PSU’s Judaic studies grows faster than planners dreamed

By Deborah Moon

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As a graduate student 10 years ago, Linda Maizels helped lay the foundation for a Judaic studies program at Oregon’s largest university; now she has returned to serve as community outreach coordinator for what has grown into the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University.
   
“This is fulfilling everything I had thought would be important in a Judaic studies program,” said Maizels, who spent five years in Israel after leaving PSU and returned as part of the department’s adjunct faculty in 2005. “I don’t think I could have imagined everything that happened while I was gone. It has become a destination for Judaic studies.”
   
“It’s so impressive to see what (Academic Director) Michael Weingrad, (Community Outreach Director) Aaron Pearlman and (founding Academic Director) Bob Liebman have built on that tiny foundation to create a large house,” said Maizels, who was hired with a grant from Libby and Richard Solomon in 1997 to help the committee studying the creation of a Judaic studies program at PSU.

     
“We are implementing the vision of Harold, Arlene and Jordan Schnitzer and now Lorry Lokey,” said Pearlman, who joined the department in summer 2005. “It’s exciting for the three of us (Weingrad, Maizels and Pearlman) to help implement and define the vision that these donors have given us the opportunity for.”
   
In 2002, the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation stepped forward with a $1 million challenge grant that enabled PSU to develop its Judaic studies program. The successful match of that grant completes funding for two full professorships in the Judaic studies program, of which Weingrad was the first. Weingrad said the university has committed to hiring a professor in pre-modern Jewish history by the fall of 2010.
   
This year, philanthropist Lorry I. Lokey’s $1.5 million gift created the Lorry I. Lokey Chair in Judaic Studies, a position set to be filled in 2008.
   
Fundraising has raised $400,000 of the needed $750,000 to enable the department to hire a fourth full-time Judaic studies professor, which will create a fully staffed department by 2011. The fourth position will be the Rabbi Stampfer Professorship in Israel Studies.
   
“When we have four full-time professors, we are going to be a national-quality Judaic studies program,” said Weingrad. “We will attract greater numbers of Jewish students to PSU and show them how great Portland is and hope they will stay and contribute to this community.”
   
Pearlman agreed: “Our primary purpose is to have a solid academic program; but for the Jewish community, there is another bone … students connecting to the Jewish community.”
   
“The Lokey gift makes it possible for us to talk about long-term goals, not just dreams,” said Maizels.
   
Fundraising success has enabled the department to meet some of those goals early, said Pearlman. 
   
For instance, Weingrad said that he had hoped to have 40 students studying Hebrew by 2011. This year, 25 students are enrolled in first-year Hebrew, 15 in second year and six in third year, for a total of 46 Hebrew students. Both Weingrad and Pearlman attributed achieving that goal at least in part to scholarships created by Rosy Rosenberg and Ellen Lipman for second- and third-year Hebrew students.
   
Weingrad said that after Pearlman’s success in achieving fund-raising goals for Judaic studies, he has been named director of development for the entire College of Arts and Sciences. Pearlman will retain his ties to Judaic studies in an advisory capacity as community outreach director.
   
“It’s a big positive for Judaic studies to have a strong advocate and partner within the development office,” said Weingrad.
   
In contrast to the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Oregon, which has a Medieval and rabbinic focus, the PSU department focuses primarily on modern Jewish studies, including modern Hebrew. U of O teaches biblical Hebrew.
   
Maizels said that was a deliberate decision by the committee in the late 1990s, which wanted to intersect, not clash with, the U of O program.
   
In addition to working in concert with the U of O program, Pearlman said PSU has “collaborated with almost every Jewish organization and synagogue in town.”
   
Weingrad said continuing to solidify those partnerships is one of the long-term goals of the Judaic Studies Department.
   
“It’s great to have Linda to deal with the community partnerships that have been growing and advancing,” said Weingrad.
   
On Oct. 14, the Judaic studies program will partner with PSU’s Middle East Study Center and the Institute for Judaic Studies to present a lecture by translator Peter Cole on “The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492.”
   
Another long-term goal also depends on strong partnerships. Weingrad said he hopes to see the department take the lead in creating a Portland Hillel, which would be based at PSU but serve Jewish students at all institutions of higher education in the metro area.
   
“These goals are supported by our excellent Judaic Studies Campaign Committee chaired by Rob Shlachter and Bob Philip,” said Weingrad. “Having a past president and current president of the Jewish Federation (of Greater Portland) as our co-chairs gives us strong advocates in the community. Originally the committee was chaired by Judy and Garry Kahn, who got it on the map.”