Christopher Newport University announced it will be having a new Jewish Studies program thanks to an endowed professorship from Bert and Gladys Aaron, a couple from Williamsburg.
The program starts in August.
“We’re very excited about this,” Gladys Aaron said.
Bert Aaron said the university lacked a professor of Jewish Studies on the lower Peninsula and the new program would bring an understanding of Judaism to various communities.
Richard Freund, the recipient of the professorship, agrees.
“We have every other religion very well represented and they have every other classical language all represented and this was the missing piece,” he said. “So you can have Greek, you can have Latin, you can have Arabic but if you don’t have Hebrew, how can you have a Classics Department?”
Freund said he feels Jewish Studies is a missing piece in the teaching of world civilization and CNU’s new program has the potential to be recognized nationally.
“If you are teaching all of the world’s religions teaching the Hebrew Bible in its original context and you’re not teaching the whole span of religions then the students miss out so this is not only for the Jewish community, it’s not only for the general community, it’s really for the academic integrity of the university,” Freund said.
Freund said he has built three Judaic Studies programs in Latin America, University of Nebraska and the University of Hartford, where he spent the last 20 years teaching students.
In addition to building three academic Jewish programs, Freund has conducted archaeological digs and field studies throughout the world, discovered a Holocaust escape tunnel documented on PBS and lead a team searching for Atlantis featured on National Geographic. He decided to join the CNU’s Department of Philosophy and Religion because he feels he knows how to create a program, which the college could benefit from, according to the university’s announcement.
For now, the university will only offer a Jewish Studies minor but Freund hopes to incorporate four more elements into the new program’s curriculum: the Hebrew language, study abroad programs for hands on experience, coursework with the Hebrew Bible and other religions of the world and involving both the students, faculty and university members as well as the community.
Freund has planned a mini-symposium about the Dead Sea scrolls led by Adolfo Roitman, lead curator of the artifact. The event is Sept. 3.
Details about the event will be forthcoming, Freund said.
