News Brief

A University of Maryland alumnus will donate $1.5 million to his alma mater to create a chair in Israel Studies. Jack Kay, a resident of Chevy Chase, Md., and Palm Beach, Fla., and president of the Kay Management Co., is giving the gift in part with the Kay Family Foundation to endow the the Abraham S. and Jack Kay Chair in Israel Studies. The position will complement a growing Middle Eastern studies initiatives on campus, but Eric Zakim, executive director of the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, said the chair will focus on Israeli history rather than the conflict with Palestinians. “We’re not trying to fill a narrowly defined niche,” Zakim said. “We’re open to scholars who push the boundaries of history and also look at questions from a sociological or political science perspective.” The new chair will serve in the Israel Studies, Jewish Studies and History departments. “There’s a major trend on U.S. campuses to expand Israel studies and to create endowed chairs in the field, and we’re in the forefront — but we’re going about it differently here,” Jewish Studies director Hayim Lapin said. “We want to encourage academic study of the Middle East in the broadest sense, so that national politics doesn’t overshadow rigorous studies from all the other vital fields and so that the histories of Israel and the Jews are integral parts of Middle East studies.”