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Today, we're announcing and celebrating a 1,150,000 thousand dollar gift from the Jewish
Heritage Fund for Excellence to complete the funding for an endowed chair in Judaic Studies
in the Department of Humanities and that's Elaine's department. We're deeply indebted
to the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence and their support and you'll hear from Louis
in just a moment. You know that this group, this organization grew out of the merger between
Jewish Hospital and what was St. Joe's Hospital and created KentuckyOne. And what a great
organization for this community. What a great organization for us at the University of Louisville
and we'll be able to work together, not just on projects like this, but other projects
well into the future that really make a difference in the quality of life in our community. Since
this is really our first major gift, it might be helpful for me to explain who we are and
what we are. In 2012, the legacy Jewish Hospital Healthcare services hospital operations were
merged with the former St. Joseph's health system in Lexington to create KentuckyOne.
As a result of the merger, JHHS changed its name to the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence
to better reflect our organization's mission, an evolved mission, if you would, with financial
resources currently exceeding 90 million dollars. The Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence is
a Louisville based grant-making organization that really has two focuses. Primarily, we
focus on medical research and education and we focus on supporting the Jewish community.
Those things are vital and critical to our heart and this award, being our first biggest,
falls right down that line. The chair of Judaic Studies reaffirms the partnership between
Louisville's Jewish community and the university. A partnership that raises the profile of the
Jewish community on campus offers a local option for students interested in Jewish studies
and provides in conjunction with our participation at the Interfaith Center through our Hello
Program, additional opportunities for the Jewish perspective on national and international
issues to be included in campus discussions and that's very important to us.