Celebrating Four Decades of Scholarship: The Berman Center at 40

How a Vision for Jewish Studies Transformed a Community and Inspired Generations

In 1984, Lehigh Valley philanthropists Philip and Muriel Berman wanted to bring a center for Jewish studies to the region they called home. They envisioned a place in which scholarly research and discussion would take place, and where learning and understanding could flourish. They knew academic centers like this existed in big cities, but they wanted something closer. In 1984, the Bermans made a financial contribution to Lehigh University, establishing what was then called the Lehigh Valley Jewish Studies Center. In 1989, the center was renamed the Philip and Muriel Berman Center for Jewish Studies.

Forty years later, the center continues to flourish and provide an important resource for Jewish studies at Lehigh and beyond. It’s the hub of Lehigh’s Jewish Studies minor and draws internationally renowned speakers and leaders in the field. The program is growing and now includes an additional teaching position whose effort is split between Lafayette College and Lehigh. Past invited speakers include authors Chaim Potok, Michael Chabon, and Michael Twitty. The center hosts major interdisciplinary conferences at Lehigh, and for nearly a decade it collaborated with Oxford University and Bar-Ilan University to co-sponsor the Oxford Summer Institute in Modern and Contemporary Judaism, which assembled an international interdisciplinary group of scholars to address themes and questions in modern Jewish studies.  

“In a nutshell, we are a research center and undergraduate minor. Our role is educational. What’s so important is we’re an academic unit rather than an advocacy group,” says Jodi Eichler-Levine, director of the Berman Center and Berman professor of Jewish civilization at Lehigh. “Our professors are all really trying to bring the expertise of their field to the audience’s questions. They won’t all say the same thing. I'm most proud of the collective wisdom of our faculty, students, and staff. That will endure whenever our students engage thoughtfully with the world around them. Our faculty's research endures in hundreds of articles, books, and conference papers delivered all over the world.

Read the full story on Lehigh's College of Arts & Sciences News