Alumni Gift Ensures Continuity of Duke Shabbat Dinners
Alumni couple who met at a campus Shabbat establish an endowed fund to sustain Jewish Life at Duke’s Friday-night dinners for years to come, strengthening student community and tradition.
Duke alumni Lynne Bornstein Bermont ’96 and Bill Bermont ’97 met at a Duke Hillel Shabbat gathering in Duke Gardens as undergraduates. More than thirty years later, they are making a gift to Jewish Life at Duke (JLD) that will foster lifelong connections and meaningful traditions for years to come.
The new, endowed Bermont Family Shabbat Fund will support Jewish Life at Duke’s Friday-night Shabbat dinners and programs; through its annual endowment payout, the fund will cover dinners for more than 400 students and ensure that Shabbat dinners remain free and welcoming for all students.
Jewish Life at Duke—whose operating budget is funded entirely by philanthropy—previously depended on a single endowment fund, the Lawrence B. Benenson Shabbat Dinner Fund, to provide for nine of the thirty-one dinners offered to the Duke community annually, with the rest covered by annual operating funds. As costs of kosher food continue to rise and attendance remains strong, the Bermont Family Shabbat Fund secures continuity and stability for this cornerstone tradition.
Lynne and Bill shared: “The Shabbat evening celebration is suffused with songs about welcoming and delight. These themes reverberate through this program and through many meaningful ways that Jewish Life at Duke brings students together. We’re grateful for the Shabbat when we met at Duke Gardens, commemorated by the pergola in our ketubah, and now through this gift.”
“Shabbat dinners are a perennial priority for us, and the Bermont Family Shabbat Fund is truly an essential gift for students,” said Joyce Gordon, Director of Jewish Life at Duke. “On Friday nights, the rush of campus life slows, students pause their busy week to gather around the table together and let go of stress in favor of community, connection, and friendship. Lynne and Bill are an example of how the relationships formed here endure long after students leave Duke.”
Jewish Life at Duke celebrates Shabbat with students at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life each Friday night during the academic year, welcoming hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish students each year for egalitarian Kabbalat Shabbat prayer services followed by family-style Shabbat dinners catered by Duke’s Freeman Center Café, a kosher establishment under rabbinic supervision. In the 2024-2025 academic year, more than 530 unique students attended a Shabbat dinner. Shabbat, Judaism’s weekly day of rest, begins at sundown each Friday night and continues until Saturday evening, and is traditionally observed with candle-lighting, singing, prayers, and a holiday dinner.
Student Gabriella Slootsky ’27 remarked: “It’s reassuring to know that there’s an opportunity for me to practice my Jewish identity alongside my peers on a weekly basis. I come to the Freeman Center knowing that I’ll always have a seat at services and at the dinner table, be greeted by my friends and the JLD professional staff, and leave feeling an even stronger sense of community on campus.”
The Bermonts hopes their gift will inspire and catalyze fellow Duke alumni and supporters to make a lasting impact on Duke’s vibrant Jewish community – now and for future generations.
Thanks to Bill and Lynne Bermont, Duke students will be assured of a place at the Shabbat dinner table for years to come.
To support Shabbat at Duke with a contribution to the Bermont Family Shabbat Fund, click here or contact Aviv Sheetrit, Associate Director of External Relations at Jewish Life at Duke, at aviv.sheetrit@duke.edu.
< Back to Jewish Life at Duke Home
About Jewish Life at Duke
Jewish Life at Duke (JLD) is the hub for all things Jewish on Duke’s campus. An accredited Hillel as well as a department within Duke University’s Division of Student Affairs, Jewish Life at Duke is guided by a mission to empower students to learn and grow intellectually and spiritually; to inspire and nurture personal paths to Jewish identity; and to cultivate community and friendship. Comprising the Freeman Center for Jewish Life and the Rubenstein-Silvers Hillel, JLD takes a pluralistic approach to Judaism to ensure that all students, regardless of affiliation, are welcome and included.
100% of JLD’s operating budget comes from donations from alumni, parents, and friends.
Become a donor to Jewish Life at Duke today.