Samuel Melton Gift of $500,000 Endows Jewish Chair of Jewish History at Ohio State University

Samuel M. Melton, Columbus industrialist and philanthropist, has given $500,000 to endow the Samuel and Esther Melton Chair of Jewish history and Studies of the Ohio State University department of history, the University announced today. A professorship established in 1965 by Mr. Melton will be redesignated as the endowed chair. The chair is named for Mr. Melton and his late wife.

Mr. Melton was graduated from Ohio State University in 1923. He is president of the Melton Research Center at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York and a founder of the Harry S. Truman Center for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem. The Samuel and Esther Melton Vocational High School in Bat Yam, Israel, for which he gave a construction grant in 1965, will be opened in September.

The Melton Chair will be filled by Dr. Zvi Ankori, formerly of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was appointed to the Melton Professorship in 1966. Another faculty member will be Assistant Prof. Robert Chazan, who teaches Jewish history in the history department.

Mr. Melton is the first individual to provide full endowment of a faculty chair at the university.

Instruction in Hebrew and Arabic languages and literature was begun at Ohio State University in 1967. The Hebrew program is headed by Asst. Prof. Yaakov Mashiah, an additional assistant professor of Hebrew and two full-time lecturers will be added this fall. Enrollment in the Hebrew courses next year has been set at approximately 150 students. The Arabic program is headed by Asst. Prof. Frederic Cadora, assisted by a lecturer.

Dr. Ankori is chiefly interested in the historic encounter between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Eastern Mediterranean. “If at Ohio State we can establish a neutral ground for Israeli and Arab intellectuals,” he said, “we will have contributed importantly to world peace.”