Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice

The Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice is a Jewish studies program at the University of San Francisco in San Francisco, California. Originally founded in 1977, and re-established in 2008, it is the only program in the world to formally link the fields of Social justice and Jewish studies. It offers a minor in Jewish Studies and Social Justice (JSSJ), an annual Social Justice Lecture, an annual Human Rights Lecture, an annual Social Justice Passover Seder, intermittent films, presentations, and workshops, a study-abroad course, and Ulpan San Francisco.

History

Melvin Swig was a San Francisco real estate developer and philanthropist who endowed a multitude of charities, organizations, and programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the mid-1970s Swig met Rabbi David Davis who, in conjunction with the Reverend John H. Elliott, a Lutheran minister and USF Theology & Religious Studies professor, had recently begun to teach a class called “Jesus the Jew” at the University of San Francisco. Swig, who was Jewish, was intrigued with the idea of a Jewish perspective being taught at a Catholic university, and he suggested that Rabbi Davis introduce him to Father John Lo Schiavo, the president of the university. The three men explored the idea of creating a Jewish studies program at USF. As a result of their collaboration, in 1977 the Mae and Benjamin Swig Chair in Judaic Studies was established as an homage to Swig's parents. The program was the first Jewish Studies program at a Catholic university worldwide. It was also the first Jewish Studies program at any Bay Area university or college. Swig later became the chairman of the University of San Francisco Board of Trustees.