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Avraham Biran/Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Dedicating the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College in 1960, Biran speaks as archaeologist Nelson Glueck, Israeli diplomat Abba Eban and Ruth Biran sit to his right at the head table. Hebrew Union College (HUC) was founded in 1875 in Cincinnati as the seminary of the Reform movement within Judaism. Today it has branches in New York and Los Angeles, in addition to the Jerusalem school. Glueck was for decades a professor of archaeology at HUC, and Biran credits him with igniting Biran’s passion for archaeology. In a fitting turn of events, in 1974 Biran was named head of HUC’s Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology.