The story
The institute was founded in 1924 as Chicago's College of Jewish Studies. In 1970, its name changed from College of Jewish Studies to Spertus College to honor donations made by brothers Maurice and Herman Spertus. In 1993, the name was changed to Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. In 2013, the name changed to Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.
Notable Faculty and Presenters
During and following World War II, many renowned refugee scholars from Nazi-occupied Europe served on the Spertus faculty. Among them were Dr. Fritz Bamberger, who, following his decades teaching philosophy and comparative literature, left academia to run Esquire magazine; and Simon Rawidowicz and Nahum N. Glatzer, who went on to establish the Jewish Studies Department at Brandeis University. Another was Moses Shulvass.
More recently, Rabbi Dr. Byron Sherwin (1946–2015) was director of doctoral programs.
Well-known presenters have included Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, author Jonathan Safran Foer, architect Moshe Safdie, hip-hop artist Y-Love, pianist/actor/playwright Hershey Felder, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Psychologist Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, and statistician Nate Silver.
Honorary degree recipients from 1949 to 2011 have included Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Abba Eban, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, author and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, author and Nobel Literature Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, feminist author Betty Friedan, actor Leonard Nimoy, and Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi.
From Wikipedia’s article on Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5