The Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies has received a major gift from Sherry Mayrent and Carol Master, and the Corners Fund for Traditional Cultures — a Donor advised fund of Combined Jewish Philanthropies — to establish the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture at UW-Madison.
The institute will be the only one of its kind, devoted to exploring the world of Yiddish through the arts.
Mayrent and Master chose UW-Madison for their gift in response to the success of the Henry Sapoznik’s 2009 Interdisciplinary Arts Residency at UW-Madison and the concurrent symposium of the Conney Project on Jewish Arts.
Sapoznik, one of this generation's leading scholars on Yiddish culture, will be the director of the Mayrent Institute and will join the university in 2011.
He is currently the Executive Director of Living Traditions and founder of KlezKamp— both which will now be headquartered in Madison — and the creator of the Peabody Award-winning Yiddish Radio Project, broadcast on National Public Radio
In addition to their gift, Mayrent and Master are planning to donate their collection of over 7,400 digitized recordings of Jewish music to Mills Music Library, which will provide on-line access to the collection.
The institute will also produce publications, recordings, conferences, and other outreach activities, including a summer KlezKamp event in Madison.
- UW-Madison to establish Yiddish institute (Wisconsin State Journal)
- UW-Madison Jewish center gets $1 million gift (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)