I ON CAMPUS I

Organizers of a
new program
hope to bring
the Jewish
community and
Wayne State
University
closer together

ELLYCE FIELD

I

Special to The Jewish News

his fall, with modest fanfare
and a two-page advertise-
ment in The Jewish News,.
Wayne State University un-
veiled the Center for Judaic
Studies.
•
Essentially a resource center, its
purpose is to promote and coordinate
interdisciplinary courses and pro-
grams within the university, the
Jewish community and the communi-
ty at large. The center does not offer
instruction, or grant degrees or cer-
tificates. It is both an academic and
community unit, bringing to the
university scholars, facilitating
dialogue between academic
disciplines and focusing intellectual
discussion on community concerns.
Close to three years in prepara-
tion, the center was established with
a three-year grant from the
unrestricted endowment fund of the
Jewish Welfare Federation's United
Jewish Charities.
Says Federation's executive vice
presidents Martin Kraar: "We funded
the seed money to get the program off
the ground. We are providing approx-
imately $40,000 each year for three
years. We're putting up two-thirds and
Wayne is putting up one-third of the
necessary funds!'
The Center for Judaic Studies is
largely the creation of two men: one
committed to scholarship, the other to
Jewish education. Jacob Lassner,
WSU's department chairman of Near
Eastern and Asian studies, and
George M. Zeltzer, chairman of the
Federated Endowment Fund. Lassner
is the center's director and, with
Zeltzer, co-chairs the center's advisory
board. -
For Lassner, a well-respected
Wayne State faculty member for 25
years, the Judaic Center project came
at the right time in his life. "At the
risk of sounding immodest, I've

tion. Historically, Detroi t' s Jewish
community has had a very close rela-
tionship with Wayne. Many communi-
ty leaders and professionals were
educated there, many of Wayne's pro-
fessors and administrative staff are
Jews; and Jewish philanthropy is evi-
dent throughout the university.
According to WSU President
David Adamany, "The university has
Jacob Lassner and George Zeltzer at Wayne State
a longstanding and stimulating rela-
tionship with the Jewish community.
The University Press publishes a
distinguished series of Judaica. The
generosity of the Jewish community
is everywhere evident on the Wayne
State campus, in buildings, scholar-
ship funds, support for research and
elsewhere!'
"It was our feeling!' says Zeltzer,
"that a center, acting as resource for
the university, its students, the
Jewish and general community and
acting as a major clearinghouse for
cultural and educational programs
within the university, would have the
greatest impact!"
Lassner and Zeltzer see the center
as fulfilling three obligations. One
obligation is to the university. "We
are very definitely an academic enter-
prise," says Lassner. "We are a unit
of the university that prides itself on
academic standards?'
A case in point is an international
already written six books and establishing, over the years, professor- conference on the Bible planned for
countless articles. I know I can do ships at the University of Michigan fall 1988, which Lassner and Zeltzer
serious (academic) work. I felt I had in history, Hebrew and Yiddish," hope will bring internationally and
a responsibility to the Jewish com- Zeltzer explains.
nationally renowned scholars to
munity to get involved with a project
"We made arrangements with the Wayne, as well as stimulate Bible
which would benefit the Jewish com- university that allowed us to pay a scholarship.
munity."
Pivotal to Lassner and Zeltzer's
specific professor's salary for three
For Zeltzer, with his long involve- years, with the agreement that after plans is the Wayne State University
ment in local and national cultural three years, that professor would Press. Under the directorship of Dr.
and educational institutions, it seem- receive tenure and his course would Robert Mandel, WSU Press has con-
ed appropriate to ask, "How can the become an accepted part of the cur- tinued to build an impressive list of
Jewish community become involved riculum. This arrangement benefited new Jewish studies and Holocaust
at Wayne?"
both the University of Michigan and titles, as well as reissue important
"Starting around the middle '60s, its large Jewish enrollment."
out-of-print works.
the Jewish Welfare Federation
"The Wayne State Press," says
Wayne State University, an urban
became involved with university university with a small Jewish enroll- Zeltzer, "has a goal to become the ma-
Jewish studies programs, ment, required a different plan of ac- jor Jewish press in the United States!'

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