UC Berkeley Jewish Law and Israel Studies Institute Receives $10M Gift from Helen Diller Foundation

To kick off the 10th anniversary of UC Berkeley’s Jewish Law and Israel Studies Institute, the university announced on Feb. 9 that a $10 million endowment gift has been given by the Helen Diller Foundation.

The institute, now recognized as the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley, will ensure a lasting legacy for its Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies. Housed at Berkeley Law, the institute engages students, faculty and the broader community in Israel Studies, and Jewish law, thought and identity.

This grant is intended to help ensure that the institute is well positioned to grow and foster excellence. The Helen Diller Foundation supports education, science and the arts in the Bay Area and Israel.

“It’s a pleasure to see the Israel and Jewish Studies academic landscape flourish here, and become a model for programs around the country,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said in a statement to the Journal. “This consequential gift continues a history of pivotal philanthropy by the Diller family, and will help us educate leaders and scholars for generations to come.”

Helen Diller, who died in 2015, met her husband Sanford Diller, who died in 2018, while attending UC Berkeley. The Diller family’s philanthropy in Northern California includes funding Judaic studies programs at both UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz; an international Judaic teen leadership program; the Helen Diller Family Preschool at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco; renovation of children’s parks in San Francisco; and San Francisco’s de Young Museum, Museum of Modern Art and Legion of Honor Museum.

In 2002, the Diller family gifted the university $5 million, providing funding for the campus’s Center for Jewish Studies and supporting its director, faculty research funds, and graduate student fellowship and research funds. In 2019, the Helen Diller Foundation made a gift of $5 million to establish and name the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies — the university’s first endowed faculty chair in this field — held by Ron Hassner.

The institute supports an undergraduate fellows cohort of more than 20 students per semester, and has sponsored 85 unique courses across a dozen departments. Classes have addressed topics such as Israeli constitutional law, transboundary water in the Middle East, minority rights in Israel, Jewish mysticism and more. The Helen Diller Institute has brought approximately 40 faculty from Israel’s top-tier universities to teach Berkeley undergraduates.

The institute focuses on Israel studies programs, programs for Jewish law, thought and identity, student initiatives including the Undergraduate Fellows Program, undergraduate and graduate courses, lectures, panels and conferences, in addition to community engagement programs.

Ken Bamberger, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Helen Diller Institute, said that this gift puts Berkeley on the map as a leader for Israel Studies and the study of Jewish law alongside institutions like Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Brandeis, Northwestern, and UCLA.

this gift puts Berkeley on the map as a leader for Israel Studies and the study of Jewish law alongside institutions like Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Brandeis, Northwestern, and UCLA.

“The generosity of the Helen Diller Foundation allows us to institutionalize our focus on supporting and mentoring students, and expanding programs and initiatives that deepen scholarly inquiry and discourse across the UC Berkeley campus for the long-term,” Bamberger said.

Hassner said in a statement that the next steps for the institute will include expanding the program to include a minor in Israel studies.

“Our next step is to put in place the core classes on Israel that would constitute a minor in Israel Studies so that Berkeley can become a magnet for undergraduate students who wish to specialize in Israel,” Hassnersaid. “We will also continue to develop experiential programs for study and internship in Israel for Berkeley students who aspire to study about Israel in Israel.”

Noting the generosity of the foundation, Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said: “This gift will ensure that UC Berkeley students will be able to engage deeply with Israel Studies, and Jewish law, thought and identity, at the highest level at the world’s leading public university for years to come.”