History of the Institute
The Goldreich Family Institute was established in 2005 by a generous endowment of the Goldrich Family in Los Angeles and donations from friends in honor of Jona Goldrich’s exemplary contributions and initiatives to commemorate Jewish collective memory and civilization both in his local area and in Israel. This endowment together with a previous endowment from the Abraham I. Lerner Fund intended for Yiddish language instruction enabled the new Institute to offer year-long courses on the Yiddish language and to promote the study of Yiddish culture in departments in the Humanities Faculty. Under the leadership of its Founding Director, Professor Hana Wirth-Nesher, the Institute also organized and sponsored national and international conferences and symposia on Yiddish literature and culture, devoted to a variety of topics including “Yiddish: Between Languages and Theories” and “Yiddish and German in Dialogue.” These conferences, along with contributions by other leading scholars, resulted in the publication of Modern Yiddish Literary Studies, a special issue of Poetics Today edited by Prof. Wirth-Nesher, devoted to contemporary developments in Yiddish research, including a comprehensive annotated bibliography of recent sources.
In addition to activities at the Goldreich Family Institute throughout the academic year, in 2007 the Institute also launched, in cooperation with Beth Shalom Aleichem, an international Yiddish summer program at Tel Aviv University which immediately became the world’s largest and most diverse program, with well over 100 students annually from Israel and around the world. Its academic directors are Prof. Hana Wirth-Nesher and Prof. Avraham Novershtern of Beth Shalom Aleichem.
The Anna and Max Webb Chair for Visiting Scholars in Yiddish was established in 2007 as part of the Goldreich Institute and the Anna and Max Webb School of Languages through the donation of the Webb Family of Los Angeles. Among the Webb scholars who have taught at the Institute are Professors Justin Cammy, David Roskies, Michael Stanislawski, Dan Miron, Anita Norich.
When Dr. Naomi Kadar, one of the most beloved teachers of the summer program, passed away in 2010, her family donated scholarships for students during the summers of 2010 and 2011, and in 2012 the summer program was renamed the Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Program at Tel University after receiving a generous donation from the newly established Naomi Foundation.
In 2005, the Goldreich Institute, headed by Prof. Wirth-Nesher, and the Literature Department at TAU initiated a unique interuniversity MA Program in Yiddish Studies after being awarded a grant from Yad Hanadiv with partner institutions, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben Gurion University of the Negev. The Goldreich Institute continues to administer this MA program. The combined successes of the graduate degree program and the international summer course provided the strong base for the recruitment of a young scholar in the field of Yiddish studies to insure continuity and development of the field. To that end, the Naomi Foundation donated funds to make it possible to create a regular tenure-track appointment in Yiddish literature, and Dr. Hannah-Pollin Galay joined the faculty in the Literature Department in 2017.
With more advanced students affiliated with the Goldreich Institute, the need arose to provide more instruction, support, and enrichment at higher levels of Yiddish knowledge than introductory and undergraduate study. To honor the memory of the founding donor of the Institute, Jona Goldreich, his family has now funded the Goldrich Foundation Advanced Yiddish Studies Forum, providing advanced scholarly and cultural activity.
Since its inception in 2005, the Goldreich Family Institute has become a world-wide hub for promoting Yiddish studies in academia, devoted to increasing knowledge and awareness of Yiddish language and culture for the next generation both in Israel and globally.
Jona Goldreich
Jona Goldreich, for whom the brutality of the Nazis was a harsh reality, fled Poland with his younger brother Avram, en route to Israel in a memorable 1942 trek through Europe. A veteran of the War of Independence in which he served in the Israeli Navy and the Merchant Marine as a mechanical engineer, Jona immigrated to the United States in 1950, making his way by bus to Los Angeles in 1952 because "its climate is closest to that of Israel". There he began work as a window and screen installer, eventually becoming one of California's successful developers of housing and a prominent philanthropist, particularly in the Jewish community.
A member of the TAU Board of Governors, along with his wife Doretta, he translated his love of Israel and the memory of his family members who died in the Holocaust into the growth of Tel Aviv University.
Reflecting his tennis and skiing skills, Jona was the catalyst in the development of The Goldreich Multipurpose Sports Center, The Goldreich Family Health and Fitness Center and the Sender Goldreich Fitness Room. In addition, he underwrote the Goldreich Chair in International Banking. He was especially proud of his founding of The Goldreich Family Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature & Culture and The Annual Yiddish Summer Program at Tel Aviv University (2006-2011).
In Los Angeles, Jona was the prime mover behind the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument located in Pan Pacific Park, including the two annual Holocaust Remembrance ceremonies attended by thousands of Los Angeleis adults and children. A former Man of the Year of the National Housing Conference, Jona was awarded an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University.
Jona and Doretta’s children, Melinda and Andrea (married to Barry Clayton) have continued the legacy of their father’s devotion to Yiddish by establishing the Goldrich Foundation Advanced Yiddish Studies Forum which provides advanced study and cultural activity for those whose knowledge obtained through the Institute has enabled them to benefit from advanced instruction and engagement with Yiddish culture.
Jona viewed his three grandchildren, Garrett, Lindsay and Derek, as his personal triumph over Hitler.
Abraham I. Lerner
Abraham Isaac Lerner was born in 1907 in Warsaw, and died in 1993 in London. With the establishment of the Abraham I. Lerner Fund for Tel Aviv University, Mr. Lerner enabled the university to offer Yiddish language instruction throughout the academic year, as well as to support MA and PhD students with their research in Yiddish related studies. Love of Yiddish language and culture motivated Mr. Lerner to become a generous donor for this cause throughout his lifetime.
Max Webb
Max Webb was born in 1917, in Lodz, Poland where he lived with his parents, Avraham and Sheva Weisbrot, five sisters and one brother until 1939. By 1945, he had been in twelve concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the Death March of 1944. He is one of three to survive in his immediate family. In March 2018 Max celebrated his 101st birthday
After liberation in 1946, Max married Sala Shapell in Munchberg, Germany, and they had two daughters, Helen, known as Chara, and Rose, both currently residing in Northern California. After immigrating to the United States, Max founded, together with his brothers- in -law Nathan and David Shapell, Shapell Industries and Shapell and Webb, Inc. , which became the largest private home building business in Southern California.
In 1991, Max married Anna Hitter Webb of Los Angeles. Born Chana Rubinstein, she enjoyed a happy and comfortable childhood in Poland until the outbreak of World War II, when her family was uprooted, first to Siberia and then to Uzbekistan where she married Joseph Hitter, a fellow Polish refugee who has been educated at a Warsaw yeshiva and the Gymnasium in Lublin. In 1955 they immigrated to the United States, where they raised their two children, Steven Michael Hitter and Sabrina Hitter Silvers. In 1993, she married Max Webb, and together they shared a strong commitment to Jewish causes, both in Israel and in the United States until her death in 2011.
Anna and Max Webb have been generous supporters of medical facilities, yeshivas, and higher education. At Tel Aviv University, they donated the Max Webb Family School of Languages Building and the Anna and Max Webb Chair for Visiting Scholars in Yiddish. They are among the founding donors of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument (spearheaded by Jona Goldrich).
Both Max and Anna Webb were awarded honorary doctorates from Tel Aviv University and Bar Ilan University.
