Cornell has received a $2.75 million bequest from a Massachusetts physician to strengthen and support Cornell's Hillel Program for Jewish Campus Life.

The gift from Dr. Bernard S. Yudowitz and his wife, Evelyn, of Brookline, Mass., will provide permanent support for a wide range of Hillel student programs. It will enable Cornell Hillel to expand its activities and visibility by supporting lectures by Jewish leaders and scholars, field trips, social events, film series and expanding the Hillel library, among other projects.

The Hillel program at Cornell will be renamed the Yudowitz Center for Jewish Campus Life at Cornell University.

Cornell Hillel is a member of Cornell United Religious Work, the university's office of religious life. In addition to providing religious services for Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jewish students, Cornell Hillel is involved in the full spectrum of Jewish life at Cornell. Hillel works in partnership with 15 different Jewish organizations on campus, such as Nitsots (an Israeli dance troupe), Mitzvah Corps (Jewish students doing community service), Israel Action and Education Committee and the Jewish Health Council (Jewish student group for pre-meds), to promote Jewish identity and develop student leaders. Hillel provides for all facets of Jewish life and culture today. There are an estimated 3,000 Jewish students at Cornell.

"This gift has energized students and confirmed their hope that Cornell Hillel will receive strong support from Cornell alumni," said Ross Brann, professor and chair of Near Eastern Studies. "We are grateful for this generous gift from Dr. and Mrs. Yudowitz."

Dr. Yudowitz is board certified in both psychiatry and neurology and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Psychiatry. He has served as medical director of Bridgewater State Hospital, director of psychiatric services for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, director of psychiatry and director of the pain management unit at the New England Rehabilitation Hospital.

He also has maintained an active teaching schedule, including positions on the faculty of Boston College Law School, Boston University Law Medicine Institute, the Boston University Graduate School of Social Work and Harvard Medical School, where he has taught forensic psychiatry. In the early '70s, he developed an alternative care system for the seriously mentally ill through the creation of treatment centers modeled after country inns. The system delivers hospital-level treatment in normalized community settings. He has also conducted extensive research on violent behavior and has testified in more than 500 murder cases throughout the United States.

Dr. Yudowitz earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell in 1955, a juris doctorate from Rutgers University School of Law in 1961 and an M.D. from Glasgow Medical School in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1966.