WIM WIEWEL, new president of Portland State University, tells attendees at the Institute for Judaic Studies 26th Annual meeting atht he has five priorities for PSU.

 

Institute for Judaic Studies looks back on successful 26th year

“We should be proud of these accomplishments,” said Institute for Judaic Studies President Mark Kalenscher, reflecting on the Institute’s activities of the previous year at its 26th annual meeting Feb. 2.

The dinner meeting at Congregation Neveh Shalom featured an address by new Portland State University President Wim Wiewel (see story at left), election of directors and reflections by IJS Executive Director and founder Rabbi Joshua Stampfer.

Kalenscher spoke about the programming highlights including the Weekend in Quest, the Portland Jewish Film Festival, the 25th anniversary conference and banquet, and the launch of the writer’s and scholar’s series with a new focus on speakers from the Northwest.

Yet while Stampfer agreed those events reflected another successful year, he said the institute is much more than its programs.

“When we founded the institute, we thought of it as a catalyst, a stimulus for more Jewish studies in Portland and Oregon,” said Stampfer. “So much of what we do stimulates various forms of higher Jewish education in the community.”

Stampfer spoke especially of the role the institute played in stimulating bringing the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School to Portland and the creation of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at PSU.

He recognized Merritt Linn for bringing Melton to town and Robert Liebman for leading the drive to create a Judaic studies program at PSU.

“The institute constantly looks out and is aware of and sensitive to the needs to add Jewish learning and scholarship,” Stampfer said. “We will keep our eyes open to the future.”

New directors who will be part of that mission are Alan Ellis and Muriel Feuer.

For more information on IJS, call 503-246-8831, ext. 112.

New PSU president reveals relevant ties to Judaism

By DEBORAH MOON

article created on: 2009-02-15T00:00:00

Before launching into his standard message of his five priorities for Portland State University, new PSU President Wim Wiewel told members of the Institute for Judaic Studies that his background was “not irrelevant” to his address at the IJS 26th annual meeting.

Wiewel, who assumed the presidency of PSU in August, said he tries to “stay on message” and share his vision of the urban university’s strategic priorities. Yet, the Amsterdam native first shared his own exposure to Judaism as he delivered the Roscoe C. Nelson Jr. Memoiral Lecture Feb. 2.

Born in Amsterdam in 1950, Wiewel said, “In the Netherlands, Jewish presence is an echo, a shadow, a memory.”

But his understanding of the Jewish people changed when he moved to the United States and married a Jewish woman. The couple raised their children as Reform Jews, with one growing up to become a board member at her temple and the other making aliyah, before returning to Chicago where he became active with Chabad.

Now divorced and remarried to a woman of Dutch and Chinese Indonesian ancestry, Wiewel said “I do represent a bit of diversity … through my life experiences.”

He said he has always found the Jewish people to have a strong sense of roots and an awareness of history and place.

Regarding place, Wiewel said he feels lucky to have landed in a city so similar to the Amsterdam he grew up in. The rain, people riding bikes, a tolerant and liberal population, an occasionally “funky and weird” culture, make him feel right at home, he said. Add to that the fact that he firmly believes in urban universities, and the move to head PSU and “Portland is the perfect place for me to have landed.”

Returning to his standard message, Wiewel outlined his five themes that are strategic priorities at Portland State.

The first priority is to provide civic leadership through partnership.

“I believe the role of a university is to be deeply involved in its community,” he said.

Second, he wants to improve the quality of the student experience. With 27,000 students, PSU is the largest of the state universities in Oregon. Since PSU is largely a commuter campus, that requires a concerted effort, he said.

Third, he wants PSU to achieve global excellence.

“The people of Portland are entitled to excellent education,” he said. “We have to make choices, we can’t be excellent in everything. Specific centers (such as sustainability) are excellent.”

Fourth, expand educational opportunity. Wiewel said PSU is working in collaboration with community colleges to try and increase the percentage of Oregonians who earn associate’s and bachelor’s degrees.

Finally, Weiwel said PSU needs to maximize resources (both acquiring and managing) and efficiency.

“There are not enough resources to do what a modern state in a global economy needs to do,” he said, noting he believes funding is essential for higher education, but not at the expense of K-12 education or health care.

Working collaboratively with partners and finding private funding are essential in today’s economy, he said.