UPDATE, 6:50 p.m.: A statement from Director of The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies Haim Shaked was added to this story.
Eugene Rothman died Saturday, according to a statement sent to school faculty from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Leonidas Bachas. Rothman was the associate director for academic development of the College of Arts and Sciences George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies and senior fellow at the Miller Center. He was 73 years old.
“My deepest condolences, thoughts and prayers are with his widow Beatrice Rothman, as well as our colleagues in the Judaic Studies Program and Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies,” Bachas said in the statement.
Rothman was born on Aug. 26, 1942 in New York City before earning his B.A. in Middle East history at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, M.A. at Columbia University and Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
He was responsible for research and academic programming at the Miller Center and served as coordinator of the Holocaust Survivors Support Internship Program and executive director of UM’s study abroad program in Israel, UGalilee. He also spent time as a journalist, editor and translator in Israel and the United States, authoring and co-authoring eight books throughout his years.
Haim Shaked first met Rothman 50 years ago at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“He was an outstanding individual with a golden heart; industrious, innovative and truly caring for students,” Shaked said.
Before coming to UM, he was the founding academic director of the Canada-Israel Foundation for Academic Exchanges, and for more than 30 years was a professor at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, heading the Jewish and Middle East Studies program at its College of the Humanities.
The statement said a “modified Shiva” will be held for Rothman from Tuesday, Oct. 6 to Thursday, Oct. 8 from 7-9 p.m. at 90 Edgewater Drive, Apt. 325, Coral Gables, Fla. This is in addition to a service on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 12 p.m. at the Steeles Memorial Chapel, 350 Steeles Ave. W., Thornhill, Ontario, Canada.
Rothman advised governments, international agencies and non-governmental organizations in peace-building, peacemaking, policing and policy, and project management, according to the university website.
He is survived by his wife Beatrice Rothman.