Fall Commencement: Mysteries and Miracles

Graduates are addressed by Arnold C. Greenberg.

Benjamin Sibrack and Rochelle Carlota celebrate their graduation at the 1999 Fall Commencement. Both were awarded Bachelor of Arts degrees.

Debbie Kursman, center, is congratulated by her parents, Bob and Carolyn Levine, during Fall Commencement. Debbie received her Master of Education degree at the ceremony.

Richard Freund, director of the University's Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, was the main speaker.

The 95 graduates at the annual Fall Commencement ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 5, were the last class "to graduate from the University of Hartford in what is commonly known as the 20th century," said President Walter Harrison.

"You will lead your lives and pursue your careers in the 21st century," said Harrison. "So today is a milestone for the University, as well as one for you personally." Noting that a sense of caring at the University of Hartford "really sets us apart," he asked the graduates to "infuse the communities you come to live in with the same sense of caring. You will have done a great deal to make this world a better place."

The graduates, assembled in Lincoln Theater, were also greeted by Arnold C. Greenberg, chairman of the Board of Regents, and the Commencement speaker Richard Freund, director of the University's Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies. Freund's topic, "Searching for the Origins of Judaism and Christianity at Bethsaida," described an ongoing excavation project in Israel that is noted in the New Testament as the place where Jesus walked on water and where he fed the multitudes with a few loaves of bread and fish. Bethsaida was lost for 1,800 years until Israeli archaeologists unearthed it in 1987 on the original shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Freund said that he began studying the ancient world, the Bible, and the origins of Judaism and Christianity because he felt such study would be "interesting, important to the vast majority of the world's population, and a wonderful way to learn about the mysteries of life."

He certainly found one such mystery when he became involved in 1988 with the excavation of Bethsaida. Historically, this ancient fishing village was said to have been located on the Sea of Galilee. However, the excavation site lies two miles from the Sea's present shoreline. Using tools from allied sciences such as geology, biology and chemistry, Freund helped to determine that an ancient earthquake had caused a flood that had filled the port with sediment and shrunk the Sea to today's dimensions. "It is a wonderful feeling to put a city back on the map," he said.

Freund described for the graduates how he came to realize that "over a billion people cared about the results of this work because it affected how they thought about their own religious identity." The major religious significance of Bethsaida is obvious. It is the first holy site of such importance that has been discovered in the Holy Land since the reign of Constantine the Great, emperor of the Roman Empire from A.D. 307 to 337.

"I hope that you graduates find something similar to this to do with your lives," concluded Freund. "Something where you know you are helping others and that your work touches many, many others."