Nearly 300 supporters of The University of Texas at Dallas’ Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies gathered recently to honor and congratulate former provost and executive vice president Dr. Hobson Wildenthal for his role in creating and growing the groundbreaking center.
Wildenthal, who currently serves as distinguished scholar in residence and professor of physics, received the inaugural Edward M. Ackerman Leadership Award on Nov. 17 during the Ackerman Center Leadership Dinner.
“Without Dr. Wildenthal, the Ackerman Center, as we know it today, simply wouldn’t exist,” said Eddie Ackerman, son of founding donor Edward M. Ackerman and advisory board member. “I can think of no one more deserving to be the first recipient of this award. And I know that my father would certainly approve.”
Working with community supporters and Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth, a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and the Leah and Paul Lewis Chair of Holocaust Studies at UT Dallas, Wildenthal led efforts to grow the Holocaust Studies Program, which was created in 1986. Edward Ackerman and his wife, Wilhelmina, made the lead gift in 2006 that named the Ackerman Center.
In accepting the award, Wildenthal downplayed his early efforts on behalf of the program, saying he was just doing his job as provost of the University. But he acknowledged the personal gratification he has received from working with the center.
“Doing this particular job turned into one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” he said. “The education I received from Zsuzsanna and the great intellectuals who visited UT Dallas for the Burton C. Einspruch Lecture Series has been of immense personal value to me. I feel that I should have been paying tuition all these years, rather than being honored.”
For more than three decades, the Ackerman Center has developed an international reputation for the diversity of its academic and outreach programs that enable the center to initiate and promote broadly based study units of the Holocaust, bringing invaluable educational, intellectual and ethical insights to UT Dallas students as well as to the larger North Texas community.
“Without Dr. Wildenthal, the Ackerman Center, as we know it today, simply wouldn’t exist. I can think of no one more deserving to be the first recipient of this award. And I know that my father would certainly approve. Eddie Ackerman, son of Edward M. Ackerman, founding donor of the center
In his dinner remarks, James B. Milliken, chancellor of the UT System, emphasized the importance of the Ackerman Center to the UT System and to the world.
“The Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies is one of the crown jewels in the UT System. It’s one of only two places in the U.S. where you can take graduate-level courses in Holocaust studies and is a source of great pride for me and everyone associated with the UT System,” he said. “But it is my hope, paradoxically perhaps, that over time it will become if not less special, a little less unusual, because the world needs more Holocaust education.”
Dr. Nils Roemer, director of the Ackerman Center, interim dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, and the Stan and Barbara Rabin Professor in Holocaust Studies, said the Ackerman Dinner was a wonderful opportunity to honor Wildenthal, meet with center supporters and to celebrate the work of the center.
“It takes visionary leadership, bright minds and generous supporters to create an organization such as the Ackerman Center,” he said. “I am confident that this assembly will accomplish much more in the years ahead.”
Supporters Change the Future for Ackerman Center
The inaugural Ackerman Center Leadership Dinner inspired corporate partners, alumni and friends to contribute nearly $1.1 million for future initiatives at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies.
The evening’s fundraising success was spurred by Neuberger Berman, a private equity firm whose gift to underwrite the dinner allowed all donations to support Ackerman Center faculty and programming. John H. Massey, who hosted the dinner along with his wife, Libba, is a senior consultant and chairman of the investment committee at the firm.
The Edward and Wilhelmina Ackerman Foundation amplified individual gifts with a $250,000 matching challenge.
“I am very pleased that the Ackerman Center’s impact has been recognized by our community, our University and The University of Texas System,” said Dr. Nils Roemer, director of the Ackerman Center. “Thanks to the support of each [donor], we are able to develop world-class education and programming.”
As a result of hundreds of contributions received for the event, the Hillel A. Feinberg Chair in Holocaust Studies was elevated to a Distinguished Chair. Currently held by Dr. David Patterson, professor of literature and history, the endowment supports the scholarly, educational and community outreach activities of internationally recognized scholars of Holocaust studies, including related aspects of European and American history. This includes literature, culture and politics that form the context of the Holocaust.
