Barnet Family Funds Middle East Studies

Bill Barnet II '34 of Albany, N.Y., along with his family and friends, has initiated a new fund to support a number of the College's programs which concern the Middle East, especially Israel. Its first effort: funding the publishing of papers generated during the May 20-23 Dartmouth conference "Hebrew and the Bible in Colonial America: Historical, Literary, and Theological Aspects." The conference, which drew well over a hundred participants to seven separate sessions, heard from a score of experts from the College and elsewhere.

Henceforth, in addition to helping to promote similar academic symposia at the College, the Barnet Fund will support the expansion of courses relating to the Middle East, sponsor an Israeli Foreign Study Program, and contribute to student internships and research opportunities in the area.

In Bill's words, "Our primary aim is to address greater interfaith understanding among cultures and societies: Christians and Jews, Muslims and Jews, Christians and Muslims, in part through an interdisciplinary curriculum of Judaic and Hebrew studies." The fund will be administered by Dartmouth's Department of Asian Studies.

Three generations of Barnets were present at the May conference. Shown with Bill II '34 are son Bill III '64 and grandson Dan Fuchs '90. Very much a part of the occasion but not in the picture were Bill II's wife, Mary, and second son Larry '68 and daughter Carol Fuchs, and their families.