TORONTO — Hindy Najman’s vision for expanding the University of Toronto’s Centre for Jewish Studies is becoming a reality with changes that have been implemented under her leadership and with the launch of two campaigns that will raise $36 million for the centre.

Hindy Najman, left, and Ken Tanenbaum [Frances Kraft photo]

Last month, just before Passover, an agreement was signed between UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and the university to establish a $15-million endowment fund at the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto for the U of T centre.

As well, the university is also planning to raise $18 million for the centre through its own campaign. The university’s fund, which will be part of a larger campaign for the faculty of arts and science, will be used for eight new endowed faculty positions at the Centre for Jewish Studies. The faculty positions will be put in place over the next few years.

Ken Tanenbaum, a third-generation Toronto philanthropist whose family has a history of supporting Jewish education, is the driving force behind the endowment at the Jewish Foundation. His family is donating $5 million – $2 million of which will go toward the endowment, and $3 million as an immediate gift to Jewish studies, beginning in September with $1 million a year over the next three years.

At the same time, the $2-million Tanenbaum gift has kick-started a one-on-one campaign for the endowment fund, led by Tanenbaum and his father, Larry, which is expected to be completed by fall.

The $15-million fund and the Tanenbaums’ $3-million gift will be used to support students financially, fund new programs for the university and the greater community, and underwrite day-to-day operations.

University president David Naylor told The CJN in an e-mail, “The University of Toronto is proud to be the home to one of the very best locations for Jewish studies research and teaching in the world.  We have certainly benefited in recent years from the excellent leadership that professor Hindy Najman has provided.

“We’ve had clear signals that many professors and a growing number of students are deeply interested in the broad field of Jewish studies. We’re also extremely encouraged that the University’s Centre for Jewish Studies is drawing such strong interest and support from the community.  I am personally very grateful for the leadership role that Ken and Larry Tanenbaum have been playing to move the centre forward.”

Najman, who has been director of the centre for the past three years, said she could not have proceeded with her vision without the encouragement of Naylor, U of T provost Cheryl Misak and arts and science dean Meric Gertler. “They embraced my vision for Jewish studies as part of their broader vision for U of T as a university of academic excellence,” Najman said.

In a joint interview with Najman, Tanenbaum said he was “incredibly excited about the potential to work with Hindy… and [that] the impact that could have on Jewish education in Toronto and Canada was very tangible to me.”

Two years ago, when Tanenbaum met Najman for the first time and learned of her “road map” for, as she puts it, “getting a very good program mobilized to be one of the best in the world,” he “immediately became enamoured” with her vision and commitment, he said. In particular, he noted her plan to integrate the Jewish studies program across university departments and faculties.

He also noted the support the centre has received from the New York-based Tikvah Fund, which recently committed to a third year for a total of $800,000. Najman told The CJN she feels very inspired by Tikvah Fund president Roger Hertog’s confidence.

The university’s Jewish studies centre dates back to 1967 and has been supported by other philanthropists in the Jewish community, including Tanenbaum’s grandmother, Anne. Early supporters of Jewish studies at U of T “imagined much of this and started to put the building blocks in place,” Tanenbaum said, referring to aspects such as endowed lectures and visiting professorships.

The centre has 65 faculty members and 2,300 students (approximately 60 percent of whom are not Jewish), enrolled in more than 100 Jewish studies courses. Of those, 50 are pursuing undergraduate majors and minors in Jewish studies, and 70 are working on MA or PhD degrees.

In the past year, the centre’s undergraduate program has grown by 50 per cent, and its graduate program has more than 10 times the number of students it did three years ago – only six at the time, and 73 now, Najman noted.

Recently, the centre, which was upgraded from a “program” shortly before Najman became director, joined forces with the university’s faculty of law to create a collaborative master’s program. As well, Jewish studies collaborates with 21 departments and centres in the faculty of arts and science.

Other faculties have also expressed interest in collaborating, said Najman, who will be taking a year’s leave of absence starting in the fall to teach at Yale University. Jeffrey Kopstein, a professor of political science, will serve as acting director.

Najman said the reason she agreed to take on the directorship three years ago was that she saw the potential of the program. Since then, she added, she’s fallen in love with Toronto’s Jewish community, and credits it for inspiring her to “build a bridge” between it and the centre, a metaphor she attributes to Tanenbaum.

A native of New York who taught at Notre Dame University before she was recruited by U of T, Najman feels she’s been “embraced as an outsider” by lay and professional leaders and community members of all denominations. She said she’s spent a lot of time at Jewish high schools, “explaining why we should aspire to send our children to the best universities in the world – it’s not just about U of T… and why Jewish studies has to continue beyond Hebrew school, beyond Grade 8, beyond Grade 12. One can’t stop at 12 or 18 and imagine you have a sophisticated model of how to be a Jew in the world.”

As well, referring to a broader context beyond the Jewish community, Tanenbaum said that U of T, with a student population of 72,000, is “a beacon of multiculturalism and pluralism… We believe that this collaborative model has great potential to build understanding across the university… We must teach the students that cross the U of T campus every day what Jewish studies is, what Jewish civilization and culture and history is about, and what Jews have given to western civilization and what we have received.”

Najman also believes that the centre will have a further-reaching impact. She believes it will help other Jewish studies centres throughout North America by serving as a “model of collaboration and conversation with the community.”

Ted Sokolsky, president of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, said it’s part of UJA’s philosophy, “especially through our foundation arm, to become a philanthropic broker… and help donors reach their philanthropic dreams.” He added that while federation was already involved with the Centre for Jewish Studies, the new project is a Tanenbaum family initiative.

He said that the university “wants to create one of the finest centres of Jewish studies anywhere… and we want to make [Toronto] one of the finest Jewish communities in the Diaspora.” Having such a centre “adds a lot to the attractiveness of a Jewish community,” Sokolsky explained. It will “get people to continue to move here, keep our young people here over the long period of time, and continue to make the Toronto Jewish community a hub of Jewish education and Jewish culture in the Diaspora.”

Najman is passionate about the centre and the changes it is undergoing. “I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity,” she said.