Center for Jewish Studies Acquires Scholarly Collections

Recent gifts to the University of Wisconsin Foundation for the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have supported the acquisition of three important scholarly collections.

With a gift from the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, New York City, the Center will purchase the full Hebrew and Yiddish Collections of Harvard College Library. Reproduced on microfiche, the collections offer more than 11,000 texts, including both rabbinical and secular works. The Hebrew collection, one of the most comprehensive collections of Judaica in the world, encompasses works from ancient, medieval and modern times. The Yiddish collection includes many previously inaccessible works with primary research value.

Rita Kaplan earned her bachelor of art’s degree from the University of Wisconsin’s College of Letters and Science in 1948. Her husband was the founder and chair of Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center Ltd. The Kaplan Foundation, incorporated in 1984, provides support for the arts, Jewish causes and health-care projects such as the Kaplan Comprehensive Cancer Center at New York University Hospital.

The Kaplan Foundation gift to the Center for Jewish Studies was made in honor of several family members, including Rita Kaplan, Susan Beth Kaplan, Rosalie Kaplan Sporn, Leslie Sporn Symonds and Eugene Sporn, all alumni of the UW–Madison.

The Center also has acquired the Comprehensive Collection of Yiddish Literature, approximately 1,000 volumes from the extensive duplicate holdings of the National Yiddish Book Center. The volumes include reference works, essential texts in history, biography, ethnography, social theory and other non-fiction areas, together with literary anthologies and major works of Yiddish prose, poetry, drama and literary criticism.

Acquisition of the Yiddish literature collection was made possible by gifts from Paul Wolff (’63 L&S) and his wife, Rhea Schwartz, Washington, D.C., and Dr. Stuart (’64 L&S) and Toni Holden, Beverly Hills, Calif.

“These collections will be of great benefit to our students and faculty as well as visiting scholars,” said David Sorkin, Frances and Laurence Weinstein Professor of Jewish Studies and director of the Center for Jewish Studies. “On-campus access to these collections significantly increases the Center’s scholarly resources and contributes to the strength and importance of our developing program. We are grateful to all of these donors for their generous support of the Center.”

The Center for Jewish Studies was founded in 1991 to enhance the curriculum and expand the UW’s program in this field. The Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies, established in 1955 as the first department of its kind at a public university in the United States, provides a foundation for the Center and its interdisciplinary program, which offers students the opportunity to explore many different aspects of Jewish culture and history.