Jewish studies program, minor proposed for fall

By Vinny Singh and Catherine Bratic     1/22/09 6:00pm

Rice University recently published a tentative proposal to add another academic program to its scholastic offerings: Jewish studies. Last Tuesday, President David Leebron held a reception at his house with prospective donors in an attempt to raise the $10 million of funding that Rice estimates it will need to start such a program. If everything goes according to plan, the program will begin as a minor in the fall, Associate Religious Studies Professor Matthias Henze said.

Rice has been offered two grants for the advancement of this program. The Posen Foundation at the Center for Cultural Judaism awarded Rice a three-year grant, and the American Israel Cooperative Enterprise awarded a one-year grant to support Ranan Kuperman, the Alexander Visiting Israeli Scholar in Political Science.

While the program has not been formally announced because its funding has not yet been fully secured, tentative plans have already been made for its establishment. In order to solidify the program, the newly-founded department will need to hire additional faculty members as well as fill in course gaps in the field, Henze said at the reception.

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Religious Studies Assistant Professor Gregory Kaplan, who along with Henze has been spearheading the project, titles it as a "faculty-run" program for now but sees it as an opportunity for students to delve into the area of study beyond the perspective of yet another religious studies course. Kaplan said he hopes the program will give students a cultural, ethnic and historical understanding of the rich Jewish tradition.

The blueprint for the proposal passed out at the reception, titled "Jewish Studies at Rice University: A Work in Progress" sets out most of the program's goals.

The mission statement says: "Jewish Studies at Rice University provides students from all religious backgrounds the opportunity to study and experience the rich culture and the historical experience of the Jewish people."

The program will also include internships with various institutions in Houston such as the Holocaust Museum Houston, and it will encourage its students to participate in study abroad programs in order to foster enthusiasm in those who want to culturally and educationally tour Israel.

Kaplan said the initiative for establishing the program arose from the interest of students. Most of the courses that will be included in the Jewish studies program already exist. However, currently they offer no distribution or credit for most majors, and therefore, many students feel they don't have the time to fit the extra work into their schedules, Kaplan said.

"We finally decided to gather all these courses together and try and get Rice to establish it as a minor," he said.

Henze said at the reception that the establishment of a Jewish studies program at Rice would put the university on the same footing as other high-caliber universities. Henze told those at the reception that Rice was one of the few top 20 schools without such a program.

Kaplan admitted the obvious initial difficulties that will be faced in the establishment of the new program, especially since Rice offers few minors, and the trend is still relatively slow in catching on with the students. The Faculty Senate approved the creation of minors in Nov. 2005. If the Jewish studies program continues forward, it will have to be approved by the Faculty Senate before it can begin.

Brown College sophomore William Garcia enthusiastically recalls classes he took in The Literature of Evil, taught by Kaplan, and a class in German Jewish Literature and culture, taught by David Brenner, a professor from the University of Houston who came to Rice University for a semester.

"I walked into the class knowing absolutely nothing about Jewish culture, and because of David Brenner's class, I feel I now have a unique understanding of how a culture in diaspora is able to maintain its identity and what that identity may be," Garcia said. Though Garcia is not Jewish, he said would love to see more classes like these, especially if the courses offer more useful credit.

Lauren Henderson, a Will Rice College senior, and former Hillel president, said she wished the program had been in place when she began her studies at Rice.

"If Rice had had a Jewish studies program when I had applied, that definitely would have encouraged my decision to come here, and I probably would have been at least a Jewish Studies minor," Henderson said.

She said she plans to continue her post-Rice studies at Rabbinical school.

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