History
The Institute was founded by Alexander Altmann in Manchester in 1954 as the Institute of Jewish Studies. In 1959, following the departure of Altmann as director, the Institute moved to UCL.
Altmann's justification for the activities of the Institute was given in a 1957 lecture to the Hillel Foundation of London (Ivry, Wolfson & Arkush 1998):
Being connected with our past, at home in our literature, and in sympathy with ourselves as it were, we shall find it easier to approach the ultimate questions.
Victor Mishcon became chairman of the Institute in 1959.
Read more about this topic: Institute Of Jewish Studies At University College London
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)