The list below represents specific needs that the Center has identified for both the short and long terms, but is not meant to be exhaustive. Contributions of any amount can be put toward the Center’s general operational expenses, or toward specific initiatives in accordance with the contributor’s wishes. If you have questions or suggestions about potential contributions, please contact the Center Director, Joel Berkowitz, at (518) 591-8515 or yankl@albany.edu.

Student scholarships for study abroad

Many of our majors and minors study abroad for a semester, academic year, or summer term. Israel is the most common destination, but there are many worthwhile programs in other places, particularly throughout Europe. The Department seeks to establish a scholarship fund that would help support Judaic Studies majors and minors, and Hebrew minors, planning to study abroad in programs that would significantly advance their progress in their studies here.

Cost: $5,000 or more to establish a fund; any amount to add to fund once established

Judaic Studies Course in Belarus, Summer 2010

Next summer, the department will offer a two-part course on the experience of Belorussian Jewry before and during the Holocaust. Prof. Barry Trachtenberg will teach an online-only mini-course, at the end of which the participants will travel with him for two weeks in Eastern Europe: first to Auschwitz, and then to Minsk and a nearby shtetl, where they will restore a Jewish cemetery. The reconstruction will be led by Dr. Michael Lozman, DDS, who has conducted numerous similar excursions in the past (though this is the first with UAlbany).

Cost: $16,000 will pay for the materials to construct a new fence around the cemetery. At present, this cost is to be covered by participating students (approx. $1000 each). Amounts short of the total can subsidize individual students, or lower the cost for each participant.

Lecture series, symposia, and other public programming

The Center and Department have organized a number of successful lectures and symposia in recent years—often in collaboration with other entities like the New York State Writers’ Institute—including a reading and film screening with leading Israeli writer Etgar Keret (spring 2009) and a fiction symposium with Elisa Albert, Shalom Auslander, and Peter Orner (spring 2007). Regular funding would ensure the ability to expand these programs and draw first-rate talent in Jewish arts and letters to the University and the capital district.

Cost: $10,000/yr or endowment

Newsletter

Establishing a newsletter would be one of the most effective (and cost-effective) ways to publicize news of the Center’s and Department’s many activities, and maintain contact with alumni and other supporters.

Cost: approx. $3000 (maximum) per newsletter, including postage

Website redesign

A fairly modest investment could transform the look of the Center’s online address, establishing a vivid, memorable, easy-to-navigate template that could be used for many years to come.

Cost: approximately $10,000

Library fund, Judaica Collection

Current funding for the Judaica holdings in the University Libraries is far from sufficient to maintain and grow the collection. Ongoing investment in the acquisition of titles in Jewish Studies would fill gaps in the collection while ensuring the library’s ability to become up to date in the purchase of new publications.

Cost: $5,000 - 10,000/yr or endowment

Faculty line in Jewish Demography

The department has been investigating grant possibilities to provide seed money for a position in Jewish demography. This is an area of growing interest in Jewish Studies, but one in which there are few faculty lines. It would extend the reach of the department into the social sciences, and exploit the University’s strength in Geography and Planning, a department that has expressed its support for such a position. Teach courses in Jewish migrations, demographic shifts, population centers, genealogy, and related subjects. We are exploring both funding options and curriculum ideas with the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy, based in Jerusalem. Should we be successful in creating this position, the University’s highly regarded Geography and Planning Department is interested in pursuing an affiliation with it.

Cost: approx. $85K / yr