#OTDJH: October 20, 1948

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#onthisday, 1948, Brandeis University was founded and officially opened in Waltham, Massachusetts.

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The university’s mission was to provide an equal environment for those of all backgrounds and beliefs, at a time when the American Jewish community was faced with discrimination on the collegiant level.

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The idea of forming an American university that provided a place for young Jewish adults to receive higher educations had long been a subject of controversy.

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Opponents argued that doing so might imply that the Jewish community accepted the academic segregation imposed on them. However, a desire for education and a willingness to contribute to the American workforce justified Brandeis’s formation. The founders built the school off of these values.

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The university offers an education to all and takes care not to push Jewish-specific ideology onto students. Still, for the first four decades, Brandeis provided a home to a student body that was at least two-thirds Jewish. To this day, almost half of its undergraduate students are Jewish.

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Louis Dembitz Brandeis, the first Jewish justice to serve on the Supreme Court, was the namesake for the university. He was an advocate for the ordinary citizen and he valued truth, thus passing these principles onto Brandeis’s students.

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The university itself quickly became highly respected, despite its young age. Its qualities as nonsectarian, private, and coeducational appealed to students within and beyond the Jewish community. The faculty is widely recognized for teaching excellence to this day, and it has long been one of the 65 distinguished colleges composing the Association of American Universities.

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From the start, part of the school’s dining room was permanently kept kosher. Non-kosher foods were briefly introduced to the menu and the university’s logo changed to omit any Hebrew in an effort to attract more diverse students.

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Today, Brandeis ranks within the top 50 American universities.

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✍: @madelynilana

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#onthisday#judaism#jewish#jewishhistory#brandeis#founded#university#inclusion#otdjh

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Text Source:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/brandeis-university

Image Source:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/12/20/university-adds-caste-nondiscrimination-policy