(JTA) — Steve Tisch, a film producer and New York Giants co-owner, has donated $10 million to Tel Aviv University to create a film and television school.
Tisch’s gift, which was first reported last week by Variety, allows the university to expand its film and television department to a film school, which will be called the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television.
Tisch, the scion of a philanthropic family, told Variety that he was inspired to make the gift after serving as the honorary chair in 2014 for the Tel Aviv Student Film Festival.
Previous film and television graduates of the program at Tel Aviv University include Oscar nominee Ari Folman, “Homeland” creator Gideon Raff and Hagai Levy, who co-created “In Treatment” and “The Affair.”
Tisch himself is an Oscar winner as a producer of “Forrest Gump,” and he has also produced other hits such as “Risky Business” and “American History X.” The Giants have won two Super Bowl rings while Tisch has served as the football team’s co-owner and chairman.
The Tisch family, which co-founded and still runs the Loews Corp. conglomerate, has been known for its generosity to Jewish and secular causes. New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts is named for Tisch’s father and uncle, Preston Robert Tisch and Laurence Tisch, respectively, who endowed the school in the 1980s, and his first cousin, James Tisch, is currently the CEO of Loews.
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