National Committee for Bar-
Ilan University in Israel.
Rabbi Churgin saw his
dream come true and served as
BIU's first president, but he
died suddenly in 1957. Phil
Stollman became BIU's first
Global Board chairman that
same year, a position he held
until 1984, then serving as
honorary chairman for life.
In 1966, the university had
2,000 students and 360 facul-
ty, which grew to 5,000 stu-
dents after the decisive Israeli
victory in the June 1967 Six-
Day War spurred a wave of
aliyah. In the early 1970s, the
Dr. Gerald and Leila Stollman in Israel at the
Detroit community was key in
celebration of BIU's 50th anniversary in June
establishing the Judge
Theodore Levin Chair in Law,
which accelerated develop-
campus. Real estate was something
ment of Bar-Ilan's law school.
Phil knew about as he and Max's suc-
By the late 1980s, the small, experi-
cess in Metro Detroit real estate and
mental college had grown to a full-
construction during the 1940s and
fledged university of international rep-
`50s made the money they would use
utation, with 12,500 students in 35
to support their many philanthropies.
academic departments. By Phil
Phil located a suitable site for the
Stollman's 90th birthday in 1994,
campus north of Tel Aviv in Ramat
there were 16,000 students. Before he
Gan, but, according to Jerry, his dad
died in 1998, Stollman saw aliyah
had to convince Rabbi Churgin to
from Russia nearly double the student
include an orchard across the road in
population within a few years, as plans
the land allocation they requested and
to expand the Ramat Gan campus and
received from the government and the
its five regional colleges in Ashkelon,
Jewish National Fund in 1952.
Ariel, Acre, Safed and Tzemah were
BIU opened in 1955 with 56 stu-
developed.
dents, one building and six class-
Today, BIU has more than 32,000
rooms, and growth was slow. Max and
students: 22,000 in Ramat Gan and
Frieda Stollman spent six weeks in
10,000 between the other five cam-
Israel that year, working on campus
puses. The orchard Phil Stollman
plans after Max was appointed chair of
insisted upon for future growth is now
the Building Committee of the
the architecturally striking new North
Campus, home to nine buildings
opened since 2000, with two more
currently under construction.
Impressive Reputation
Jerry Stollman, himself a professor of
American government and macro-eco-
nomics at Oakland Community
College, cautions that the way you
judge a university is not how big it is,
but how good it is."
Bar-Ilan is home to respected
scientific research institutes in
physics, medicinal chemistry, mathe-
matics, brain research, economics,
strategic studies, developmental
psychology, archeology, Jewish law
and philosophy. The new Gonda
Multidisciplinary Brain Research
Center has drawn top academics and
researchers from all over the world for
groundbreaking work on Alzheimer's
and brain tumors.
"The jubilee year is a wonderful
opportunity to thank Detroiters for
their leadership and long-term com-
mitment to the university," says Les
Goldstein, Bar-Ilan's local executive
director. "Our goal is to secure medi-
um and large gifts to materially and
substantially increase the strength of
the university's research and academic
quality. We want to continue to
enhance our faculty, our doctoral pro-
grams and our student body generally,
while providing state-of-the-art
resources essential to conduct cutting-
edge research."
A challenge, Goldstein says, is one
that's common to all local non-profits,
and that's to "expand efforts in a
Jewish community that's not growing
but reducing, and with unknown
Jewish interests from the next genera-
tion."
Goldstein says the university has
just taken the unprecedented step of
renewing BIU President Professor
Moshe Kaveh's contract for a fourth
term, which the board of trustees
extended to five years from the normal
three-year terms.
"Besides being a brilliant physicist,
he is a terrific voice for moderation
and reason within the Jewish world,
particularly between the religious and
the non-religious," Goldstein says. "It
is a credit to the university that we are
led by a man who accepts Jews and
others as they are. Kaveh envisioned,
funded, built and fully activated the
new campus.
As the campus grows, support now
comes from many sources beyond
Detroit, but Bar-Ilan will always be
Detroit's proud legacy. 0
"
Marking 50 Years
.
The Stollmans and Nusbaums
continue to work on behalf of the
university. Gerald and Leila Stoll-
man and Bernard and Barbara
Stollman are co-chairing Bar-Ilan
University's Sept. 18 Jubilee
Reunion Gala together with Joe and
Fran Fetter and Irving and Barbara
Nusbaum. The black-tie-preferred
dinner will feature comedian Rabbi
Bob Alper at congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield. For more
information, call (248) 540-8900.
Bar Elan Changed My Life'
Lea Stollman Luger, development director of Yad
Ezra, Metro Detroit's kosher food pantry, spent a
year at Bar-Ilan from 1975-76 in a program for for-
eign students. Phil and Max Stollman encouraged
their niece to go, and it changed her life.
Not only did she meet Richard Luger, who she
would marry in 1979, but she adopted an observant
lifestyle she had previously not found to be comfort-
able or meaningful.
.
"The year was a really turning point for me reli-
giously," Luger says. "I began to see the positive side
of living a more observant life. Instead of Judaism
being presented to me as a list of things that you
can't do, I was able to witness and participate in all
the positive aspects of Judaism."
She particularly enjoyed keeping Shabbat with
family and friends. "To me, keeping Shabbos is a
reminder that though we can master our environ-
ment, though we are as good as we are, we know
there is a power greater than us. It puts life into per-
spective."
Luger last visited Bar-Ilan in 2003. As fondly as
she remembered things, she found it to be even bet-
ter. "I was incredibly impressed with how the cam-
pus and student body has grown; and it seemed
more inclusive that it was 30 years ago," she says,
noting that when she was there, women couldn't
wear pants on campus.
"For students who want a more observant environ-
ment, BIU can certainly provide that, but you can also
be non-observant and take advantage of the wonderful
programs that they offer and feel comfortable and
excel. When I was there, the university tried to do
both, but my guess is now it does it even better."
BAR
ILAN on page 64
Richard Luger and Lea Stollman, pictured here at
Bar-Ilan in 1976, met at the university and were
married in 1979.
8/25
2005
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