Max Ticktin

Max Ticktin was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1946.

His work in the 1960s with the Chicago Area Clergy Consultation Service on Problem Pregnancies, an underground abortion referral network, is part of the documentary, "From Danger to Dignity. "Max -- as he was known, rather than "Rabbi" or "Professor" -- had a lifelong love of baseball. He often wove baseball into conversations about everything from weather to Torah. This passion eventually led to his role in "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. " Max tied the baseball season to the Jewish calendar through a complex baseball pool, called "EPPYK [Erev Pesach to Post Yom Kippur]," in the early days of the Fabrangen Havurah, a Washington, DC Jewish fellowship of which he and his wife Esther were longtime and crucial members. Some of his last conversations were about baseball. Max served as Hillel director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 50s and the University of Chicago in the 60s.

He then joined the national Hillel organization in Washington, DC in 1972.

In 1980, his professional life shifted to teaching Yiddish and Hebrew literature at George Washington University.

He retired in 2014. Meanwhile, Max helped to found DC's Jewish Study Center, a non-denominational adult education program based on the Lehrhaus model of teacher as student and student as teacher. He taught a variety of subjects over the decades, often focusing on contemporary Hebrew poetry, particularly that of Yehuda Amichai, or on ancient text. Until very near his death, Max also led weekly Yiddish and Hebrew reading circles for adults in the DC area.