HUC-JIR is a religious and scholarly learning community dedicated to: Developing Jewish professional and lay leaders to transmit and apply to contemporary life the sustaining values responsibilities and texts of our tradition; Applying the open and pluralistic spirit of the Reform movement to the study of the great issues of Jewish life and thought. Advancing the critical study of Jewish culture and related disciplines in accordance with the highest standards of modern academic scholarship. HUC-JIR serves as: The educational and intellectual center of Reform Judaism: Training and sustaining rabbis