Latest News
Spring 2011
Levine
Family Creates New Endowment
for Students Studying Jewish
Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumnus Howard R. Levine, chairman and CEO of Family Dollar Stores Inc., has created an endowment to support undergraduate and graduate students in Jewish studies at his alma mater. Read more
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Grad Student Profile: Ria Van Ryn
What seemed an otherwise unremarkable
November day turned into a deeply meaningful,
perhaps life-changing day for a group of middle
school students, thanks to the efforts of one of
Carolina’s graduate students. The teens, from
B’Nai Shalom Jewish Day School in Greensboro
and Al-Imam School in Raleigh, were meeting
each other for the first time, after months of learning
about each other’s cultures and beliefs from
Maria (Ria) Van Ryn, Ph.D. candidate in UNC’s
Sociology Department.
As the focus of her dissertation, Van Ryn
met with the eighth graders at each school over
the course of the fall semester, about once a week
for 12 weeks. The first few classes were a basic
overview of each tradition—teaching the Jewish
kids about Islam and the Muslim kids about
Judaism. Then they had several class periods
on the shared values Van Ryn was focusing on:
love/family, education, peace, and service. In all
of these classes, Van Ryn would use a variety
of teaching techniques—reading from texts
(including the Torah and Qur'an), watching movie
clips, doing interactive PowerPoint activities,
skits, crafts, etc. Eventually, the students wrote
letters to each other, sharing personal insights
into their lives and cultures.
“I started studying Jewish and Islamic
schools because my primary research interest is in
minority identity, and I wanted to see how and why
Jewish and Muslim families were using religious
schools to perhaps counteract the heavy influence
of Christianity in the American South,” said Van
Ryn. “Along the road, I realized I couldn’t leave
my dissertation kids without them meeting one
another and knowing what I knew— that they
had so many shared values and experiences. I felt
that the earlier they were able to build relationships
with one another, the easier interfaith
understanding would be later in their lives.”
So she began efforts to arrange for the workshop
and finally have the students meet each other.
“The day of the workshop was one of the most
fulfilling of my life, much less career,” said Van
Ryn. “The kids were all so excited, and it was just
amazing to see how quickly they connected. What's
also been neat is to see the kids maintaining their
connections—I’ve been to the schools for various
reasons since then, and they're always eager to
tell me that they’ve been chatting on Google and
writing on one another’s Facebook walls. I’ve had
nothing but positive reactions from the school
communities as well as others around the country
who have learned about the program and want to
know more.”
Van Ryn finishes her doctoral
studies this May, after a long
journey toward her academic
career. “I first learned about
sociology when I took a class in
college to fulfill a curricular
requirement as an undergraduate.
Immediately, I knew that
this is how I wanted to approach
religion, not from a sense of what
is true and what isn’t, but what
people do with religion. So I
declared a second major (the first
was religion),” said Van Ryn.“After my master’s in religion,
from Vanderbilt, I decided to
switch gears a bit because I
thought that a sociology background
would give me the
theoretical and methodological
tools to do the kind of research I
wanted to do. It has done that and
more—I am thrilled with the way
that sociology has opened up
subfields to me that I wouldn’t
have had access to previously.”
This fall, Van Ryn will join
the Sociology Department at
Yeshiva University in New York
City as assistant professor. But
this project has also made her
realize that she wants to keep
doing more hands-on work, so
she’s also looking into consulting
for groups who want to do
interfaith programming. One of
the benefits of an academic job
is the ability to balance teaching,
which is her primary passion,
with research and these kinds
of community projects.
Private support for graduate
student fellowships help nurture
young scholars, create relevant scholarly
works, train the next generation
of leading teachers and researchers,
and further Carolina’s commitment
to student-focused research. For
more information, contact Margaret
Costley at the Arts and Sciences
Foundation at (919) 843-0345 or at
margaret.costley@unc.edu.
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Faculty Profile: Ruth von Bernuth
Junior faculty members play a critical role
at Carolina, and for the Center, by helping
to expand course offerings, extend the
curriculum, and further new and important
research. During the past few years, several
new assistant professors have joined Carolina,
including Professors Marienberg, Lambert,
and Shemer, who are all helping the Center
meet increasing student demand for Jewish
Studies courses.
Another assistant professor to join
Carolina in recent years is Ruth von Bernuth,
who is based in the Department of Germanic
Languages and Literatures. Her focus on
Germany’s early modern period (15th to 18th
Century) has filled a special academic niche
in the German Department, and her new
research focus on Yiddish literature is likewise
filling an important curricular need for
Jewish Studies.
“When I was seeking a faculty position,
I knew Carolina was a perfect fit for me
because of its strength in several areas,
specifically its Early Modern program,
German department and the Center for Jewish
Studies,” said von Bernuth. In fact, Carolina
was the only institution to receive an application
from von Bernuth. “There really is no
other institution that could provide the same
level of opportunity for me and my particular
research interests.”
Since joining Carolina in 2008, von
Bernuth has taught a range of courses,
furthered her own research initiatives, and
helped guide undergraduate research. Last
year, one of her students was honored with one
of the Center’s first undergraduate research
awards. The student, Trey Meeks, used the
funding to travel to Germany to complete the
duo’s translation of a Yiddish prayer book.
“What truly sets von Bernuth apart from
her peers is the energy and enthusiasm she
expends turning her research interests into
innovative new courses for our students.
Indeed, I know of no other colleague who’s
done more to promote undergraduate research
on campus. We’re thus very
excited that she’s proposed a new
undergraduate course on early
modern Jewish literature. And
when we get our major in Jewish
Studies on the books—in the
very near future—she’ll be a
natural choice to teach the capstone seminar
for Jewish Studies majors as well,” said
Jonathan Hess, director of the Center.
Chapel Hill is a long way from the East
German town where von Bernuth grew up.
Her experiences growing up in East Germany
and then witnessing the fall of the wall and
the remarkable transformation in her home
country give von Bernuth a unique perspective
for Carolina undergraduates. She has also
introduced some students to her parents, who
have come to Carolina to share their personal
experiences of life in Leipzig.
Her current research project is focused
on Yiddish literature written in central and
eastern Europe between 1450 and 1700 and
explores representative works of the major
genres of writing in Yiddish—biblical texts,
heroic epics, early novels and songs. Von
Bernuth is currently writing a book based on
her research, tentatively titled, “Shared Worlds,
Shared Texts: Early Modern Contacts Between
Old Yiddish and German Literature.”
She will spend much of next academic
year in Israel, thanks to a visiting fellowship
from Yad Hanadiv. While in Israel, she will
work with Chara Turniansky, a highlyrenowned
expert on old Yiddish literature. She
also has received a fellowship award from YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research in New York City,
giving her access to many of the works she is
planning to study for her book.
“I feel so privileged to have so much time
to focus on one project,” added von Bernuth.“There are so few people working on old
Yiddish, but this project is introducing me
to wonderful colleagues around the world
and exposing me to remarkable writers and
publishers from centuries ago.”
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News Briefs
The Samuel J. Wisnia Endowment Fund for
Jewish Studies will provide a
crucial and permanent source of
funding for the Center’s director
to use for high-priority initiatives,
including instructional support,
student support, and course
development funding. Samuel
Wisnia, a partner with Goldman Sachs in London, contributed the $100,000 gift through Goldman
Sachs Gives (UK), a donor advised fund established by Goldman Sachs.
Mother Shaprio ZBT Award: James Heilpern, an Archaeology
and Religious Studies double major,
is this year’s recipient of the Elsie
Kaplan “Mother” Shapiro ZBT Undergraduate Research and Travel
Grant in Jewish Studies. He will use the $1,000 award to help fund his
senior thesis project on the dating
of ancient synagogues.
With the support of this grant, Heilpern plans to travel to Israel this summer to participate in the
archaeological excavation of the synagogue at Huqoq, under the direction of Professor Jodi Magness.
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Director's Message:
Supporting the Next Generation of Scholars
In past issues of our newsletter, we’ve
profiled new faculty, original research,
and innovative teaching. The focus of this
issue is on the remarkable students we have
at Carolina and on wonderful new ways
we’re finding to support students from all
backgrounds who find themselves interested
in Jewish Studies here on campus. Thanks
to the generous gift from Howard Levine,
we’ll soon be in a position to give Carolina
undergraduates opportunities in the field
of Jewish Studies inside and outside the
classroom that rival that of peer programs
in the nation. And we’ll also be finding ways
to support graduate students in departments
in the College of Arts and Sciences who
make Jewish Studies central to their
program of study.
In this way, we’ll not just be ensuring
that our own students take advantage of
incredible opportunities. We’ll also be making
Carolina one of the premier universities
in the nation training the next generation of
professors and leaders in the field of Jewish
Studies. As you read the article about my
colleague Ruth von Bernuth in this issue,
I guarantee that you’ll be impressed by this
up-and-coming star whom we recruited
to teach at Carolina. But try to imagine a
world in which Carolina does not only hire
professors of this caliber but produces
them—a world in which colleges and
universities across the nation hire recently
minted Carolina Ph.D.’s to teach Jewish
Studies at their institutions.
In recent months, we’ve made great
progress in our plans to create a major in
Jewish Studies, and if all goes as planned,
we shall soon be the only institution in the
state of North Carolina to offer a degree
program in this field. The momentum we’ve
developed over the last eight years is in
large part a product of the incredible
support we’ve received from alumni and
friends. Please know how much we appreciate
your investment in the future of Jewish
Studies at Carolina. With your help, the
Center’s next eight years will be just as
spectacular as our first eight!
