UT Jewish studies on track to become $12 million program
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Thu, Oct 28, 2010 |
Schusterman Center investing in professorships, programming
The state’s flagship university aims to be a hub for Texas Jewish history education and programming.
The University of Texas at Austin, through the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, also plans to expand its academic and cultural offerings related to the study of Israel and Zionism.
These investments will be made possible by a multimillion-dollar challenge grant, initiated by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. According to SCJS’s director, Robert Abzug, Ph.D., the center has raised $5.8 million of the $6 million needed to maximize the grant’s dollar-for-dollar match.
The center has until the end of December 2010 to raise the remaining $200,000 from local donors.
“I’m confident now that we’ll be a $12 million program,” said Abzug, who is UT’s Oliver H. Radkey Regents Professor of History and American Studies, during a visit to Houston earlier this month.
“This means that not only have we [the center], over the past three years, done a lot at UT with the funds that we’ve had, but now we’ll be able to do hiring, outreach and public programming with extraordinary width and depth,” he said.
New professorships
Though UT currently faces budget restraints and has instituted a virtual hiring freeze, the Schusterman challenge grant will allow SCJS to bring in new faculty. The plan is to add one new Jewish studies professor each year for the next five years.
Abzug said that five endowed professorships already have been identified. Two are yet to be named; the three that have been named are:
• North American Jewish Studies
• Jewish Arts & Culture
• Zionism Studies / Israel & the Diaspora
Close to home, the center is making a major push to expand teaching, research and outreach of Texas Jewish history. The goal is to make UT the epicenter for scholars and students interested in exploring the Jewish experience in the Lone Star State.
As an American historian and recognized authority on American Jewish culture, Abzug explained why the center is investing in this effort.
“There’s no more unique community than the community of Texas Jews,” said Abzug, an East Coast-born Texan-by-choice.
“The Texas Jewish community has accomplished more than many others. It has this history of small-town roots, in which Jews really took a part in modernizing Texas through commerce: going from being peddlers to becoming department store owners, to bringing modern infrastructure and institutions to rural, small-town communities,” he said.
“It’s also the most intermarried community I’ve ever come across. It’s both part of the broader world of Texas and a very real and solid community of its own,” he added.
“We’re drawing this focus not simply because we’re here in Texas. Rather, it’s because the national significance of Texas Jewish history is, as of yet, unminded and unrecognized,” he said.
SCJS plans to secure funds for a Texas Jewish history professorship. The center also wants to raise money for a research and outreach fund to support in-state and out-of-state study of the subject.
“I would love for us to create a program, a short course in Texas Jewish history, that could travel,” Abzug said. “A synagogue or a community or a Christian church that wanted to know who all these Jews in Texas are, we could tell them.”
SCJS also is in talks with UT’s Business School to create a lecture series that would spotlight Texas Jewish entrepreneurs, many of whom own and operate multi-generational businesses in the state.
“This has got to be one of the great strands of Texas Jewish history: the business worlds that were created and the ways in which that aided Texas, small-town Texans of all kinds, to enter the modern world,” Abzug said.
Israel, arts & culture included
Besides local history, the center plans to invest in its Israel-related curriculum.
Abzug noted that Zionism can be a much misunderstood and, at times, maligned movement.
“What we’re going to try to do is increase our courses that have to do not only with Israel, but also that have to do with world Zionism and the history of Zionism,” he said.
The center is willing to tackle accusations like “Zionism is racism” by making available to students courses, professors and speakers who are balanced and not agenda-driven.
“This is needed on two levels,” Abzug said. “It’s needed because of the political situation. On another level, the idea that one can talk about Jewish history or even world history without dealing with Zionism is ludicrous.”
UT’s interest in increasing Israel-related curriculum follows a national trend, according to a recent study by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.
“Searching for the Study of Israel: A Report on the Teaching of Israel on U.S. College Campuses 2008-09” reports that the number of U.S. college courses related to Israel increased by 69 percent over the past four years. The report also indicates that the Arab-Israeli conflict is not the major focus of most courses currently being taught on Israel.
UT and SCJS are contributing to this trend on all fronts. The center hosts Israeli writers, speakers and visiting scholars, and currently is developing more programming with partner organizations and institutions, in the arena of Jewish arts and culture.
For example, the center is working with Texas Performing Arts to host a four-day scholarly conference on the music, art and the fate of the people of Terezn (a “model” Nazi concentration camp in present-day Czech Republic, which had a high concentration of child prisoners and, despite being a site connected to more than 90,000 Jewish deaths, had a vibrant arts scene).
Abzug said that the opening and closing performances of this conference will be part of TPA’s regular subscription series, thereby bringing in a whole new audience. The conference also will include photographic exhibitions by fine art and documentary photographer Loli Kantor and by UT photojournalism program chair Dennis Darling. Both photographers have done series on Terezn.
SCJS also has been working on collaborative programming with Rice University’s new Jewish studies program. In April, the two will co-sponsor an initiative in Austin for Jewish studies scholars throughout Texas.
Community of scholars
“Our mission is to provide good courses and programming, to support research and to provide public outreach. But, we’re also wanting to become a major visible player in the world of Jewish studies,” Abzug said.
Toward that end, SCJS, next August, will host a yearly conference called the Early Modern Workshop in Jewish History. Top scholars in the field will attend and participate, Abzug said.
In Spring 2012, the center will host a research conference that aims to stake out UT’s position as “the crossroads” for Western Hemisphere Jewish studies. The conference will feature three Canadian, three U.S. and three Latin American scholars. Abzug said the conference will be atypical in that “everybody will attend everybody else’s papers. We’ll be sharing time together and eating together. It’ll be a community.”
With quality programming, interdisciplinary curriculum and faculty, extensive resources and a commitment to outreach, Abzug said the public can look forward to great things from SCJS and its efforts to re-pioneer Jewish studies in Texas at UT.
About UT’s Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies
Over the past few decades, Jewish studies at UT has grown from being a concentration to an integrative major and now to a full-fledged center under the auspices of the Liberal Arts college.
The center, established three years ago, offers a multidisciplinary curriculum, currently with almost 30 cross-listed courses, that explores Jewish life, culture and religion.
Professors teaching at the center hail from a wide variety of fields. Besides faculty resources, SCJS has direct access to major papers and extensive achieve materials housed at UT libraries.
Enrollment in the center has been strong – among Jewish and non-Jewish students, alike. SCJS will graduate its first solely Jewish studies major this December.
For information about SCJS, visit utexas.edu/cola/centers/scjs.
The state’s flagship university aims to be a hub for Texas Jewish history education and programming.
The University of Texas at Austin, through the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, also plans to expand its academic and cultural offerings related to the study of Israel and Zionism.
These investments will be made possible by a multimillion-dollar challenge grant, initiated by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. According to SCJS’s director, Robert Abzug, Ph.D., the center has raised $5.8 million of the $6 million needed to maximize the grant’s dollar-for-dollar match.
The center has until the end of December 2010 to raise the remaining $200,000 from local donors.
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Robert H. Abzug |
“This means that not only have we [the center], over the past three years, done a lot at UT with the funds that we’ve had, but now we’ll be able to do hiring, outreach and public programming with extraordinary width and depth,” he said.
New professorships
Though UT currently faces budget restraints and has instituted a virtual hiring freeze, the Schusterman challenge grant will allow SCJS to bring in new faculty. The plan is to add one new Jewish studies professor each year for the next five years.
Abzug said that five endowed professorships already have been identified. Two are yet to be named; the three that have been named are:
• North American Jewish Studies
• Jewish Arts & Culture
• Zionism Studies / Israel & the Diaspora
Close to home, the center is making a major push to expand teaching, research and outreach of Texas Jewish history. The goal is to make UT the epicenter for scholars and students interested in exploring the Jewish experience in the Lone Star State.
As an American historian and recognized authority on American Jewish culture, Abzug explained why the center is investing in this effort.
“There’s no more unique community than the community of Texas Jews,” said Abzug, an East Coast-born Texan-by-choice.
“The Texas Jewish community has accomplished more than many others. It has this history of small-town roots, in which Jews really took a part in modernizing Texas through commerce: going from being peddlers to becoming department store owners, to bringing modern infrastructure and institutions to rural, small-town communities,” he said.
“It’s also the most intermarried community I’ve ever come across. It’s both part of the broader world of Texas and a very real and solid community of its own,” he added.
“We’re drawing this focus not simply because we’re here in Texas. Rather, it’s because the national significance of Texas Jewish history is, as of yet, unminded and unrecognized,” he said.
SCJS plans to secure funds for a Texas Jewish history professorship. The center also wants to raise money for a research and outreach fund to support in-state and out-of-state study of the subject.
“I would love for us to create a program, a short course in Texas Jewish history, that could travel,” Abzug said. “A synagogue or a community or a Christian church that wanted to know who all these Jews in Texas are, we could tell them.”
SCJS also is in talks with UT’s Business School to create a lecture series that would spotlight Texas Jewish entrepreneurs, many of whom own and operate multi-generational businesses in the state.
“This has got to be one of the great strands of Texas Jewish history: the business worlds that were created and the ways in which that aided Texas, small-town Texans of all kinds, to enter the modern world,” Abzug said.
Israel, arts & culture included
Besides local history, the center plans to invest in its Israel-related curriculum.
Abzug noted that Zionism can be a much misunderstood and, at times, maligned movement.
“What we’re going to try to do is increase our courses that have to do not only with Israel, but also that have to do with world Zionism and the history of Zionism,” he said.
The center is willing to tackle accusations like “Zionism is racism” by making available to students courses, professors and speakers who are balanced and not agenda-driven.
“This is needed on two levels,” Abzug said. “It’s needed because of the political situation. On another level, the idea that one can talk about Jewish history or even world history without dealing with Zionism is ludicrous.”
UT’s interest in increasing Israel-related curriculum follows a national trend, according to a recent study by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.
“Searching for the Study of Israel: A Report on the Teaching of Israel on U.S. College Campuses 2008-09” reports that the number of U.S. college courses related to Israel increased by 69 percent over the past four years. The report also indicates that the Arab-Israeli conflict is not the major focus of most courses currently being taught on Israel.
UT and SCJS are contributing to this trend on all fronts. The center hosts Israeli writers, speakers and visiting scholars, and currently is developing more programming with partner organizations and institutions, in the arena of Jewish arts and culture.
For example, the center is working with Texas Performing Arts to host a four-day scholarly conference on the music, art and the fate of the people of Terezn (a “model” Nazi concentration camp in present-day Czech Republic, which had a high concentration of child prisoners and, despite being a site connected to more than 90,000 Jewish deaths, had a vibrant arts scene).
Abzug said that the opening and closing performances of this conference will be part of TPA’s regular subscription series, thereby bringing in a whole new audience. The conference also will include photographic exhibitions by fine art and documentary photographer Loli Kantor and by UT photojournalism program chair Dennis Darling. Both photographers have done series on Terezn.
SCJS also has been working on collaborative programming with Rice University’s new Jewish studies program. In April, the two will co-sponsor an initiative in Austin for Jewish studies scholars throughout Texas.
Community of scholars
“Our mission is to provide good courses and programming, to support research and to provide public outreach. But, we’re also wanting to become a major visible player in the world of Jewish studies,” Abzug said.
Toward that end, SCJS, next August, will host a yearly conference called the Early Modern Workshop in Jewish History. Top scholars in the field will attend and participate, Abzug said.
In Spring 2012, the center will host a research conference that aims to stake out UT’s position as “the crossroads” for Western Hemisphere Jewish studies. The conference will feature three Canadian, three U.S. and three Latin American scholars. Abzug said the conference will be atypical in that “everybody will attend everybody else’s papers. We’ll be sharing time together and eating together. It’ll be a community.”
With quality programming, interdisciplinary curriculum and faculty, extensive resources and a commitment to outreach, Abzug said the public can look forward to great things from SCJS and its efforts to re-pioneer Jewish studies in Texas at UT.
About UT’s Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies
Over the past few decades, Jewish studies at UT has grown from being a concentration to an integrative major and now to a full-fledged center under the auspices of the Liberal Arts college.
The center, established three years ago, offers a multidisciplinary curriculum, currently with almost 30 cross-listed courses, that explores Jewish life, culture and religion.
Professors teaching at the center hail from a wide variety of fields. Besides faculty resources, SCJS has direct access to major papers and extensive achieve materials housed at UT libraries.
Enrollment in the center has been strong – among Jewish and non-Jewish students, alike. SCJS will graduate its first solely Jewish studies major this December.
For information about SCJS, visit utexas.edu/cola/centers/scjs.
