The Swig Judaic Studies Program

Administrative Office

Cowell Hall, Room 311

Phone: (415) 422-6302

Andrew Heinze, Director

The Judaic Studies Program represents one effort at USF toward making concrete the ecumenical dimensions of the Jesuit vision of education. Since 1977 the Department of Theology and Religious Studies has offered a variety of courses in Judaica. In 1979, USF was joined by leaders within the San Francisco Jewish community in establishing an endowment that would enable expansion of the Judaic Studies Program to include visiting scholars in residence, visiting guest lecturers, additions of Jewish literature, reference books and periodicals in Gleeson Library, new course offerings within the University curriculum, and cooperative educational programs with Jewish institutions in the Bay Area.

In the fall of 1983, novelist Chaim Potok formally inaugurated the Judaic Studies Program with his public address, "Jews, Gentiles, and the Bible." Since that time, lectures have been given by such distinguished speakers as Elie Wiesel, 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize; Eugene Borowitz, leading Jewish theologian; Erik Erikson, world renowned psychoanalyst; Lawrence Hoffman, outstanding liturgical scholar; and Albert Vorspan, Vice President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

In addition to USF faculty, visiting scholars have come to USF from across the United States, among them William Brinner, internationally known Middle East scholar; Jo Milgrom, distinguished Biblical art scholar from the Graduate Theological Union; Michael Krasny, nationally known expert on Jewish literature and radio commentator; and Ellis Rivkin, leading Jewish historian from the Hebrew Union College.