“A Perfect Evening of Companionship” with Dr Uri D Herscher, Founding President & CEO of Skirball Cultural Center, Executive Committee of WorkingNation at Boi Tran Garden, Thien An Hill, Hue, Vietnam on 13 March 2018. Left to right: Pamela Gayle Balton, Thuc Doan / Bem, Jeffrey Roger Balton, Myna Meshul Herscher, and Uri D. Herscher.
Dear Bem,
We all send loving hugs from Saigon. You treated us to such a joyful experience in the home of your mother surrounded by her portraits of beauty. You were a magnificent host. Your words came from your heart and entered ours and our words came from our hearts and were meant to enter yours. It was a perfect evening of companionship.
Let’s plan on continuing to be in touch from time to time as you complete your studies. We would welcome you and your mother whenever you find ourselves in Southern California.
With heartfelt appreciation for our sharing an inspired evening, we send our warm embraces,
Uri, Myna, Pam, and Jeff
These notes are excerpted from Dr Uri D Herscher's email to Thuc-Doan (Bem) dated March 13, 2018.
Dr Uri D Herscher is an American rabbi and academic. He is not only the visionary and Founding President & CEO of Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles but Executive Committee of Working Nation. He led the Skirball from its inception in the early 1980s and was named Founding President and CEO when the institution opened to the public in April 1996. He served in that role until June 2020. Dr Herscher is a scholar, administrator, and rabbi whose abiding commitment to Jewish values—which he embraces as universally ethical in essence and practice—has infused the Skirball throughout its history.
Dr Herscher guided the Skirball through decades of growth and transformation, overseeing multiple expansions of its campus and programs, broadening its impact and establishing it as the largest Jewish cultural institution in the nation. Under his leadership, the Skirball grew its annual visitorship to more than 600,000, encompassing a public of diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. His pioneering vision—to create a multifaceted Jewish institution whose mission is to welcome and engage diverse communities—has defined the Skirball since its founding.
Dr Herscher was born in Tel Aviv in 1941 to German Jewish refugee parents who had fled Hitler’s rise to power and made their way to British Mandate Palestine in the mid-1930s. His grandparents and many relatives were murdered in Nazi death camps. In the mid-1950s, Dr Herscher immigrated with his family to the United States, settling in San Jose, California. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, Dr Herscher co-founded Cal Camp, a summer camp for underprivileged children in the Bay Area, which continues to operate today. He graduated with honors in 1964 with degrees in history and sociology. He was ordained a rabbi at HUC–JIR in 1970, and received a doctorate in American Jewish history in 1973. Dr Herscher holds honorary degrees from the University of Southern California, the University of Judaism, and Hebrew Union College.
Dr Herscher and his wife, Dr Myna Herscher, have four sons and seven grandchildren.
“If you’re fortunate enough to live in a democracy, in a place of safety, establish a place that will welcome everyone.”
Uri D. Herscher, “How Uri Herscher reshaped Jewish LA”, published by Forward, July 1, 2020
