A gift of $4.3 million to support Jewish studies at Columbia University has been received from an anonymous donor, it was announced today by university president Michael Sovern. “This magnificent gift will enormously strengthen our ability to support excellent teaching and important research in Jewish studies,” he said.
The $4.3 million gift is a major contribution to the current Campaign for Columbia, a five-year effort to raise $400 million that began last Novermber. The gift will fund a professorship in American Jewish history and a second professorship in American Jewish history and a second professorship in Hebrew and comparative literature, Sovern said. It will also proviede endowment for the Center for Israel and Jewish Studies and for the Judaica collections in the university libraries.
Yosef Yerushalmi, Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society, and director of the Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, said the gift “will support both the breadth and depth of our programs.” He noted that Jewish studies at Columbia “derive strength from the departments of religion, history, linguistics, Middle East languages and cultures, and political science, and from the Middle East Institute of the School of Intermational and Public Affairs.”
A LONG TRADITION
Columbia is renowned for its long tradition of academic study and teaching of Jewish civilization. A lectureship in rabbinic literature and Semitic languages was endowed at Columbia in 1887 with money provided by Temple Emanu-El. Through the vigorous scholarly activity of its first incumbent, Richard Gottheil, Columbia quickly became a focal point for Jewish studies in the United States.
The Nathan Miller Professorship of Jewish History, Literature and Instifutions was established at Columbia in 1930, the first chair in Jewish history to be created at a secular university in the Western world. Baron, the world renowned historian, became its first incumbent. At the present time, Columbia is believed to have more graduates working in the field of Jewish studies than any other university in the world, with the exception of Israeli universities.
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