Jewish studies program dedicated

President William Brody, history professor David Nirenberg and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Daniel Weiss dedicated the new Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program at an inaugural ceremony attended by faculty, staff, students and alumni at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, in Bloomberg Hall's Shafler Auditorium.

The audience was greeted by President Brody, who noted that the dedication of the program came only nine days after breaking ground for the new Hillel building.

"The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program will enrich intellectual life at the University and enrich cultural life in the Baltimore-Washington area," Brody said in his remarks.

He then introduced Nirenberg as the new director of the program.

"The establishment of a Jewish studies program at Johns Hopkins has been a dream of the faculty, students and members of the Baltimore community for years," Nirenberg said.

The new program was created by a grant from the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Charitable Foundation, a philanthropic foundation created by Leonard Stulman, a 1925 Hopkins graduate, who was a businessman, philanthropist and patron of the arts.

Over the years, Stulman and his wife Helen have made many generous donations to the University, including a professorship in history, a historical lecture series and several humanities fellowships.

This latest gift from the Stulman Charitable Foundation will fund the establishment of new classes, fellowships for research and travel funds, which will form a minor starting next year and perhaps eventually a major, according to Nirenberg. The program also creates two new professorships and three visiting professorships in Jewish studies.

Professor Nirenberg then introduced Columbia University professor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi who, Nirenberg noted, had skipped his grandson's bris to give the inaugural lecture for the Stulman Jewish Studies Program.

Yerushalmi, professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society and head of the Center of Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia, has had a diverse and wildly successful career as a scholar in Jewish Studies and has published six books on various topics in the subject including Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, winner of the 1983 National Jewish Book Award for history.

"The last time I went to Johns Hopkins was in 1950, and I came for a varsity intercollegiate debate," Yerushalmi noted in his opening remarks. "I have conveniently forgotten who won the debate, but I am honored to be here."

Yerushalmi then gave an 80-minute lecture about the relationship between the state and the Jewish community from ancient Alexandria to modern Europe.

The dedication was concluded by remarks from Weiss, who called Yerushalmi's lecture "a masterful treatment of Jewish diplomacy." Weiss lauded the speakers and organizers of the ceremony, adding that "the Jewish Studies Program [has] been established and dedicated at the highest possible level."

He then invited all those in attendance to a reception held in the lobby of the Bloomberg Building, where refreshments and desserts were served.

This new program will be enriching for the Hopkins community, leading to a new minor in Jewish Studies starting next year, according to Nirenberg. Students have been taking advantage of the new opportunities available through the program since it was implemented in April of last year. Currently, Nirenberg said, students are doing their senior thesis on video taped testimony of the Holocaust from local residents and on the Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa and it's stance on issues of anti-Semitism.