By Faye S. Wolfe

When my husband I were approached about endowing the Center for Jewish Studies, we said, ‘Why not?’” Pamela Jacobs ’69 cheerfully downplays the generosity of the gift that she and her husband, Robert Jacobs ’68, made last year. (The couple met her freshman year. Pamela earned her degree in English; Robert, now an attorney, graduated a year earlier as a government major.)

Endowing the center, she explains, was a natural for them because, being UMass Amherst alums and “observant Jews,” she says, “that’s where our interests lie.” In the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area where she lives, Pamela volunteers through her synagogue. Among her mitzvot, or good works: taking Shabbat candles to Jewish patients in hospitals.

The Jacobs have always given back to UMass Amherst, both time and money. From 1998 to 2001 Pamela was leader of the Washington, D.C.–area alumni club and has helped organize many get-togethers: cruises on the Potomac, opera and theater dates, and other events. She is currently a director of the UMass Amherst Foundation. “We’ve prospered, and as we were able to give more, we have.”

In 2001 the Jacobs endowed the Robert and Pamela Jacobs Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Life & Culture. The speakers have been distinguished, indeed, including U.S. ambassador Dennis Ross, who offered his insights and perspective on Middle East peace negotiations; and former member of the Israeli parliament Naomi Chazen, who shared her insider’s view of the Knesset. Daniel Libeskind delivered the 2006 lecture. The son of Holocaust survivors, the master-plan architect for the New York City World Trade Center site has received numerous awards for his architectural and urban design work, including the 2001 Hiroshima Art Prize, given to artists whose work promotes international understanding and peace. Representing a range of expertise, all the guest speakers have more than met the aims of the series to illuminate aspects of contemporary Jewish thought, education, culture, and politics.

The Center for Jewish Studies, part of the College of Humanities & Fine Arts, offers students and faculty a way of enriching their understanding of Jewish life. In presenting lectures, symposia, and other events, it opens its doors as well to the larger community. The Jacobs were motivated to support the Center for Jewish Studies by their sense of connection to campus and their respect for James Young, chair of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies. Also a professor of English, Young was on the jury that selected the World Trade Center Memorial design.

James Young is equally enthusiastic about the Jacobs and their most recent gift. “We can find many ways to use it,” he says. “It might fund student awards, for the ‘best student paper,’ for instance. It could support faculty travel, or student travel, or a publication award, to be given to a faculty member who has a book accepted by a major press. Or a series of lectures, on topics that would appeal to the student body, to the academic and local communities, focusing on current issues like the Israel-Palestine conflict or the subject of mixed identities in this country. They’d be designed to complement the series we already run: the Jacobs lectures and the Posen lectures. Another possible way to use the funding would be for outreach, to encourage students to volunteer in the community.”

However their gift is applied, Pamela hopes that it will be a source of illumination, as meaningful as those Shabbat candles. “Perhaps the most important thing motivating Bob and me to support the center is that there is so much misunderstanding,” explains Pamela, that gives rise to conflict in the Middle East and beyond. Through their support, the Center for Judaic Studies might find more ways “to open people’s eyes, be a source of information and a forum for students to discuss important issues,” she says, “and, we hope, foster better understanding.”