Stockton University Gets $100K Gift For Antisemitism Lecture Series

GALLOWAY, NJ — Stockton University will launch a new annual lecture series on antisemitism after receiving a $100,000 gift from Jack and Bethanie Gorny, the university announced.

The donation to the Stockton University Foundation creates The Gorny Family Fund for Understanding and Confronting Antisemitism.

Subscribe

According to the university, the lecture series will feature world-renowned experts on antisemitism. Jack Gorny served as chairperson of Stockton's Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center Executive Committee for 12 years. Bethanie Gorny previously was president of Jewish Family Service of Atlantic and Cape May Counties.

Jack Gorny said the gift was shaped by concern about rising antisemitism and by his family's history.

"I have grave concerns for the well-being of Jews in this country in the future," Jack Gorny said. "I agonize over the future of my grandchildren, and I worry that they may be faced with this pernicious ideology, which sadly shows no signs of abating."

He also said Stockton's Holocaust Resource Center has shown him how education can make a difference.

"We trust that the lecture series will help eradicate the evil of antisemitism through the words and lessons of experts," he said. "We thank Stockton for its ongoing commitment."

The fund honors Jack Gorny's parents, Eva and Morris Gorny, Holocaust survivors born in Poland. Jack Gorny said he was "3-and-a-half years old and 36 inches tall" when his family emigrated to the United States in 1949 from a displaced persons camp in Germany to escape "the scourge of antisemitism." He said his parents "hoped antisemitism was behind them as they started a new life here" and "would be shocked and saddened by today's explosion of it in the United States."

The university said Eva and Morris Gorny later ran a poultry farm in Vineland from 1952 to 1964 and opened Delsea Yard Goods in 1964. It also said Bethanie Gorny wrote "Fridays with Eva," a book published by the Holocaust Resource Center that became part of Holocaust Studies classes at Stockton.

HRC Director Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez said he plans to begin the series this year on campus.

"We have to be cognizant that the fight continues today and will continue tomorrow and for decades to come," he said. "We must be the light in these dark places. We need to keep providing our students with the opportunities to continue their studies and make this world a better place for all."

Terricita Sass, Stockton's executive vice president, said the gift comes at a time when antisemitism, misinformation and intolerance continue to challenge communities.

"At Stockton, we believe universities have a responsibility to help people understand history, wrestle with difficult questions and engage one another with knowledge, dignity and respect," Sass said. "This fund will strengthen that work and create opportunities for our students and our broader community to learn together."