Vanderbilt University: Broadening the Spectrum

By Dawn Weiss Montgomery

Vanderbilt University has worked diligently in the past few years to diversify the ethnic makeup of its student body. Included in that effort are moves to provide an increased Jewish presence on campus. The recent addition of the Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life, the new home of the Vanderbilt Hillel, offers Jewish students a place to socialize and study. The facility also houses Grins, the city's only kosher vegetarian restaurant, popular with students, faculty and community members.

Vanderbilt is stepping up its efforts with its first-time focus on Jewish studies within a liberal arts education. The interdisciplinary academic program will explore Jewish culture, its evolution and its multiple expressions, from the founding of its monotheistic faith in biblical times through its global manifestation today.

Dr. Jack Sasson, the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt's Divinity School, says this is not a relatively new idea. "In recent days, most deans at Vanderbilt were sympathetic to the need for having something like this program, but didn't have the wherewithal or the will to do it." Since 2000, the stars aligned correctly in the appointments of Chancellor Gordon Gee (2000), Arts and Sciences Dean Richard McCarty (2001), and Provost Nicolas Zeppos (2002). Zeppos was instrumental in creating the Program in Jewish Studies and installing Sasson as its director for its initial three years.

The first order of business, says Sasson, was faculty enrichment. The study of Judaism was always available at Vanderbilt in such departments as History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and German, but it was not integrated and had many gaps. The program was allotted three faculty positions, with resources drawn from the University's central administration, rather than depending on fund raising from Jewish donors.

These "scholars of exceptional teaching and research capability" could come from such disciplines as History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Art, or Sociology and they would use their talent and expertise to affirm the foundation of Jewish Studies. The first position has already been placed in the Department of Religion. Martina Urban, a Berlin scholar with a doctorate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, will offer expertise in Hasidism and in the Jewish European intellectual traditions. The second position, about to be advertised, calls for a senior scholar who specializes in aspects of the history of the Jewish people.

Once faculty expansion became secure, making a place for the Jewish Studies Program within the Vanderbilt academic community became essential. "Making Jewish Studies attractive to both faculty and students was necessary if the program was to become viable and permanent," Sasson explains. "For the students, it was important to create a Jewish Studies major as well as a minor. Both are now available to students of all faiths who can acquire a degree that is on par with any offered in the Humanities (English or History for example) or Social Sciences (Political Science, Psychology or Sociology)."

In the coming years, the program will adapt and expand this major to prepare students for careers in social services and community affairs. "The parents of Vanderbilt students are paying handsomely for their children's education and we need to offer them degrees that prepare them for solid futures," says Sasson. For this reason, the program plans to ally itself with the Peabody College of Education to offer such degrees as a Masters degree in Education in Jewish Studies, allowing careers in diverse segments of Jewish life or as teachers in Jewish Day Schools. "There is a buyer's market for students who can teach in Jewish day schools," Sasson adds.

In designing a curriculum for undergraduate students, the Jewish Studies Committee (with Dan Cornfield, Ellen Goldring, Frank Bloch, Jay Geller, Lenn Goodman, Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller, and Bill P. Smith) recognized that Hebrew is a thread that "unifies the history of Judaism" from ancient to modern times and made elementary knowledge of the language prerequisite for the major. Students who major will find an extensive program, facilitating critical study in all areas and facets of Jewish history, philosophy, art, and culture. They will also have access to library resources such as the Zimmerman Judaica collection, as well as the opportunity to study abroad (Prague and Jerusalem) and to participate in local or national internships.

"As Vanderbilt moves to attract more Jewish students and to set the Jewish component of world civilization in its proper place in the constellation of our studies and research, we hope to be making good on our reputation as a major institution of liberal education and humanistic research," says Goodman, Jewish Studies Committee member/Vanderbilt Professor of Philosophy.

Sasson believes the Jewish Studies major will provide a superior "academic foundation for a variety of rewarding career paths including professional schools law, medicine, business, public administration, education and even the rabbinate." In the future, Sasson and the committee plan to offer a Graduate Certificate in Jewish studies, designed for full-time students already enrolled in Graduate Studies, in the Humanities, Social Sciences as well as in the professional schools (Law, Divinity, Blair School of Music, Peabody School of Education). A Master of Arts in Jewish Studies will permit qualified students to obtain a graduate degree that will strengthen their credentials for doctoral studies.

To promote a community of interest in Jewish Studies among faculty, Sasson has done extensive faculty outreach, including creating super-seminars in which colleagues exchange viewpoints. "I knew when I took over that we would not do well among our colleagues if we do not rouse their interest in Jewish Studies." Since its initial program in November, the turnout of faculty from across all segments of the University for these events has tripled. Sasson is encouraged and will plan more such programs in addition to developing similar events that cater to students as well as to encourage conferences on Jewish themes that will appeal beyond the University.

"Hopefully the program will do for the intellectual life of Vanderbilt what Grins in the Schulman Center has done for the university's social life: create a haimish (friendly) place where non-Jews will feel as comfortable as Jews," says Jay Geller, committee member and Vanderbilt Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies. "When I was growing up in New York, Levi's Rye Bread ran a successful ad campaign with the slogan: 'You do not have to be Jewish to eat Levi's.' Nor do you have to be Jewish to pursue Jewish Studies."

Sasson recognizes that Jewish studies at Vanderbilt is meant for students of all faiths interested in unlocking the history and culture of a people that has played a significant role in the development of civilization. It can also be affirming to Jewish students who wish to come to Vanderbilt, supplementing the Hillel and community life experience that they will find in Nashville. He expects that the courses developed for Jewish Studies will attract students across ethnic and religious boundaries. "Jewish Studies," he says, "will fertilize interest and increase awareness of students in a heritage and experience that are broader than what they draw from their largely regional background."

"Exciting guest speakers and visiting professors, three new academic positions, enhanced offerings, and special opportunities for study, travel, research, in-service learning to prepare for leadership roles in Jewish and other communities, are parts of what lies ahead," Goodman adds.