A $5 million gift from Joseph Lubeck ’78 to the Jewish Studies Program in the College of Arts & Sciences will allow the program to endow its director position, offering foundational support for the future.
The gift is named for Lubeck’s grandfather, Morris Escoll ‘1916. “One of my life goals has been to honor my grandfather, one of the few Jews on campus in the class of 1916,” Lubeck said. “My grandfather wrote about his experience in an award-winning essay ‘The Jewish Student on Campus’.”
Ross Brann, Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies (A&S), will hold the initial position as the Morris Escoll ‘1916 Director of Jewish Studies.
“Having a named directorship increases the prestige of our program,” said Jason Sion Mokhtarian, the Herbert and Stephanie Neuman Professor in Hebrew and Jewish Literature in the Department of Near Eastern Studies (A&S). “It demonstrates that Cornell is a university that strongly supports Jewish studies.”
Morris Escoll studied forestry at Cornell in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and won multiple awards for oratory and scholarship. He and his wife Bertha founded the Blue Mountain Camps, a Jewish summer camp in the Poconos, which they owned and operated for more than 50 years.
“We hope that this gift will not only have academic impact, but will also serve to broaden understanding of the amazing and beautiful history and culture of the Jewish faith throughout all students,” Lubeck said. “There is no better weapon in these times than truth.” Lubeck has also support the Hillel Center capital campaign and Hillel programming over the years, as well as the capital campaign for the Roitman Chabad Center at Cornell, all in honor of his grandfather.
The Jewish Studies Program, created in 1973, boasts seven endowed faculty positions, 28 affiliated faculty from more than 15 departments, nearly 40 courses offered each year, scholarship and academic travel funds available for undergraduate students, research and travel funding for graduate students, a visiting speaker series and the opportunity for students to major as well as minor in Jewish studies.
The program celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023 with a yearlong series of events and conferences.
Faculty are quick to credit alumni such as Lubeck for their support of the program through the Friends of Cornell Jewish Studies, established in 2017 and spearheaded by Eric ‘74 and Laurie Roth ’75.
“The Friends of Jewish Studies has been instrumental in expanding the program,” Brann said. “It represents a distinctively Cornell alumni-faculty partnership to strengthen Jewish studies as a field of study central to research and teaching in the humanities. “
