Fairfield University's Bennett Center for Judaic Studies receives $50,000 grant | Press Releases

Image: Stanley Ronell Fairfield University's Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, which provides students and the greater community with knowledge of Jewish history, culture, and thinking, has received a $50,000 grant from the Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation to continue and expand its work.

The crucial funding provided by the Schnurmacher Foundation has helped the Bennett Center to make a variety of Judaic Studies programs available to Fairfield University students and the community at large, including the annual Holocaust Remembrance Service.

The Schnurmacher funding has also helped bring numerous lecturers to the University over the years. Speakers have included prominent Rabbi Marc Schneier; Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League; and David Elcott, executive director, Israel Policy Forum. The recent grant from the Schnurmacher Foundation will provide ongoing program and operational support for the Center.

Professor Ellen M. Umansky, Ph.D. is the director of the Bennett Center, which was founded in 1994. "The Schnurmacher Foundation's support of the Center has been invaluable," she said. "That we have grown so substantially in the past 13 years is in no small measure due to its genuine interest in our programs and its ongoing financial support."

The Bennett Center, which is housed within the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, offers programs, classes and special events of interest to the University and greater Bridgeport/Fairfield communities. Recent Bennett Center lecturers have engaged audiences with discussions of Jewish mysticism, the prospect of peace in the Middle East; various Jewish translations of the Bible; and Jewish and Christian interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve.

The mission of the New York City-based Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation is to make a positive difference in the lives of others. The foundation has a variety of focuses including human and social services, the arts, children and the elderly, and health care, among others.

To learn more about the Bennett Center's events and programs, please visit http://www.fairfield.edu/judaic/index.html or call (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066.

Image: The critical funding provided by the Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation has helped Fairfield University's Bennett Center for Judaic Studies present special events, including the 2010 Holocaust Remembrance Service featuring Stanley Ronell who recently shared his story of survival at the Egan Chapel of St. Ignatius Loyola.