Our Focus
Humanities
Promoting the humanities as the foundation of human aspiration and human experience.
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Engaging with the humanities—art, literature, music, ethics, and philosophy—greatly enhances the capacity of leaders and citizens to envision and create a better future.
Exposure to the humanities expands an individual’s knowledge of their heritage and other cultures, nurtures the capacity for empathy, and encourages deeper critical thinking, imagination, and communication skills.
As modern trends in education show a decline in funding and access to humanities education, the Mandel Foundation has committed to expanding access to high-quality humanities learning and career preparation. It achieves this by establishing humanities centers that elevate the presence of the humanities on college campuses and establishing pathway programs that provide access to humanity-based courses for students who may not otherwise have that opportunity.
Beyond higher education, the Mandel Foundation is committed to expanding the arts and humanities' role in community building. This includes making investments in arts organizations and initiatives that foster creative community development.
Community Stories
What is an Excellent Mind? Cleveland Area High School Students Explore Humanities
Featured Grants
$2.7M Grant Establishes the Humanities to Career Pilot Programs at Three Community Colleges
In October 2023, the Mandel Foundation made three grants totaling $2.7 million to advance its strategic goal of engaging community colleges in the expansion of humanities education. The Humanities to Career pilot program is grounded in the belief that the study of the humanities can be an asset in preparation for technical and professional career pathways. Three grant recipients were awarded $900,000 each, over a three-year period: Lorain County Community College in Elyria, OH, Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, MA, and Northern Virginia Community College outside of Washington, D.C. The announcement of these grants was the culmination of an 18-month research and planning process in partnership with Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit driving transformation of the U.S. education and workforce systems. Based on several curricular innovations to integrate liberal arts into Associate of Arts degrees, each of the three colleges is piloting unique programs based on their community needs with ongoing research and support to further develop the program’s model and evaluate outcomes.
$18M Gift Established the Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities
In support of its commitment to expanding access to the humanities, the Mandel Foundation made an $18 million capital campaign investment for a new building at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem establishing the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Mandel School) in 2010. The new building created a permanent home for the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center (Mandel Scholion Center). The Mandel Scholion Center, established in 2002, provides humanities scholars with a supportive multidisciplinary framework to broaden their horizons through collaboration with colleagues in other fields. In the years since, the Foundation continues to provide annual operating support for the Mandel Scholion Center and Mandel School to support a new kind of academic community in the humanities: one that is multi-aged, interdisciplinary, lively and vibrant, and which fosters productive and friendly discourse.
The hallmark of our philanthropy is our commitment to invest in people with the values, ability and passion to change the world
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel
