Roosevelt University announced today a gift of $25,000 for the establishment of the David H. and Milton Ratner Chair in Jewish Culture and Literature at the school. The program of Jewish studies, leading to a baccalaureate degree in such studies, will be among the few in the United States offered at the university level and the only one in Illinois.
David H. Ratner, a freight industrialist, is a member of B’nai B’rith and has been active in philanthropy in Chicago. Dr. Milton D. Ratner is a member of the Chicago Medical Society. Dr. I. Chaim Pomerantz, associate professor of Jewish Culture and Literature at the university, has been named director of the program. Dr. Pomerantz is president of the Chicago branch of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and a national board member of YIVO.
Under the program, regular academic courses will be offered next fall in Jewish culture and literature in both the Old World and the new. Additional funds will be sought to endow the curriculum and guarantee its perpetuity, University officials said.
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