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.
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Faculty Profile: Ruth von Bernuth
Ruth von Bernuth,
is a new junior faculty member 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.
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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
The primary mission of the Carolina Center
for Jewish Studies is to integrate the study of
Jewish history and culture into the more general
academic mission of the College of Arts and
Sciences. Over the course of the
past seven years, we’ve sought to
accomplish this mission in a
variety of ways. Read More
