anniversary Alumni Award

For more than half a century, GW professor Rabbi Max Ticktin's work with Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the United States, has taken him all around the world. In December 2008, Ticktin was honored with the 85th Anniversary Alumni Award for his dedication to National Hillel and higher educational institutions, including The George Washington University.

As the assistant director of National Hillel for nearly 30 years, Rabbi Ticktin helped shape the Hillel movement in the United States. Throughout his career, he forged the path of social justice and activism on college campuses for issues such as a woman's right to choose and peace in the Middle East. He also is credited with creating the "Upstairs Minyan," a Jewish prayer group at the University of Chicago, which became the model for the Havurah Movement, or a renewal of Jewish communities, in the 1970's.

After leaving his position with National Hillel, Ticktin joined GW as an assistant professor of Hebrew language and served as associate director for the Program of Judaic Studies. Ticktin continues to teach courses in the Hebrew language, contemporary Israeli literature, and the history of modern Hebrew literature.