The Ford Foundation has granted $1 million for development purposes to Brandeis University, the only Jewish-sponsored non-sectarian university in the United States. The grant was announced today by Brandeis president, Morris B. Abram. Nathan Perlmutter, vice president for development at Brandeis, described it as “seed money” for staff expansion that will help Brandeis establish more effective patterns for raising funds among alumni and the American Jewish community at large.
He said that “While Brandeis University has rapidly and firmly taken its place among the premier colleges and universities of America, the hard fund-raising reality is that we have only 6,000 alumni, half of whom are not yet thirty years old. So it is that the Ford Foundation grant enabling us to reach our ‘foster alumni’ — the American Jewish community — is a creative and timely assist.” The University noted that its support potential in the Jewish community has been barely tapped. Out of a total American-Jewish population of nearly six million, only 45,000 persons have ever contributed to it and of that number, only 25,000 have given $100 or more, the University disclosed. Of the more populous states, only in Massachusetts have more than two percent of the Jewish population made donations to Brandeis.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
