University of Florida law alumnus of 1949, Alexander Grass, established this $1 million endowment at UF to fund an eminent scholar chair in Jewish Studies. The Grass endowment provides impetus to the Center’s already vital mission, enhancing its mission of attracting more students and scholars to the Center’s programs. The Center’s mission also is to increase the University’s ability to serve the educational demands of Florida’s growing Jewish population– already the third largest in the nation– and to conduct research on wide ranging topics, such as the Holocaust and the Middle East peace process.

The endowment is one of the largest single gifts received by the Center since its founding in 1972 and will also enable UF to begin a graduate program in Jewish Studies.