The launching of a $35,000,000 campaign for the expansion of the physical facilities of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, central institution of Conservative Judaism, was announced here today by Dr. Louis Finkelstein, chancellor of the Seminary. Albert A. List, a member of the JTS board of directors, will head the drive as national chairman. The campaign, Dr. Finkelstein said, will be part of the institution’s year-long observance of its 80th anniversary.
Speaking at a news conference, Dr. Finkelstein said that $35,000,000 must be raised in capital and endowment funds to enable the Seminary to construct three new buildings, repair and modernize existing facilities, provide for faculty growth, and offer scholarships that would attract qualified students to both the Rabbinical School and the Teachers Institute of the Seminary.
The three new structures, he said, will be a library building, an academic building, and residence halls for married rabbinical students and women students of the Teachers Institute. The latter structure, to be known as the Mathilde Schechter Residence Hall for Women, will be the first erected, with official ground-breaking ceremonies taking place next Sunday. Construction of the other buildings, and alterations on existing ones, will go forward as quickly as funds permit, he stated.
Mr. List disclosed that more than $5,000,000 toward the $35,000,000 goal already has been contributed by a few close friends of the Seminary, and that this will enable the institution to begin its building program this fall. He outlined the immediate and longrange plans for the fund-raising campaign, and stated that Jewish leaders throughout the country already have responded enthusiastically to the Seminary’s anniversary program. These leaders will, Mr. List said, serve on the national committee, and assume responsibility for the success of Seminary endeavors in their respective home communities.
Former Federal Judge Simon H. Rifkind, chairman of the board of directors of the Seminary, and Dr. Bernard Mandelbaum, provost of the Seminary, also attended the conference and issued statements on the importance of the 80th anniversary program and the activities which it will include.
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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.
