Partnership for a Jewish Center

Durham-Chapel Hill Receives Gift to Create
The Charlotte & Dick Levin Jewish Community Center

Taking a major step in its capital campaign, the Partnership for a Jewish Center recently announced that Dick Levin has pledged $1.5 million toward the creation of the Charlotte and Dick Levin Jewish Community Center – a key component of the community-wide facility planned on Cornwallis Road.

It’s a gift grounded in the Levin family’s commitment to support the survival of the Jewish people, and the recognition that our survival “depends on the strength of our community-based institutions.”

Dick Levin’s famly left Philadelphia in the 1940s, becoming only the fourth Jewish family in Williamston, North Carolina. “When it came time for my bar mitzvah,” he recalled, “my father put two bottles of wine and sponge cake in the car and drove to the nearest synagogue, so I could be called to the Torah.” His late wife, Charlotte Moscovitz, came from one of the only two Jewish families in Troy, North Carolina.

After graduating from NC State University, Dick went to work in a textile business in Charlotte. Following their marriage, Dick and Charlotte moved to Chapel Hill, where Dick earned his PhD in economics.

He became a professor in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in 1959, and served as Associate Dean and
occupied an endowed chair from 1984 until his retirement in 1991. Dick was a legendary figure at the school, revered as both an award-winning teacher and prodigious author. He also consulted with many leading businesses and organizations, from Glaxo Wellcome to Pinehurst Resort and the Research Triangle Institute.

Dick has remained active in real estate development, consulting, writing books and pursuing his many hobbies. These days, flying small planes and playing keyboard with a combo are his favorite indulgences. Dick and Charlotte’s family includes three children and three grandchildren.

Dick and Charlotte were active members in the founding of Judea Reform Congregation, during the early 1960s. Dick led the first building campaign and served as president of the congregation. Charlotte was membership chair during a period of rapid growth, and also directed acclaimed stage productions. They established the Levin-Moscovitz lecture series, which sponsors an annual scholar-in-residence program.

From all this experience, Dick has seen how the survival of the Jewish people is played out on the local level. “National organizations alone cannot preserve Jewish life and ensure the welfare of Jewish communities,” he said. He believes the Jewish community must transcend “Balkanization” and create institutions that bring all Jews together. “The JCC can break down barriers and attract our area’s unaffiliated Jews.”

Dick’s chance meeting with Bryna Rapp, co-chair of the Partnership for a Jewish Center, started him thinking about how the proposed JCC could address this concern.

In just a few days, he came to the realization that the JCC was the right place to honor his late wife, and to make a lasting impact on the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish community. His children enthusiastically supported this grand idea, and the family pledged $1.5 million to name the Charlotte and Dick Levin Jewish Community Center.

Dick hopes this heartfelt gift sends a strong message to the community at large – “We’re gonna do it!” – and serves as an example to others who may have been reticent to support such an undertaking in its infancy. “The wealth exists within our community to raise the $10 million that will bring the entire project to fruition,” he declares confidently.

Dick also sees the JCC as the most fitting tribute he can bestow on his beloved wife: “This is a way that she will become a permanent part of the community.” As will he.