EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK i For 35 years helping people with disabilities • be fully included in community life (yin A Jewish Studies Champion A s undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury under President watch, the Jewish Studies program has helped counter assimi- Reagan, M. Peter McPherson worked with the Israeli lation and apathy by deepening Jewish identity among partici- government and U.S. Jewish leaders to cut the interest pating Jewish students. rate on Israel's debt from 13 to 6 percent, saving the Jewish The evening of Dec. 15 was cold and snowy, but I was state $1 billion. determined to attend a farewell reception for Joanne and Peter As president of Michigan State University, McPherson guid- McPherson hosted by metro Detroit alumni at the Bloomfield ed the largest building boom in the 150-year history of the Hills home of Rhonda and Gary Ran. East Lansing campus, launched a $1.2 billion Capital "One of my proudest activities has been to help the MSU Campaign, shaped the study abroad program into a national Jewish Studies program become firmly established in our cur- model, added a law school, and saw Jewish enrollment climb riculum both intellectually and fiscally," McPherson said, to nearly 3,000 — 43 percent of the nearly 7,000 Jewish stu- causing a swell of approval to cascade through the crowd. dents at the University of Michigan in Ann "Much of the progress in Jewish education at MSU, all that Arbor. has been accomplished with the Jewish Studies program, After the second Gill f War, President Bush including the new Hillel House, could not have happened tapped McPherson to rebuild Iraq's currency without the support and leadership of President McPherson and banking system and to bring foreign and First Lady Joanne," Serling said. "It is a wonder that he investment to the former anti-Zionist dicta- would have had the time to work so closely with the Jewish torship of Saddam Hussein. community." Retiring on Dec. 31 after 11 years at the McPherson understood having a strong base of Jewish stu- helm of MSU, McPherson, 64, is moving dents from Michigan and elsewhere, just as MSU had when ROBERT A. with his wife, Joanne, to Arlington, Va. He'll he was a student 45 years earlier. Such a base not only pro- SKLAR concentrate on the Partnership to Cut vides diversity, but also draws more Jewish students, who col- Editor Hunger in Africa, which he co- lectively are high achievers, campus leaders and founded, and he'll advise Congress caring alumni. Affirmation of this understanding on overseas study programs. MSU, for example, came in 1999 when, during the genocide arising hopes to again grant financial aid and scholarships in the former Yugoslavia, McPherson invited for study in Israel by 2006; such study ended when Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, Palestinian terror broke out in 2001. to be MSU commencement speaker. For her part, McPherson, who is Christian, jump-started the Joanne McPherson has been a regular visitor and Jewish Studies program at MSU in 1998 when he participant at Hillel House. created a lay advisory board and authorized the first I was touched when Serling told the 71 guests two staff positions — for American Jewish History at the Rans' home about Peter McPherson's heart- and Culture, and Hebrew Language and felt support of Israel. Serling, his wife, Elaine, and Literature. Up to 800 students, some not Jewish, friends have endowed a chair for Israel Studies at now enroll each year in Jewish Studies courses, M Peter McPherson MSU. Bloomfield Hills philanthropist Ed Levy Jr. which are spread over eight departments and three has endowed a scholarship fund for study in Israel. colleges. The courses wisely focus on Jewish life in Serling told how McPherson, while waiting for a North America and Israel; European Jewry would not offer ride to Amman as he ended his four-month stay as part of the the same resonance. coalition reconstruction team in Iraq, spoke by audio feed to a Students can't major in Jewish Studies, but they can special- largely non-Jewish crowd back at MSU. Yet he didn't hesitate ize in it. I applaud all four directors over the years — Barry to say, "I have a vision of Iraq as a free, democratic country Gross, Steve Weiland, Keely Stauter-Halsted and now Ken with a growing, successful capitalistic economy like Israel." Waltzer. A new initiative is the East European Jewish Studies Serling applauded McPherson's foresight. "Through the summer study at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. seed that you planted," Serling said, "we have now raised nearly $4 million for Jewish Studies and have much to show for it." A Strong Supporter Retirement aside, McPherson put the call out Beyond anchoring Jewish Studies, McPherson has for another $3 million to enrich Jewish Studies, spoken up against anti-Zionism and Jew hating. including a fourth staff position: Jewish Religious Shortly after arriving at MSU in 1993, and Philosophical Thought. "We will continue to McPherson was aghast when a brick was thrown at strengthen Jewish Studies as an academic initia- a window at Hillel House. He said MSU would not tive, raise its national visibility and expand its tolerate anti-Semitic or racist acts on the 45,000- impact," McPherson said. "President Designate student campus. Lou Anna Simon shares my commitment." At the 2002 opening of the new Hillel, he Rabbi Jason Miller, assistant director of the U- renounced protests around the country calling for M Hillel, graduated from MSU in 1998 with a Michael Serling universities to divest of their investments in Israel. degree in international relations. "I owe much of For the past five years, McPherson made it a my motivation to become a rabbi to the professors point to include the Detroit Jewish News as a stop on his annu- in the Jewish Studies program," he told me on Sunday. al Oakland County visit with Jewish alumni. I felt proud to "There has certainly been a concerted effort to enhance and be a Jew as he spoke of building Jewish Studies from scratch augment the state of Jewish life on the MSU campus," he with the help of an active advisory board led by Birmingham added, "and the Jewish Studies program has led the way along attorney Michael Serling. with MSU Michigan Jewry owes McPherson, a gentle giant of acade- The Jewish Studies program will forever be an integral corn- mia, a sincere yasher koach for a deed well done! Under his ponent of Peter McPherson's MSU legacy. II arc At JARC, we take Tributes personally... PERSONAL ATTENTION •aW By Mail, Phone, Fax or Online PERSONAL GREETINGS Every Card Uniquely Yours PERSONAL SERVICE Quick Processing PERSONAL CARE For the Men, Women and Children We Serve 248.538.6611 Fax 248.538.6615 wvvvvjarc.org 30301 Northwestern Suite 100 Farmington Hills, MI 48334 12/24 2004 799310..1/ 5