Dr. Emilie Townes, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School, presented the school’s 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award to Rabbi Stephen Lewis Fuchs at a dinner held in Nashville, Tenn. on Oct. 17. Fuchs is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford and former president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. He currently serves as spiritual leader of Bat Yam Temple of The Islands in Sanibel Island, Florida.

“My D.Min dissertation from 1992 became the basis of the popular book I published in 2014, What’s in It for Me? Finding Ourselves in Biblical Narratives, which has been translated into German, Russian and Spanish,” Fuchs said in accepting his award. “I am most grateful for the opportunity Vanderbilt gave me to deepen my ability to understand and interpret biblical stories.”