Emanuel Streisand School of the Pacific Jewish Center
April 1981
While working on the script for her 1983 film, Yentl, Barbra Streisand became reengaged with Judaism.
Barbra, in a philanthropic and reflective mood, in 1980 gave $500,000 to U.C.L.A. establishing the Streisand Chair in the Department of Cardiology; in 1981, she endowed the Pacific Jewish Center, in honor of her father. In April 1984, she funded and dedicated a building in the name of her father at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
During her son's (Jason Gould) bar mitzvah in 1979, Barbra became closely involved with a small Orthodox synagogue in Venice, California — the Pacific Jewish Center.
The school's president, Michael Medved, wrote in 1980: “In view of Streisand’s backing — amounting to nearly 20 percent of the school’s budget this year and including a long-term commitment through 1984—the institution will be renamed in honor of her late father, Emanuel Streisand. Official rededication of the school will take place at the beginning of the next academic year.”
Below: Streisand, Jason Gould, Diana Kind, Jon Peters.
In April 1981, Streisand, mother Diana Kind, brother Sheldon Streisand, son Jason Gould, and Jon Peters attended the dedication of the Emanuel Streisand School of the Pacific Jewish Center.
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