Prof. Richard Freund, director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, took the Center on the road this month when he delivered a series of lectures in Santiago, Chile. Three of Freund’s former students from the Buenos Aires Seminary which he headed up some 30 years ago, are now rabbis at Santiago’s largest synagogues. “They have done remarkable work and needless to say, I am very proud to call them my students,” says Freund.

In Santiago, Freund, a noted archaeologist, was interviewed by various media outlets and delivered a series of eight lectures to a broad cross-section of the community – adults, students, professors, Jews, non-Jews in the community of Santiago for three days. Delivered in Spanish, the lectures focused on the university’s archaeological excavations worldwide.

“We also discussed the politics of being Jewish in Santiago then and now,” he reported. “These men and women are my heroes, and I’m also interviewing them for a grant I received from the university. This is really the Greenberg Center on the road.

As the Ledger went to press, Freund was off to Chile’s seaside resort town of Vina del Mar, where one of his former students is rabbi.

CAP: Prof. Richard Freund speaks to a group in Chile.