There are some people in this world that are blessed with the courage and vision to make a difference.
In this week’s Torah portion we read about the division of the Land of Israel and the brave daughters of Zelophehad who (as a result of only men being counted in the census) are without a claim to their father’s landholding. Instead of staying silent, the daughters marched into the center of the camp where the Tabernacle stood and advocated before the leadership for their inheritance. This was a courageous deed for women of the time and these trailblazers set the path for those that would come after them.
Our community of the Virginia Peninsula lost a trailblazer in the passing of Dr. Richard Freund. Dr. Freund joined Christopher Newport University and our Jewish community in 2019 as the inaugural Bertram and Gladys Aaron Professor of Jewish Studies and made significant contributions both through the university and through his collaboration with the UJCVP.
Through his career, Dr. Freund collaborated with countless other faculty members from across the country in pursuit of answers to some of our history's greatest questions. He directed over a dozen archaeological projects at Bethsaida, Mary's Well in Nazareth, and climbed the caves of Qumran in search of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Later in life, he traveled to Spain to discover the Lost City of Atlantis and he made key discoveries in the Ponar Burial Pits and the Great Synagogue of Vilna, Lithuania. Through his time in academia, Dr. Freund mentored thousands of students, including myself. (Below I have shared some personal reflections in his memory.)
Looking at the lives of Dr. Freund and Zelophehad’s daughters, we are given insight into what happens when you take hold of your life and push beyond what is expected, even to where others haven’t gone before.
Shabbat Shalom,
Eric Maurer
Executive Director
emaurer@ujcvp.org
Dr. Freund – My Teacher
Meeting Dr. Freund was basheret (loosely translated as destiny). I took a year off in between high school and college to work on a kibbutz in Israel with little aspiration of returning to the states. As my parents pressured me to finalize my college plans, Dr. Freund called and extended an offer for me to stay in Israel a few months longer working with him on his archaeological dig at Bethsaida if I chose to enroll in the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford. That decision, and the subsequent interactions with Dr. Freund, transformed my life.
I will never forget when I met up with him at Ben Gurion Airport. Standing before me was a man wearing a matching blue denim shirt and jeans, dark sunglasses that hid his eyes and adorned by a cap with a flap that covered his sunburnt neck from long days in the field. If they made a sequel to Indiana Jones, Dr. Freund could have played the part. And while I learned those months that I did not want to be an archaeologist, I became enthralled in the deep knowledge and passion Dr. Freund placed on his research.
Once we were back in the states, I interacted with Dr. Freund on a regular basis through his classes, his engagement in campus activities and his personal attention to my studies. I recall getting called into his office a few months into my first semester to talk to him about a paper I had submitted. I remember nervously stepping into his office to find out that Dr. Freund didn’t want to talk about my paper at all, but rather wanted to check in on my personal adjustment to campus life. He cared about his students.
As a student we often joked that Dr. Freund liked to, as many professors do, assign his own writings and research. His courses on these topics of passion were outstanding, however I was most impressed with his approach to the courses he taught beyond his area of interest. I recall fondly one semester when the department was short a Hebrew professor and Dr. Freund stepped up to teach the class. While I can’t imagine that teaching intermediate Hebrew was terribly motivating for him, he approached our class so creatively and with the same excitement he brought with him to every class. Still to this day, whenever I hear the word “Cinderella” I imagine his goofy voice saying it as he insisted that we read our Hebrew fairy tales with accents to make the learning more engaging.
Dr. Freund had short sayings that he use to repeat in his teaching to assist his students in remembering. We called them Freundisms. “Donkeys are good, camels are bad” reminded us to read biblical text critically in context of historical fact, such as the timeline of when camels were domesticated in the middle east. “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” a motivating philosophy in his numerous archaeological quests to solve humanity’s greatest mysteries. But the Freundism that stuck with me the most was the one that he started most of his classes with. With accompanying hand motions he would declare “I’m not here to build anyone up or tear anyone down.” He demanded of all his students that they push themselves to be uncomfortable. He challenged us to explore ideas that might be counter to our beliefs. True learning, to Dr. Freund, required discomfort.
After my graduate studies I returned to West Hartford and was privileged to become a colleague of Dr. Freund working in the Jewish community. He embraced the philosophy that academia cannot be contained only to the university and was instrumental in ensuring that the Judaic Studies department benefited the entire community. He organized community lectures, worked with the university to allow JCC members to audit courses for very little money, created essay contests for local children and shared his passion and expertise whenever he could. Dr. Freund was a collaborator – someone who saw the big picture – and pushed the community to be better.
Coming to Newport News I knew that I would have a partner at Christopher Newport University and in the community through Dr. Freund. I am deeply saddened that that vision could not come to fruition, but warmed in knowing the pieces of Dr. Freund, that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
Zikhrono Livrakha – May his Memory be a Blessing.
