Two frustrating experiences propelled this year's valedictorian, Betty Ann G. Miller MAJS'05, on an intense quest for Jewish knowledge and self-discovery. The first was having to rely on others to translate Hebrew texts in a weekly women's Torah study; the second was coming up empty when her two young sons began bringing home provocative questions from the Rashi School about Jewish history and identity. "They were challenging me to begin to deepen my own Jewish identity by actively setting out on my own adult Jewish journey," she recalls.

Miller began that journey by signing up, along with her husband, Dan, for the Me'ah program. One hundred hours later, she emerged with a new confidence in her command of Jewish knowledge. But when she sought to apply that knowledge and personal experiences as a cancer survivor to volunteer work with the Pastoral Care Department at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Miller still felt ill-prepared.

"I worked with people of all faiths in an ecumenical setting," she says, "and discovered that I needed to know much more about myself and Judaism in order to authentically represent myself in a pastoral setting."

To achieve that goal, Miller enrolled in the MAJS program and excelled as a student and community activist, all while parenting and coping with various health challenges. "She's always been eager, thirsty and serious, and gave all of herself to the program," says Hebrew College Provost Barry Mesch.

Within weeks of matriculating, Miller created Journeys on the Hill, an interfaith student dialogue between ANTS and HC students that continues to thrive. And in her final year at HC, she wrote a thesis exploring Jewish life in Berlin since the Shoah—a project that helped her grapple with her own, complex Jewish identity.

As the daughter of an Anglican Berliner mother (who later converted to Judaism) and a Jewish father also with extensive roots in Germany, Miller had long struggled to come to grips with her German origins. In her thesis, she found a way to embrace this heritage as she investigated how Berlin's Jews have overcome hardship and evolved in their faith, community and identity in the years during and since the Shoah.

Miller continues to address her own sense of faith, community and identity as an active supporter of the Jewish Healing Connections program at Jewish Family and Children's Services, Jewish day schools and other organizations. "I especially hope to awaken in others the realization that faith is a human resource that has great power in all of our lives for healing, for meaning and for peace," she says.

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