From the Duke News Service

October 13, 1999

Duke University's new Freeman Center for Jewish Life will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24, during Parents' Weekend.

The $3 million, 17,000-square-foot facility provides Jewish students, faculty and staff at Duke with a place to worship, study, eat and gather. It is also available to all of Duke's students as well as members of the Durham community.

During the dedication ceremony, several of the founding benefactors will be honored, including:

• Brian and Harriet Freeman of Short Hills, N.J., whose three children, Danyelle, Amanda and Heath, either attended or are now enrolled at Duke. The Freemans made the primary private contribution toward the construction of the building. Brian Freeman is vice chairman of UNext.com, a distance education business he co-founded in 1997. Previously, he was president of Brian M. Freeman Enterprises Inc., an investment banking firm he founded in 1985. He is a member of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy's board of visitors at Duke. Harriet Freeman is a member of the Center for Jewish Life's board of directors.
• Samuel and Veronica Heyman of New York City, whose son Larry graduated from Duke in 1994 and whose daughter Elizabeth is currently a Duke student. The Heymans' gift will endow the center's directorship.
• Bernice Levenson Lerner of Salisbury, a 1953 graduate of Duke's Woman's College, and her late husband Morton, whose three children graduated from Duke. The Levenson-Lerner Sanctuary in the center is named in honor of the Lerner family.
• Philip and Susan Oppenheimer Sassower of New York City, whose son Edward received his undergraduate and law degrees from Duke. The center's library and adjoining terrace are named in the family's honor.
• Gilbert D. and Ruth N. Scharf of New York City, both Duke graduates, who initiated the process that led to the construction of the center. The center's multi-purpose area is named Scharf Commons in their honor.

"We are most grateful to the Freeman family and other friends who recognized the real need for a Center for Jewish Life on campus," said Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane. "This magnificent building provides a place for Jewish students, faculty and staff to worship and get together for informal interaction. It is also available to, and being used by, all of our students as well as members of the Durham community as a splendid gathering place."

Brian Freeman said it is his family's intent that the center benefit and serve the entire Duke and Durham community. "My family and I have viewed it as a privilege and an opportunity to be able to help enhance the fabric of Duke, including its students' cultural and social experience and perspective," he said.

Center Director Roger Kaplan said the center, which opened last May during graduation weekend, has quickly become a popular place on campus. Conservative and Reform services during the Jewish High Holidays attracted hundreds of worshipers, and the number of people — both students and community members — eating kosher dinners at the center five nights each week has steadily climbed. In addition, the center has held a forum on hate crimes, hosted a wedding reception, and been used by several campus groups, including non-Jewish student groups, for meetings.

"A building is nothing more than four walls," Kaplan said. "What is essential is the programming that goes on inside it. As beautiful as this is to visitors, prospective students and alumni, what's important is how we're able to serve the students, the whole campus and the community."

Kaplan added: "One of the things that President Keohane has often said is that we must educate the whole student. This center provides for the spiritual, cultural, social and educational needs of Duke's Jewish students, so they can have a complete experience here."

Those speaking at the dedication service include Freeman; Keohane; Kaplan; Judith Ruderman, vice provost for academic and administrative services; Joel Fleishman, director of the Heyman Center for Ethics at Duke; Eric Meyers, Bernice and Morton Lerner professor of religion at Duke and chairman of the center's board of directors; student Sarah Bell; alumnus William Bermont; and Randall Kaplan of Greensboro, representing the International Center of Hillel's Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Rabbis Frank Fischer, John Friedman, Pinchas Lew and Steve Sager also will be participating in the program and music will be provided by the Ciompi Quartet and the Triangle Jewish Chorale.

People who wish to attend the dedication ceremony are asked to call (919) 681-0409 in advance.

[back to main news page]