“They were people with intense curiosity, boundless energy, and genuine enthusiasm for people, ideas, and projects.”
When Nancy Berman ’97H remembers her parents, Philip ’69H and Muriel ’91H Berman, she describes them as a “dynamic duo” with a great passion for Lehigh. It’s a passion she shares.
“They were people with intense curiosity, boundless energy, and genuine enthusiasm for people, ideas, and projects,” recalls Berman, president and executive director of the Los Angeles-based Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation. “They impacted innumerable lives, landscapes, and institutions.”
Lehigh is one of the institutions transformed by their philanthropy. As the Berman Center for Jewish Studies marks its 40th anniversary this year, their legacy at the university is affirmed. In 1984, the Bermans made the founding gift for what was then the Lehigh Valley Center for Jewish Studies. In 1989, it was renamed for the Bermans, who established an endowment to support it. Philip Berman had seen similar centers in larger cities and wanted his community to have such a resource.
Berman says her parents supported Lehigh because they found a partner open to innovation and ideas.
“My parents respected and believed in Lehigh as a quality university providing an excellent education. Supporting Lehigh was possible because several of its presidents were responsive to ideas and initiatives to expand the university’s offerings that grew out of my parents’ involvement with the arts and Jewish scholarship,” Berman says. “These offerings have helped Lehigh to evolve, [giving] students more well-rounded academic and student life experiences. The partnership between Lehigh and the Berman Foundation has been successful in creating such distinctive programs. The result has been a campus that is a sculpture garden and a Jewish studies center that is among Lehigh’s most active centers and institutes, with many programs, exhibits, publications, and courses.”
“They believed in education,” Berman adds, saying that promoting scholarly study of Judaism was a primary motivation for establishing the center. It has fulfilled her parents’ goal, housing Lehigh’s Jewish studies minor, with classes open to all students. A strong academic focus is the basis for the exchange of ideas epitomized in the center’s description as “a place for conversation.” She praises its robust offerings, with courses examining topics as diverse as the history of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the Holocaust, Judaism and comic books, and Zionism. Its academic focus is also reflected in the presence of three Berman professors in Jewish studies — two at Lehigh and one at Lafayette College. Berman Professor of Jewish Studies Hartley Lachter served as the center’s director from 2014-23.
Throughout its 40-year history, the Berman Center has been known for bringing distinguished speakers to campus, such as Michael Chabon, Chaim Potok, and Michael Twitty; holding annual conferences; and co-sponsoring the Oxford Summer Institute on Modern and Contemporary Judaism in England.
Calling her parents “academic impresarios,” Berman says they offered more than financial support, leveraging their considerable networks to bring speakers, exhibitions, adjunct professors from Israel, ambassadors, and Vatican prelates to the center. They took special pride in making a connection with the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome that led to the Berman Center’s first director, Laurence Silberstein, spending a semester there as a visiting professor in Judaism.
Jodi Eichler-Levine, director of the Berman Center and Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization, says, “Through the support of the Berman family and the efforts of the center’s founding director, Dr. Larry Silberstein, Lehigh was one of the first research universities to have a major Jewish studies presence outside of a metropolitan area. As a scholarly field, Jewish studies is a young one — our learned society, the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), was founded in the late 1960s. To have a four-decade legacy of robust Jewish studies at a university of Lehigh's size is a remarkable achievement. Today, Lehigh is a Research-1 institution, and both of our endowed Berman professors are on the AJS board of directors. The Berman family's vision was a prescient one, and Dr. Silberstein built a powerful program.”
Nancy Berman says her father and mother’s relationship with Lehigh was surprising given that her father did not graduate from college. “Dad was a farm boy from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, and completed only one year at Ursinus College because of the Great Depression. He had to go home to help the family in its trucking business,” she says. Her mother grew up in Pittsburgh and was raised by her Russian immigrant father, a widower. She graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and Pennsylvania College of Optometry, becoming an optometrist. “She was a feminist and pioneer in her field,” Berman says.
The Bermans’ other great passion — collecting art — first drew them to Lehigh. They became friends of the late Francis Quirk, then head of fine arts and director of exhibits at the university.
In a nod to the Berman family’s commitment to the arts, “Jews and the Arts” is the theme of the yearlong celebration of the Berman Center’s anniversary. It features events focusing on both the visual and performing arts. An April 10 concert featuring the band Pharaoh’s Daughter will be held at the Zoellner Arts Center.
Nancy Berman has continued her family’s tradition of supporting Lehigh, serving 11 years as a trustee, and was also a member of the academic affairs committee for seven years, the cultural affairs committee for 11 years, the executive committee for three years, and the advancement committee for one year. Berman’s service to Lehigh also includes being a corporate trustee from 2004-09 and trustee emeritus since 2013.
While the foundation she heads provides support, she takes particular pride in working to enhance campus life for Jewish students. She was part of a group that raised funds to hire a full-time rabbi to support Jewish students at the Hillel Society. The position is now held by Rabbi Steve Nathan, endowed director of Jewish student life and associate chaplain.
“That was very important to me,” she says. “It was something that needed to happen, and I felt very good about playing a role in it.”
