November 2009 eNewsletter

PROGRAM NEWS

Welcome to Dr. Asya Vaisman, the 2009-10 Hazel D. Cole Fellow in Jewish Studies 

Asya recently completed her PhD in the Yiddish program of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department at Harvard University. Her dissertation topic is "Being Heard: The Yiddish Songs and Singing Practices of Contemporary Hasidic Women." Asya conducted original fieldwork for her dissertation in the Hasidic communities in New York, Jerusalem, London, and Antwerp.

She will be teaching a course, “Love, Labor, Loss: The Lives of Ashkenazi Jewish Women in Yiddish Song,” during Winter quarter.

Asya will be giving a public talk, “My Song in the Night: The Musical Lives of Hasidic Women,” on Thursday, December 3 from 3:00-4:30 p.m. in the Communications building, room 202.

 DONOR PROFILE

Janet P. Heineck
Middle East Cataloger and Jewish Studies Selector in the University Libraries
 

Janet has been a steady presence at Jewish Studies Program (JSP) faculty meetings and lectures for a number of years. She keeps our faculty up to date on new book and resource purchases that might be of use to them in their research and courses. In April 2009, Janet created a display of Jewish Studies faculty publications featured in Suzzallo library on the UW Seattle campus. On top of her work on behalf of the Program, Janet has been a generous annual financial supporter of the JSP. It has always been very clear that Janet felt committed to her work and to the Program.

And then, she did something that completely stunned us…

In September 2009, we learned that Janet had made a planned gift (bequest) to the JSP to create the Janet P. Heineck Discretionary Endowed Fund in Jewish Studies, which will provide funds to support the Program’s most critical needs. In addition, Janet made planned gifts to create endowments in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilization department to support Hebrew Studies and also a discretionary fund for UW Libraries.

Janet says of her decision to make these gifts through her will, "In my role as the University Libraries' Jewish Studies selector, I have been inspired by the erudition, creativity, and friendliness of the many faculty and administrative staff I have met over the years who have been associated with the Jewish Studies Program. I am honored to have this opportunity to offer resources to a future chair to be used where need is judged to be greatest."

Janet earned her B.A. in 1970 (the first woman to earn the Near East B.A.) and M.A. in 1970, both from the UW's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. She joined the Suzzallo staff on July 21, 1980.

She adds, “I have studied modern and Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic in recent years, and have learned from and enjoyed in equal measure Prof. Scott Noegel's classes and lectures, other NELC public lectures, Jewish Studies colloquia, and especially the annual Stroum lectures.”

“As you can see, I have spent most of my adult life around the University of Washington and its Libraries, as a student and now as an employee. Faculty in NELC and in the Jewish Studies Program are continuing influences, and those friendly contacts have been a pleasant part of my life over the years. It seemed perfectly natural therefore to wish to leave a bequest in support of the work of NELC, of the Jewish Studies Program, and the Libraries, and I am most happy to do so.”

The Stroum Jewish Studies Program is most grateful to Janet for so generously including the JSP in her estate planning and to have had the vision to create a legacy so she may always be connected to the Program and the Program can continue to benefit from her tremendous commitment.