Center News
U-M Alumnus Gives Generously to Judaic Studies
As music editor of the Michigan Daily in 1954, H. David Kaplan started a campaign to create a new School of Music on North Campus. Through the years he has continued to support the music school and the University.
But in the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Frankel Institute, Kaplan says he has found a place that honors his Jewish heritage as well as his desire to support the U-M. Frankel Center Director Deborah Dash Moore recently announced that Kaplan has made the Center the beneficiary of a sizeable annuity.
Kaplan says he was inspired by his great nephew’s work with the Hillel Center at Brandeis University, escorting Jewish students on birthright trips to Israel. “His interest in Judaic studies got me thinking about making a donation to foster that field,” Kaplan says. Donating to the Frankel Center also gives Kaplan an opportunity “to honor U-M for giving me so much.”
The Frankel Center’s work also helps today’s scholars understand Jewish history, he says.
“There’s a saying that if we don’t learn from the mistakes of history, we will be forced to repeat them,” Kaplan observes. “Being a Jew in the world today is different from when I was a child. Maybe today’s openness is better, since we all know where we stand.”
Kaplan says a 2007 meeting with Dr. Moore reinforced his desire to support the center. “Her enthusiasm and conviction that what the Frankel Center and Institute were doing was important sold me,” he says.
Kaplan is a longtime patron of the arts and U-M supporter. He was graduated from U-M in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and worked for newspapers, magazines and in corporate communications in New York, Texas and Washington state. He was actively involved in the Houston Grand Opera and eventually became associate publisher of Houston’s Performing Arts magazine. He has taught continuing education classes on opera near his home in Federal Way, in Washington state.
He has also enhanced the performing arts collections of several libraries, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and donated a 60-volume collection of New York City theatre playbills and programs to the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. He continues to donate current theater programs to libraries and archives.
Kaplan currently serves on the Governing Board of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and has donated endowments to the University of Washington Libraries, Burke Natural History Museum, Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet School to foster education in the arts and sciences.
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