A grant awarded to Ohio University in October will help establish a certificate program in Jewish Studies, pending approval from the Board of Trustees.
The two-year, $75,000 grant was awarded to OU from the Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. The grant will help develop the program and hire a postdoctoral fellow to teach courses on Jewish history and culture.
Overseeing the search for the new position is Norman Goda, professor and chair of the history department. Two candidates are expected to visit campus in February and interview for the spot.
The University Curriculum Council approved the certificate program this month. The OU Board of Trustees will have the final say to establish the program at its February meeting. If approved, the program will commence next fall based out of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences.
According to a press release issued from the Foundation for Jewish Culture, the purpose of this grant is to give undergraduate students greater access to learning about Jewish history
religion culture.
Paul Zakrzewski, program officer of Literature and Scholarship for the foundation, said the list of applicants for the grant was narrowed down from over 100 colleges to six winners. The schools include Northeastern University, American University, Towson University, Tulane University and the University of Delaware, Newark.
Three things attracted the foundation to award the grant to OU: an enthusiastic student body, a Jewish study committee to explore the possible implantation of a Jewish studies program was already in place and an excited administration to bring this program.
We are of course very pleased that of the many universities who applied to the National Foundation for the grant we are one of six universities nationwide to have received this honor
Goda said.
Currently, the history department offers Introduction to Jewish Civilization and Culture led by Marvin Fletcher.
The class is very unique because it has twelve history
English
political science
sociology and off-campus instructors teaching the class
Fletcher said.
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