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ABBA HILLEL SILVER CHAIR | |
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Abba Hillel Silver Chair in
Jewish Studies |
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1964 ─ THE CHAIR IS ANNOUNCED |
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On Sunday September 27. 1964 the first page of the Plain Dealer told of creation of a chair of Jewish Studies at Western Reserve University in memory of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver. The $500,000 endowment came equally from the Louis D Beaumont Foundation, the Edith Anisfield Wolf Fund of the Cleveland Foundation, and the Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation. In 1964 a half-million dollars was a generous endowment for a chair in the humanities. As an example, in February 1964 a professorship in business and economics, where salaries are often higher, at Harvard and its Business School was established for that amount in honor of another Clevelander — George Gund II. (More on this chair.) On Friday October
2, 1964 the Jewish Independent reported on the new chair on pages 1 and 5. The last lines of
the story are relevant here: "A committee of faculty members and
community representatives will be appointed immediately to seek a
scholar of distinction to fill the post." |
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THE HISTORY OF THE CHAIR The Temple Tifereth Israel, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver's congregation, moved to Cleveland's University Circle area, near Western Reserve University, in 1924. Silver had earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College in 1927 and had been awarded an honorary doctorate by WRU in 1928. Rabbi Silver died on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1963. There may have been talk of endowing a chair in honor of Rabbi Silver as part of his 70th birthday celebration in January 1963. There would have been discussion after his death on Thanksgiving Day that year. Such letters may have been saved in the archives of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and of our Jewish Federation which are available at the Western Reserve Historical Society. The university archives show that the donor was the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, for all the letters are on Federation letterhead, signed by its president Myron E. Glass, or responses to him from university officials. An important letter
from Federation stipulates that
holders of the chair should be aligned with Rabbi Silver's values.
It includes an example of an unnamed British historian of world-class
reputation whose views were the opposite of those held by Abba
Hillel Silver. That would not be acceptable for the chair in memory of the great rabbi. This was a
reference to Arnold Toynbee, whose "Study of History" had called Judaism a "fossil religion" and
whose views were regarded by Jews as anti-Jewish and anti-Israel. |
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ABOUT ENDOWED CHAIRS Many universities have published their
policies for filling vacancies in endowed chairs. They allow, or
even require,
that representatives of the donor be part of the process.
Though some faculty may not have
welcomed non-university influence in faculty selection, as the donors
specified, representatives of our Jewish community
have had a voice in the choices. THE HOLDERS OF THE CHAIR In the 60 years the
chair has been established it has been
held by five persons: three male Reform rabbi-PhD
professors
(Bernard Martin, Marc Lee Raphael, and Peter Haas) and
two female non-rabbi PhD Associate Professors (Susannah Heschel and Alanna
Cooper). They are listed below, in order of their
appointment. |
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Bernard Martin (1928 -- 1982) 1966-January 1982
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Born in
Czechoslovakia, came to US in 1934, age 6. M.H.L. and ordination Hebrew Union College (1951) Ph.D. University of Illinois (1960) Served congregations in Chicago and St Paul MN Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies Also Chair of Department of Religious Studies Died in January 1982 at age 53 Years Occupied = 15.5 |
| Marc Lee Raphael Fall semester 1985 Fall semester 1986 Fall semester 1988
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B.A. University of
California, Los Angeles M.A. Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati (ordained) Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles During the years he worked on Silver's biography he served three one semester appointments as Abba Hillel Silver Visiting Professor while on leave from his position as professor of Jewish Studies at Ohio State University Recently retired as Professor of Judaic Studies, College of William and Mary. Years Occupied = 1.5 |
| Susannah
Heschel Sept 1991 - June 1998 |
A.B. Trinity College M.T.S. Harvard Divinity School Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania Had been Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Southern Methodist U. Abba Hillel Silver Associate Professor of Jewish Studies Left CWRU to become Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth Years Occupied = 7.0 |
| Peter J. Haas Jan 2000 - June 2016 |
B.A. U
of Michigan (1974) Ordained Reform rabbi Hebrew Union College (1974) Ph.D. in Jewish Studies Brown University (1980} Had been professor of Jewish Literature and Thought at Vanderbilt University. Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies, Also Chair of Department of Religious Studies, retired 2016 Years Occupied = 15.5 |
| Alanna
E. Cooper January 2020 - see her faculty page
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B.A. Barnard College of Columbia
University (1990) M.A. cultural anthropology Columbia University (1993) Ph.D. cultural anthropology Boston University (2000) Teaching and research positions at Harvard University, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Boston University, U of Michigan and U of Massachusetts, Amherst. Director of Jewish Studies, Siegal Lifelong Learning, CWRU Abba Hillel Silver Chair of Jewish Studies; Assistant Professor Named Associate Professor May 2024 |
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Page by Arnold Berger last updated May 27, 2024 |