About Us
Our History
- Brandeis University was founded in 1948 as the first Jewish sponsored, nonsectarian university in the Western Hemisphere. At that time, higher education was limited for Jewish students, and other minorities, and faculty positions were denied to Jewish professors. Eight men founded Brandeis University and 8 influential women in the Boston volunteer community played a large part in building the Brandeis Library. The women formed an organization they called Brandeis University Women’s Committee (BUNWC) with the task of raising funds to stock the Brandeis library. Now known as the Brandeis National Committee (BNC), the group continues its fundraising efforts in support of vital programs for the university.
- The BNC is unique to Brandeis University. There is no other college in the United States with a fundraising group like this. With 25 chapters nationwide, the organization has contributed more than $300 million to Brandeis University.
- In 1996 the BNC celebrated the purchase of its millionth book for the Brandeis library. The book presented was the original set of The Law of G-d, by Issac Leeser, which is the first English translation of the Bible published in 1853 for the American Jewish Community.
- Over the years the BNC has raised funds for many other important campaigns including “Science for Life,'' for a science lab in the Carl Shapiro Science Center; “Sustaining the Mind,” for scientific research of neurodegenerative diseases; “Magnify the Mind” campaign for the purchase of a two-photon resonance microscope capable of observing brain activity in real time; "Honoring Our History" for the digitization of archival collections. We have also supported student scholarships and the underwriting of the Brandeis University National Women’s Committee Librarian Chair.
- Currently, BNC is raising money for its first endowed professorship, the BNC Professorship in Engineering Science. The "Engineering the Future" campaign is part of Brandeis University's reinvention of liberal arts, which will allow students to combine critical thinking with vital skills for solving the world's most pressing problems.
the bnc mission
Brandeis National Committee is an organization committed to providing philanthropic support to Brandeis University, a distinguished liberal arts and research university, founded by the American Jewish Community. Its membership is connected to the University through fundraising and through activities that reflect the values on which the University was founded: academic excellence, social justice, non-sectarianism, and service to the community.
