Chyet, Stanley F. 1931-2002

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CHYET, Stanley F. 1931-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born April 2, 1931, in Boston, MA; died of cancer October 19, 2002, in Sherman Oaks, CA. Historian, educator, and author. Rabbi Chyet was an expert on American Jewish history and helped establish and run the Skirball Cultural Center. He earned his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 1952 before attending Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, where he earned his master's degree and was ordained a rabbi in 1957, going on to receive his Ph.D. in 1960. From 1962 until 1976 he taught American Jewish history at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio while also working for the American Jewish Archives, where he was associate director from 1966 to 1976. In 1976 he moved to the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College, where he eventually became director of the Edgar F. Magnin School of Graduate Studies at the College Institute of Religion. In 1996, one year before retiring from Hebrew Union College, Chyet helped found the Skirball Cultural Center with Rabbi Uri D. Herscher. The center's goal is to educate the public about the history of Judaism and modern American Jewry. In addition to his teaching and administrative work, Chyet was acclaimed for his efforts as a translator and editor of Jewish literature, including two works with Warren Bargad: Israeli Poetry: A Contemporary Anthology (1986) and No Sign of Ceasefire: An Anthology of Contemporary Israeli Poetry (2002); he also wrote poetry, including his collection The Lord Has a Taste for Clowning (2003).