Honoring Professor Arnold Dashefsky

 

Arnold DashefskyIf I have achieved a position
worthy of merit, part of the
credit belongs to my colleagues,
who have nurtured me, to the
administrators who encouraged
me, to the friends and alumni
of the University who have
supported our goals, and to my
students who challenged me.

-- Arnold Dashefsky

Interim Provost Jeremy Teitelbaum cordially invites you to celebrate

Arnold Dashefsky’s career and contributions to the University of Connecticut.

A ceremony and lecture, followed by reception, will be held in honor of Professor Dashefsky. 

 

Sunday, October 29, 2017 

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm 

UConn Alumni Center

 

To RSVP to this event or if you require an accommodation to participate, please kindly respond by October 9, 2017 to the Center for Judaic Studies by phone: 860.486.2271 or email: judaicstudies@uconn.edu

About the Speaker

 

Dr. Jonathan Sarna is University Professor and the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and Chair of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University. He is also past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Dubbed by the Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America’s fifty most influential American Jews, he was Chief Historian for the 350th commemoration of the American Jewish community, and is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion and life. In 2009, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Born in Philadelphia, and raised in New York and Boston, Dr. Sarna attended Brandeis University, the Boston Hebrew College, Merkaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, and Yale University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1979.

From 1979-1990, Dr. Sarna taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he rose to become Professor of American Jewish history and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience. He has also taught at Harvard, Yale, the University of Cincinnati, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Dr. Sarna came back to Brandeis in 1990 to teach American Jewish history in its Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He chaired that department three different times, and now chairs Brandeis’ Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. He also chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.

Dr. Sarna has written, edited, or co-edited more than thirty books, including Lincoln and the Jews: A History (with Benjamin Shapell) and When General Grant Expelled the Jews. He is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History. Winner of the Jewish Book Council’s “Jewish Book of the Year Award” in 2004, it has been praised as being “the single best description of American Judaism during its 350 years on American soil.”

He is married to Professor Ruth Langer, and they have two children, Aaron and Leah.

About the Honoree

 

Dr. Arnold Dashefsky served as the inaugural holder of the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies and is professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, where he is now emeritus. A former associate head of the sociology department, he was the founding director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at UConn and is the director emeritus and current senior academic consultant of the Berman Jewish DataBank. He is the co-editor, along with Ira Sheskin of the University of Miami, of the renowned American Jewish Year Book, which had ceased publication in 2009 after issuing 108 volumes from 1899-2008. He is the co-author or editor of ten books, including Americans Abroad, Charitable Choices, and Ethnic Identification Among American Jews.

Dr. Dashefsky’s research has been cited in diverse popular publications, including Money, Fortune, and the Jerusalem Post. He has served as a consultant to the American Jewish Committee; Commission on Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford; Jewish Education Association of MetroWest, NJ; Rhode Island Department of Vocational Education Sex Equity Project; and the United Jewish Appeal. In addition, he has appeared on television and radio programs in Connecticut. He has been honored by being named a distinguished alumnus of Gratz College (Philadelphia) at its Centennial Convocation and elected to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (New Haven) just prior to its Bicentennial.

Professor Dashefsky is one of the founders of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ), an international organization, and served as president as well as past editor of its journal, Contemporary Jewry. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, George Washington University, and Florida Atlantic University. In 2012, he received the Berman Award for Service from ASSJ. He served two terms as Secretary-Treasurer and board member of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS).

As director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, he helped bring nearly two million dollars in endowments to UConn and a similar sum in external grants. Finally, he continues to teach his popular course on the Sociology of Anti-Semitism at UConn.

Giving

 

If you wish to make a contribution, please visit our giving pages where gifts can be made to:

The Drs. Arnold M. and Sandra W. Dashefsky Student Award for Excellence to help the Department of Sociology award students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement in the topics of American Jewry, prejudice, discrimination, racism or anti-Semitism.

Or the Sylvia and Leo Dashefsky Prize, which helps the Center award students for excellence in Hebrew, Yiddish, or Judaic studies.

Getting Here

 

Free parking is available at the North Garage and is within a short walk of the Alumni Center.  Due to road closures and campus construction, please allow extra time for driving and parking on campus. North Eagleville Road will be closed. Because UConn's Open House is also on October 29, officers will be directing traffic. 

North Garage: The entrance to North Garage is on Alumni Drive

UConn Alumni Center: 2384 Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT  06269 

 campus mapTo North Parking Garage, Storrs, CT

Take I-84 east/west to exit 68 (Route 195). Follow Route 195 south approximately 7 miles. Turn right onto Route 44 (Middle Turnpike). Drive 1/2 mile, then turn left at the first stop light onto Discovery Drive. At traffic light, continue straight on to Hillside Road, and take the first left onto Alumni Drive where the entrance to North Garage is located.

(Please be aware that while the physical address of North Garage is listed as N. Eagleville Road, the entrance is actually around the block on Alumni Drive.)