Photo Credit: Meryl Schenker Photography
By Janis Siegel, Correspondent, The Jewish Sound
Although turning 40 is usually a time for review, the theme of the University of Washington Stroum Center for Jewish Studies’ 40th Spring Gala in May is “looking forward” even as it celebrates its last four decades of immense growth.
In 1974, now-retired UW English professor Edward Alexander mastered the art of persuasion by convincing the dean of the History department to adopt a Jewish history class.
Today, the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies (which recently became a center after years at the Jewish Studies Program) has one of the largest collections of historic Sephardic Ladino publications in the country as part of its new Sephardic Studies Program, and offers a wide range of community programming.
“We were not really thinking about a degree-granting program at the time or of a program in which people could major,” said Alexander in a 31-page interview from 1981 preserved in the Jewish Archives of the Washington State Jewish Historical Society. “We were thinking of the enrichment of the curriculum by the addition of Jewish materials in various disciplines.”
In 2014, Noam Pianko, Samuel N. Stroum Chair of Jewish Studies, told The Jewish Sound that the program has become internationally respected.
“We now have what I believe is the largest Ladino library in the United States that’s been uncovered the last few years in this community,” said Pianko. “We teach over a thousand students every year and we have scholars that are doing amazing research and publishing award-winning books and articles.”
As the 225 students and faculty expected to attend the milestone event May 13 enjoy cocktails and dinner, the Center will show off its Stroum book series and its Sephardic Treasures, a collection of Ladino books and artifacts from around the community gathered under the leadership of Devin Naar, Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Chair of the Sephardic Studies Program.
Remarks by Dr. Robert Stacy, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a former chair of the Jewish Studies Program, will be followed by comments from Resat Kasaba, the director of the Heny M. Jackson School of International Studies, which houses the Center.
Keynote speaker Deborah Lipstadt, the first Jewish Studies professor hired at the UW in 1974 and renowned expert on the Holocaust, will be coming from Cambridge, England for the evening.
“I would not do this if it were not a celebration of what I had the privilege of helping to begin 40 years ago,” Lipstadt told The Jewish Sound in an email. “It’s a real homecoming for me.”
“Everyone — colleagues, the university administration, and the Jewish community — was rooting for us,” she said. “The students were so excited about the program. When I see some of those students there is a bond between us that feels different and very precious.”
According to Alexander in the 1981 interview, the History department was not enthusiastic about hiring a first-time Jewish scholar, and required the candidate to also teach a Jewish religion course in the Comparative Religion department.
“Deborah was a great boon to the program,” said Alexander. “We came to refer to her after a while as the matinee idol of the Jewish Studies Program.”
Alexander recalled having to sell the course content to the department head and others by explaining who the Jews were and why their history mattered.
“We came up with a proposal to the dean whereby the Jewish community would agree to fund half of a position in Jewish history, and the college would fund the other half for its first three years, after which time, the college would assume full responsibility for funding the position.”
Community support has made the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies possible, while the university is very supportive, too, said Pianko.
Since those early years, Jewish Studies has branched out by developing public programs that promote Jewish culture, scholarship, and music through intimate talks and concerts as well as a “digital portal” with a lively blogging community.
“It’s increasingly clear that we’re training students to be global citizens,” said Pianko. “We think of ourselves as educating the next generation of leaders who are going to be thinking about problems and issues that we can’t even imagine.”