Baltimore Hebrew University will close, but its work will live on in three master's degree programs and in the new Baltimore Hebrew Institute at Towson. With Schon as director, the institute will carry on BHU's community activities in offering adult continuing education, public lectures and scholarly symposiums.
At no added cost to the state, BHU's master of arts degree programs in Jewish studies and Jewish communal services will move to Towson's College of Liberal Arts, while the master's in Jewish education will move to the College of Education. The fate of its doctoral program in Jewish studies remains undecided.
While Towson has not been looking to expand its doctoral programs beyond the three it now offers, Caret said he's receptive to a proposal to continue the BHU program. The Maryland Higher Education Commission, which approved the partnership this week, granted Towson permission to propose a doctoral program, but also barred new students from entering the program for the next six years.
BHU held its final commencement last month. BHU master's and doctoral candidates still working on their degrees will earn Towson diplomas.
Towson officials are ready to welcome the new faculty members.
"It's a really nice marriage," said Raymond P. Lorion, dean of Towson's College of Education, adding that "the whole university" will benefit from the addition of the BHU faculty, whom he called "serious and productive scholars."
Lorion said that while Towson students work with both private and public schools, the addition of the Jewish education program will "expand the array of settings for which we prepare people."
Towson and BHU were founded to train teachers, and Lorion said both retain that primary commitment to teaching. "It's a great fit."
Hana Bor, associate professor of Jewish Education at BHU, said, "We're excited about the opportunity to be among other colleagues and to learn and to share" with a large pool of scholars in the field.
Still, she said, "We have to find ways to keep our identity and our mission to train teachers for Jewish schools."
BHU's mission has evolved since it was established in 1919 to develop Jewish educators. Over the years, it has served as a high school and college, and for the past decade has operated almost exclusively as a graduate school, taking a strictly academic approach to the study of religious text, culture and history. The school is not affiliated with any branch of Judaism.
