LAURA AND ALVIN SIEGAL COLLEGE OF JUDAIC STUDIES

LAURA AND ALVIN SIEGAL COLLEGE OF JUDAIC STUDIES , institution of higher Jewish learning in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Siegal College grants bachelor's and master's degrees in Judaic studies and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. It is authorized by the Ohio Board of Regents, the Florida Commission for Independent Education, the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Commission, the Kansas Board of Regents, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The school has its origins in two separate teachers' institutions founded in the 1920s, the Jewish Teachers Institute and the Beth Midrash L'Morim (Hebrew Teacher Training School), which merged in 1947 to form the Cleveland Institute of Jewish Studies under the auspices of the Cleveland Board of Jewish Education. Largely through the initiative of educator Rebecca Aronson Brickner, the school became known as the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies in 1963, and also became an independent institution. Its name changed to the Laura and Alvin Siegal College in 2002 as a result of a generous donation from that family. The college also receives financial support from the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.

Undergraduates major in Judaic studies while earning general education credits at various colleges and universities in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Area colleges also have cooperative arrangements in which students may earn Judaic studies credits at Siegal. Graduate students can receive master's degrees in classical Jewish studies or in Jewish education. There are programs to educate teachers for all kinds of Jewish schools as well as classes to update and improve the skills of teachers already in the field. Siegal College also operates Akiva High School, a community-wide supplementary school for teenagers, and provides an extensive continuing adult education program for the community. The school's distance learning program reaches beyond the Cleveland metropolitan area with cooperative programs currently operating in Houston, Dallas, Miami, West Palm Beach, Milwaukee, Denver, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Kansas City. The Aaron Garber Library, named for a founder of talmud torah education in Cleveland, is the largest Judaica library in the Cleveland metropolitan area.

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ms. 4826 Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. website : www.siegalcollege.edu.