$10 million naming gift from Laurene and Scott Sperling creates center for Jewish studies at universtiy

A single gift can ripple across generations, and few illustrate that better than the $10 million commitment Laurene and Scott Sperling have just made to Duke University.

Through their Sperling Family Charitable Foundation, the couple’s extraordinary generosity will forever attach their name to Duke’s Center for Jewish Studies, transforming it into the newly named Sperling Center for Jewish Studies.

Duke President Vincent E. Price announced the gift on Aug. 4, and the news has already sent a wave of gratitude and excitement rippling through the university’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

What makes this gift so remarkable isn’t just its size; it’s its thoughtfulness.

The Sperlings didn’t simply write a check; they built a legacy with intention, endowing two professorships to help Duke recruit and retain world-class scholars, a faculty support fund, a graduate education and postdoctoral fund to nurture rising academic talent, and a lecture fund to bring visiting experts to campus.

Every dollar was placed with care, designed to strengthen the center for decades, if not centuries, to come.

For Laurene Sperling, a 1978 Duke graduate, former chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, and mother of two Duke alumni, this moment is deeply personal.

Her parents, immigrants from Iraq, found welcome and belonging in Durham’s Jewish community when they first arrived, and her father always believed education was the reason his family was able to flourish in a new country.

That same spirit of gratitude and opportunity now flows through the center that bears her family’s name.

“Fundamentally, many parts of Jewish studies are about human flourishing and human understanding,” she said, and it is clear that flourishing is precisely what she hopes to give back, many times over, to the community that first gave it to her family.

President Price could hardly contain his appreciation.

“We are very grateful to Laurene and Scott for this transformative gift that will support Jewish studies at Duke for generations to come,” he said, praising the couple’s “exceptional understanding of and commitment to the university’s mission.”

It’s a sentiment echoed across campus.

Gary Bennett, dean of Trinity College, called the gift “a generational opportunity to deepen and modernize Jewish studies at Duke,” expressing hope that the center will become a “galvanizing force” connecting students across every corner of intellectual and cultural life at the college.

Kata Gellen, director of the center, spoke with equal warmth about what this gift makes possible: a fuller, richer exploration of more than two millennia of Jewish history and culture and its countless intersections with other communities and traditions.

From new courses spanning antiquity to the present day to a beloved undergraduate certificate program to partnerships with organizations like the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina and the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, the center has long been a gathering place for curiosity and connection.

Now, thanks to the Sperlings, it will have the resources to dream even bigger, whether through new scholarship on modern Judaism, timely dialogues on antisemitism and diaspora, or vibrant public programming like film series and art exhibitions.

Perhaps most moving is how Laurene Sperling frames her own devotion to Duke, a place she has known as a student, a parent, and a trustee.

“I have found Duke to be remarkably steadfast in its values,” she reflected, “intellectually vibrant, deeply committed to a healthy diversity of thought, and anchored in the profound belief that robust discourse is the shortest path to progress.”

It is a beautiful articulation of why she and Scott chose to invest so deeply in this institution and why their gift feels less like a transaction and more like a promise kept.

In naming the Sperling Center for Jewish Studies, Duke isn’t just honoring two extraordinarily generous benefactors; it’s cementing a home for open inquiry, cultural understanding, and human connection that will shape the lives of students and scholars for generations.

Thanks to Laurene and Scott Sperling, that beacon of intellectual exchange burns brighter than ever.