When Arthur M. Blank, co-founder and retired co-chair of The Home Depot, pledged five million dollars as part of a five-year challenge grant to Emory’s Institute for Jewish Studies, he intended the funds to help the institute expand its faculty, community outreach, and cooperative teaching with the Candler School of Theology.

On a more personal note, Blank gave special recognition to his rabbi of twenty-three years, Donald Tam of Temple Beth Tikvah in Roswell, “a spiritual leader, and a leader of spirit,” by naming the institute in his honor.

“I can’t think of a more appropriate way to recognize a man who exemplifies the power of combining wisdom and understanding of human relationships in overcoming differences,” Blank said.

With matching funds raised by Emory, the grant will result in a ten-million-dollar endowment for the Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. The institute was established in 1999 as a center for the study of Jewish life and culture, including classic texts, the Holocaust, Hebrew language and literature, contemporary Israel, and modern Jewish identity.

“This gift gives us a chance to do wonderful things–to enhance the faculty and add new positions, to participate in doctoral programs in other departments, to offer students additional financial support,” says Deborah Lipstadt, institute director and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies. “It’s a great show of confidence.”

The institute has a core of thirteen faculty members, three of whom hold endowed professorships, with another thirteen professors serving as associate faculty. Lipstadt would like to expand the institute’s offerings in Jewish history and the anthropological study of the worldwide Jewish community.

Rabbi Tam was flabbergasted by the honor. “Arthur is a very complex and very fine human being,” he says.

Tam would like to see the institute offer ongoing education to rabbis working in congregations as well as community programs and summer workshops open to anyone, Jewish and non-Jewish. “Years ago in Santa Fe, I attended a roundtable discussion on the great books in Western Civilization with nurses, teachers, clergy,” he says. “It would be wonderful if this could be done here for Jewish great books, life, and culture.”

Blank, who serves as a guest lecturer at Goizueta Business School, has long been involved in Atlanta’s Jewish community and hopes the Tam Institute can play a vital role by allowing “Jewish scholars and Christian theologians [to] more deeply understand and respect each other’s religions, traditions, and cultures.”

With the endowment, says David Blumenthal, Cohen Professor of Judaic Studies, Emory can leap to the forefront of Jewish scholarship in the country.

“This gift,” he says, “will allow us to create an island of excellence.” –M.J.L.

To learn more, go to www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/JewishStudies