The Good 5 Cent Cigar

Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Christopher Barrett URI Foundation President Glen Kerkian speaks with Rosalie Fain yesterday. Fain's family has donated $1 million toward the construction of a new Hillel center.

Media Credit: Christopher Barrett President Robert L. Carothers[left] speaks with Jonathan Fain, son of Norman Fain.

04/10/08 - For the first time in its nearly 60-year history Hillel stands to move into a building all its own.

Yesterday, the Norman and Rosalie Fain Family Foundation announced a $1 million contribution toward the construction of a $3 million center for the campus' Jewish organization.

Plans call for the 7,400 square-foot center to be built on the site of the former Alpha Epsilon Pi Jewish fraternity house. Workers will tear down a large section of the house, build an addition and renovate the remainder into a single-level center that would include offices, a library and a kosher kitchen.

"It would have been great to have as a student, but I can't help but be excited for future students," said URI Hillel President Jessica Wolchok, who will graduate before the center is completed.

Organizers are still looking for another $1.5 million before construction can begin. The group hopes to complete fundraising and put shovels in the ground by next spring. In addition, URI Hillel hopes to raise another $1 million to support the center's maintenance and operational costs. The whole center could be up and running as early as 2010, said URI Hillel Executive Director Amy Olson.

The center would bear the name of Norman M. Fain, a long-time Rhode Island philanthropist who graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1936 with a science degree. Fain also received an honorary doctorate in business in 1967. The former head of Apex department stores and the former president of the URI Foundation, Fain, who died in 2003, always maintained a special place in his heart for URI.

"He never lost his allegiance [to URI]," his son Jonathan Fain said. "It was always something he remembered and it was a good part of his life."

The campus has changed since Norman Fain's time, and the Jewish population has expanded to an estimated 1,200 students. Of those, Olson said about 500 are on the Hillel mailing list and 200 actively participate in events that range from holiday dinners to community service projects in places like New Orleans and Washington, D.C.

Hillel has struggled to find a permanent home, bouncing from one location to another over the years. Most recently it moved from the Christopher House to the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority house three years ago. The frequent moves, Wolchok said, make advertising difficult, and mail addressed to Hillel still arrives at the Christopher House.

The concept of a cozy new center - complete with a planned coffee bar - would help bring the Jewish community together, students said.

"I'm really excited because we can have more events, more opportunities, more student involvement," said Hillel member Cori Mizrahi.

For Olson the day signaled one of an older generation providing for a younger generation that would someday pass on the Jewish tradition to another generation. She recalled her mother coming from the family home in Cranston, R.I. to Kingston to deliver fried latkes and potato pancakes to her sister while she attended URI and participated in Hillel's Hanukkah party. Now, Olson herself helps young URI students live the Jewish lifestyle and strengthen a chain of Jewish generations.

"What the Fain family and others who will join them in supporting Hillel are doing is continuing and strengthening the chain, making it possible for the next generations of Jewish students to explore and celebrate Judaism on campus, to contribute to society and to add their own new and unique links to the chain," Olson said.

Jonathan Fain said the Fain family hoped those students would emulate his father's values of a family man who cared deeply about the community. The donation, Jonathan said, would have been in line with his father's commitment to giving back.

Those thoughts were echoed by URI President Robert L. Carothers. He told a crowd gathered in the Alumni Center for the donation announcement that Norman Fain never forgot about his time as a student at the university.

"There has been no more loyal and no more passionate advocate [for URI and Hillel] than Norman," Carothers said.

Carothers said Hillel gives a voice to Jewish students on campus and provides them an outlet to connect with similar students and feel comfortable on campus.

And although the name of the center will be the Norman M. Fain Hillel Center, his widow Rosalie said the recognition for her family was merely a nice side effect of the donation.

"The name might not mean anything but [students] know what Hillel stands for," Roslie said. "It stands for compassion, companionship and friends."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools