Forty years ago, a new Jewish studies center was born in the Lehigh Valley. Philip and Muriel Berman, local patrons of the arts and education, knew of academic programs like this in major cities. They wanted the same for their own region. For the 1984-1985 academic year, they made the founding donation for what was then called the Lehigh Valley Jewish Studies Center. Professor Laurence J. Silberstein arrived as its inaugural director and as the Philip and Muriel Berman Chair of Jewish Studies. In 1989, the center was renamed in honor of the Bermans, who endowed it.
Today, the Philip and Muriel Berman Center for Jewish Studies hosts an international research center, an undergraduate minor in Jewish Studies, and numerous special events. It comprises two endowed chairs at Lehigh and one at Lafayette, and serves as a hub for Jewish studies in the region. Over the years, highlights have included visits from authors like Michael Chabon, Chaim Potok and Michael Twitty; major interdisciplinary conferences with proceedings published by New York University Press; and international symposia, including at the British Library and the University of Oxford in the UK, the University of Groningen, Netherlands; and the University of Salento, Italy.
In honor of the Berman Center’s fortieth anniversary, we will celebrate its past, present and future through stories, history, and more. We are commissioning an oral history of the center and seeking memories from everyone who has known it. Keep visiting this page as we expand our timeline! Simultaneously, our “Year of Jews and the Arts” will bring both scholars and artists to our campus and Lehigh Valley community, recalling the Bermans’ love for the arts while connecting with the research of current and past center faculty members.