I am so honored to greet you, my Melton Mini-School family and friends, who chose to honor me in my 90th year with a celebration of Jewish learning.

I thank God for the gift of love and caring that made this evening another treasured moment in time. To Lisa Math, a graduate and recent coordinator who arranged for and carried out the details for this wonderful evening, I am most appreciative. To all my Mini-School teammates, who are here from all over this land, as well as from the UK, Israel and Canada, I want the world to know that no matter where our base of operation, we work as a team - and we have the professional world wondering how we do it!

Our very special connection to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is one of our strong underpinnings, and a rare partnership it has been. As you have heard from Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson, rector of the University, our international office is based at the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School Institute at the Hebrew University's Melton Centre for Jewish Education. Dr. Jonathan Mirvis is our international director.

So many of our learners have asked me how I conceived the idea for the Mini-School. The story is too long to tell in its entirety, but I will make it brief by beginning with the fact that for more than 60 years I have been importantly engaged in Jewish education on every level - local, national and international.

As a young child, I was lucky enough to spend a great deal of time with my beloved Bubbe, my grandmother, an observant and caring Jew who taught by example.... I learned how we Jews care for the needy; I learned how we share even though we are poor; I knew that the leather couch in the kitchen was always available for the kosher traveler who was sent by the rabbi for a night's lodging, since there were no kosher hotels or restaurants. My Bubbe's joy in her Judaism came through to me by osmosis. She spoke to us only in Yiddish, as she speaks to me very clearly today, though she is gone since 1939. We were at my grandparents for every holiday, so I knew how we celebrated, but I didn't have a clue why we celebrated. This was to bug me in later years.

When I married, moved away, and later had kids of my own, I realized the very sad quality of Jewish education when I sought a religious school for them. Investigation revealed that this was a widespread problem that seemed to permeate religious schools throughout the country. Teachers were not trained professionals; many were volunteers. There was very little in the way of curricular materials, and the kids were bored stiff. This condition didn't improve too much over the many years, and as a result, our children grew up deprived of any meaningful connection to their roots. Those kids are today's parents, teachers, professionals and lay leaders - and although the situation has improved, even today the highest percentage of teachers in all religious schools do not have professional Jewish education beyond Bar/Bat Mitzvah. In all religious schools today, however, the shortage of teachers, as well as principals is critical. This is one of my passionate concerns... there is no national effort at recruitment and subsidy for young Jews who are excited about their Judaism.

Getting back to my story... Since I sought to improve my own lack of knowledge, my personal quest for Jewish education led me to the conclusion that there was no serious sequential course with any qualified curriculum for the average Jewish adult, nor could I find any source that was even considering giving Jews of all denominations the opportunity to sit and learn together in a pluralistic environment.

My very sensitive antenna, and my research with Jewish adults, indicated that this was exactly what was needed in Jewish America, even if it was a totally foreign concept to educators at that time. I believed that a classroom that nurtured an open and pluralist philosophy with curriculum based in traditional text, qualified faculty, respecting all points of view, would be a requisite to the modern Jewish population. Students should be comfortable asking questions, engaging in interactive discourse respectful of our differences, and learning from each other who we are in all our colorations.

So in 1980, I worked for six weeks to draft a proposal spelling out the framework which was the basis for what is today the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, and proceeded to offer it, together with a grant, to every national agency or organization involved in Jewish education in this country. I was turned down cold. Nobody believed that adults would devote time and tuition to such a school for two hours every week for two years.

Then a miracle took place. After so many disappointments (even though he didn't believe in the concept at the time and changed his mind later), my beloved [husband] Sam Melton, of blessed memory, took me to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he had long ago established a school of education to train teachers for Israel and the Diaspora. It was only because I was Sam's wife that they ultimately took on the project, but the work in progress was slow, since the concept of pluralism was foreign to them as well. It took six years from the time I wrote the proposal until the first test with a class of young parents in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

After one year, we knew we had a winner. Indeed, adults were willing to invest their precious time and tuition to connect to their Jewish roots in such a creative and serious way. The students told us that their lives were changed. They were not only celebrating Shabbat and the holidays for the first time, but had become a community of learners, sharing family events as well as community concerns - in fact, a new Jewish community.

The rest is history, and our present research will record the many ways in which the American Jewish population, as well as those in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, have strengthened their personal lives and their communities as knowledgeable Jews.

In the coming academic year, we will open in South Africa and Scotland. We are also testing the Mini-School in Israel. This will bring the number of Mini-Schools to 63, with 5,800 students enrolled, and with offices in different countries and far flung places. How do we do it? We plan well.

Our North American Office is in Northbrook, Illinois. Dr. Betsy Dolgin Katz is the director, who works closely with our international director. But no matter where we are based, sharing the same passion, the dedicated team of professionals and staff makes it happen. It is, my friends, a miracle in our time.

The profile of our student population can span former Yeshiva students to university professors and every population in between. The age span is from 20s to octogenarians.

There are those who are attempting to duplicate the Mini-School. I congratulate them for trying - but I challenge any attempt to copy it, because what has gone and continues to go into this effort is beyond description or formulation. I know it was directed by a power greater than the sum of all our parts, so I thank God it's working, and I thank you for sharing the celebration.