Washington Jewish Week
12/8/2010 11:00:00 AM
Thanks to a $125,000 donation from a Washington, D.C., couple, Gallaudet University’s Hillel has a new name and a welcome financial cushion.
The organization for Jewish students at the D.C. school for the deaf is now known as the Richard and Lois England Hillel Program. The Englands have also provided an equivalent amount in need-based scholarships.
The $250,000 total endowment, said Lynne Murray, Gallaudet’s vice president for development, establishes “a permanently endowed fund to provide educational and cultural Jewish programs and to provide scholarship aid to students.”
The portion of the donation that is earmarked for Hillel “will help us to maintain the program” by underwriting various student outreach activities, said Gallaudet Hillel director Paula Tucker. The money, for example, will enable Hillel occasionally to offer free Shabbat dinners, she pointed out.
A year ago, however, it was uncertain whether Hillel would continue at Gallaudet due to cuts in the organization’s personnel budget.
“Hillel had very little money, and I thought they needed help because what they do is very important,” said philanthropist Richard England, 90, whose hearing was severely damaged in World War II. (He said he now has a cochlear implant.)
The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning had eliminated Tucker’s salary. Hillel’s only staffer, she holds a part-time position. But she stepped up fundraising efforts and continued providing programs once or twice monthly for the some 50-75 Jewish students on campus.
Tucker credited Gallaudet’s new president, Alan Hurwitz, who is Jewish, with “helping to seal the deal” with the Englands. — WJW staff
Source: washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=13975&SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&S=1
