Rice Lecture Series: Rice Institute and the Jews

The Center for Jewish Lifelong Learning’s adult learning program and Rice University are set to launch the 16th annual Rice University Jewish Studies three-part evening lecture series. The series features lectures on September 11, 18 and 25.

This first lecture in the series, Rice Institute and the Jews, will take place on Wednesday, September 11.

As Jewish students at major universities continue to report exposure to antisemitism on U.S. campuses, retired Rice University Historian Melissa Kean will kick off the series by looking at Rice University and the ways in which Jewish students experienced campus life in Houston, dating back to the university’s founding. Since its opening in 1912, the Rice Institute was a rarity, an avowedly secular institution in a region dominated by Christian denominational colleges. But while the school was carefully non-sectarian in its official actions, like the rest of Houston, it was culturally and socially Protestant. Jewish students (and later faculty) participated freely in Rice’s intellectual and public life, but firm lines were drawn in private matters. This ambiguous environment quietly prevailed unless specific circumstances created stress. Then, in several instances, the latent antisemitism of the “half open door” burst into view.