News Release

Local angle: Greensboro

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Jewish studies receives $1 million gift 
to establish distinguished professorship

CHAPEL HILL — Leonard and Tobee Kaplan of Greensboro have donated $1 million to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to establish a new distinguished professorship in the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.

Their gift will create an endowed chair to help UNC attract a leading teacher and scholar in modern Jewish religious thought.

"The Kaplan professorship represents a dramatic step forward for the center," said Dr. Jonathan Hess, center director, professor of Germanic languages and adjunct professor of religious studies. "It will enable us to recruit one of the foremost scholars in Jewish thought to UNC, giving generations of Carolina students the opportunity to study with a national leader in this field."

Additional funding from the state’s North Carolina Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund brings the Kaplan endowment to $1,334,000. The Leonard and Tobee Kaplan Distinguished Professorship will be housed in the religious studies department, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. The professor will be chosen through a competitive search process.

"We have been contemplating for a couple of years where we could make the biggest impact with a contribution to UNC-Chapel Hill," said Leonard Kaplan. "We hope this new professorship will bring to the forefront the modern world of Jewish religious practices, culture and social issues that are significant to not only the Jewish world, but people of all faiths."

Kaplan, a 1949 Carolina alumnus, and his wife, Tobee, head the Toleo Foundation, a family effort devoted to a variety of philanthropic causes. They led initiatives to build the new home for the North Carolina Hillel chapter in Chapel Hill and since have worked with Hillel to support the hungry and homeless locally. They also aid the Women’s Resource Center of Greensboro, a program that enables women to advance their career paths. In 2004, the Kaplans initiated the Greenbrier Forum, a program to inspire greater generosity among philanthropists.

The Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, created in 2003, offers courses through numerous departments. Nearly 1,000 undergraduates enroll in the courses each year, studying topics including the Hebrew Bible, the history of the Holocaust, Jews in the South and religion in modern Israel. The center also offers public programs, including an annual lecture series.

"With a flourishing undergraduate minor and a growing program in modern Hebrew, the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies is well on its way to becoming one of the leading Jewish studies programs in the nation," Hess said.

The Kaplan gift counts toward the university’s Carolina First Campaign goal of $2 billion. Carolina First is a comprehensive, multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/other/kaplan_tobeeandleonard.jpg

Jewish studies contact: Dr. Jonathan Hess, (919) 843-9160, jmhess@email.unc.edu

College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu