When Harvey Teres became the new director at Syracuse University’s Judaic Studies Program in July, he decided he wanted to turn the program into something bigger.

‘I want to turn this into one of the best programs, if not the departments, in the country,’ he said.

Teres might be able to start that initiative now that SU is one of six institutions to receive a grant from the Foundation for Jewish Culture.

The foundation’s Jewish Studies Expansion Program announced Jan. 21 it would give SU a grant for approximately $40,000 in order to improve the Judaic Studies Program. The grant will go toward hiring a new teaching fellow for the program.

The amount of the grant is half of the cost of the teaching fellowship, said Paul Zakrzewski, director of the Jewish Studies Expansion Program at the Foundation of Jewish Culture. The budget for the grant is not finalized yet, so the amount for the grant is still not finalized, he said.

The fellow would be a doctoral graduate and would stay at the school for two years. The fellow would teach eight courses and help promote Jewish events on campus, Zakrzewski said.

The schools will look for fellows, who will begin teaching in fall 2010, this semester, Zakrzewski said.

The other schools that received grants from the foundation are Colgate University, Oberlin College, the University of Arizona, University of California-Santa Cruz and Portland State University.

Grants were given to programs that were either underfunded or underserved, Zakrzewski said.

The Judaic Studies Program at SU is solely funded through endowments from alumni, Teres said. He said that if it weren’t for former director Ken Frieden, the program would have never received the grant.

‘We applied for the grant three years ago when Ken Frieden was the director,’ Teres said. ‘We came close but didn’t get it. We reapplied, and we got it. We’re thrilled. It’s ironic because Ken did all the work, and I got the credit.’

Zakrzewski said he noticed that there was large enthusiasm for Judaic studies in both Jewish students, which constitute 20 percent of SU’s student body, and non-Jewish students when he visited the campus in the fall. This was one of the reasons why SU received the grant, he said.

‘I think in recent years, SU hasn’t been able to offer all the classes it has wanted to,’ Zakrzewski said. ‘We hope that whoever gets hired can offer the sorts of classes that students want to take.’

The Judaic Studies Program is currently working on collecting student opinions in order to find out where the most interest is, Teres said.

‘We’re basically asking them about their relationship with Judaic studies, what courses they would like to see, what kind of programming,’ Teres said. ‘I will have a much better idea once the students say what they need to on the survey. The students who are already in the program will be thrilled.’

smtracey@syr.edu

Published on January 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm