Arthur Beerman Groundbreaking Ceremony

July 17 1973

caption:
Break Ground fo $200,000 Arthur Beerman Hillel Center
E. Walnut Street Construction Site Ready

A happening “of great significance” is the way in which Dr. Phillip Shriver referred to the ground-breaking for the new Arthur Beerman Hillel Center during brief ceremonies held at the building site on East Walnut Street between Main and Poplar Sunday morning.

“There is a need for ‘roots’ as part of human growth and the educational experience, and this is indeed a proud moment,” Dr. Shriver continued.

His words were echoed by Butler County Judge Fred B. Cramer, who said that Jewish students at Miami University and the Western College “will be grateful for years to come. Judaism,” he continued, “lives not in abstract creed, but in our institutions.”

Dr. Herbert Waltzer, Treasurer of the Hillel Advisory Board, termed the event, “A Day of Arrival,” and expressed the hope that the realization of the Arthur Beerman Center for Hillel Foundation members in Oxford “will strengthen and maintain the bonds of a Jewish and humane society.”

Carl Morgenstern, Hamilton attorney and Miami University Trustee who at one time worked for the late Arthur Beerman, described the benefactor as “a generous and kindly man” and expressed appreciation to the Beerman family for continuing the local Hillel effort which Mr. Beerman had begun. He added that “Without Dan Jacobs, this never could have happened.”

Dr. Jacobs, President of the Hillel Advisory Board, served as chairman of the ground-breaking event, and introduced Rabbi Kenneth Ehrlich, of the Miami University Hillel, to deliver the invocation, and Robert E. Strippel, Coordinator of Religious Affairs at Miami University, to deliver benediction.


Also speaking briefly were Mrs. Judy Miller, a former Hillel student; Mrs. Oscar Soifer, Secretary of the Advisory Board; and Donald Harris, representing the district B’nai B’rith, who emphasized the importance of the Arthur Beerman Center to Oxford.

Among those present for the Sunday morning groundbreaking were Mrs. Arthur Beerman, her daughter, Mrs. Barbara Weprin and husband, William Weprin, all of Dayton; Mr. Beerman’s sister, Mrs. Rhea Pearl, and his attorney, Jerry Goldman, also of Dayton; and representatives from the McGraw Construction Company, which is scheduled to begin work on the structure immediately and, hopefully, to have in completed within six months