28 ACUMEN • SPRING 2025 “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.” Programming for the Center’s 40th anniversary focuses on both the performing and visual arts. “It relates to our mission in so many ways because it ties to the interdisciplinary vision of our founders. The Bermans and their daughter Nancy were quite dedicated to the arts,” Eichler-Levine says, adding there will be an arts event of some kind nearly every month through the academic year. The events kicked off in September with Mumbai-born artist Siona Benjamin, whose work reflects her background of growing up Jewish in a Hindu and Muslim India. In October, an outdoor walking tour of the sculpture garden taught visitors about the impressive works of art that dot Lehigh’s campus and the artists who created them. In November, the Center hosted a tribute to Chava Weissler, professor emerita of religion, culture and society at Lehigh, a leading scholar whose book Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women is one of the most important works in Jewish literature. This spring, Dr. Yossi Chajes, University of Haifa, will present “Visualizing Jewish Mysticism: Pop-Up 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. DOUGLAS BENEDICT / ACADEMIC IMAGE Celebrating Four Decades of Scholarship: The Berman Center at 40 SARA KARNISH How a vision for Jewish studies transformed a community and inspired generations
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