Felix Posen Awarded Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University

NEW YORK, NY, June 15, 2006 - Felix Posen, the chair of the Posen Foundation, was named Doctor Philosophia Honoris Causa in a ceremony last month at Tel Aviv University. He was honored “in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the promotion of Jewish culture, history, philosophy and society in Israel and around the world.”

The ceremony, held on May 20th and attended by over one thousand guests, marked the 50th anniversary of Tel Aviv University. Among this year’s distinguished honorees from all over the world were Joschka Fischer, the former German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor, who addressed the audience on behalf of the honorees.

“It is a great honor and pleasure for all the honorees to be here tonight,” he told an audience that included Yuli Tamir, Israel’s Minister of Education. Fellow honorees included Liz Mohn, chairperson of Bertelsmann Asset Management Group, and Amalia Kahana-Carmon, an Israel Prize-winning scholar, with whom Mr. Posen shared the dais.

Among such distinguished company, Mr. Posen was singled out for “his indefatigable effort to familiarize secular Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora with the richness and diversity of Judaism; his enduring support for numerous educational and cultural institutions in Israel that spans decades; in special recognition of his generosity and vision in establishing and being deeply involved in two innovative programs that are transforming Jewish studies at Tel Aviv University - an academic training program for Jewish Studies educators (Ofakim) and a program that enables young Israelis to learn the cultural aspects of Judaism.”

Mr. Posen was born in Berlin, Germany and made his career as a businessman. A longtime champion of Jewish education, he has funded college courses in the secularization of Jewish history and cultures, a complex subject best understood through a semester’s devoted study. “There are a huge number of Judaica programs in the United States, and some of them are absolutely superb,” said Mr. Posen in a 2005 Public Radio interview. “But no one until now has had a course in teaching Judaism as a secular culture.”

The Posen Project was launched in 2000, and in 2003, the first group of Posen Grant recipients was selected in the United States. The program has since expanded, with five additional institutions - including Brown University and the Graduate Theological Union -being named this past spring.

Mr. Posen expects the program to expand further, a prediction he shared at the 2nd annual Posen Conference. “The number of institutions is 25,” he said, counting those in both the United States and Israel. “I think we’ll double that in the next four or five years.”

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