Back from New Orleans with a tidbit about Tulane

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By Jacob Berkman · March 18, 2009

Hey, I just got back from a three-day conference in New Orleans of young leadership of the United Jewish Communities. I'll have more about the conference in coming days as I go through my notebook and filter out what is suitable for print and what needs to be held for Fundermentalist After Dark.

In the meantime, here's a sobering tidbit that I got from the president of Tulane University, Scott Cowen, who addressed the opening pleanry of the conference:

(JTA) -- The building of a new Hillel outpost at Tulane University has stalled because the school has not been able to raise enough money to get the $6 million project off the ground, the university’s president, Scott Cowen, told JTA.

In the wake of the economic downturn, fundraising for the project has stalled at about $4.7 million, Cowen said Sunday after speaking to a plenary at a conference for young leadership of the United Jewish Communities in New Orleans.

“We were hoping to have the money and we would have broken ground by now,” he said.

It is set to break ground in the spring after the semester ends and they can demolish the current building, acocrding to a Hillel spokesman.