Temple announces gift for interfaith chair

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, January, 2008 | by Kathy Boccella Inquirer Staff Writer

After losing out on a $1.5 million chair in Islamic studies last month, Temple University announced it has received a new gift from a local energy executive and former Catholic seminarian to fund a chair in interfaith dialogue. Harry Halloran, 68, who took just one religion course at Temple 30 years ago, offered $1.5 million to finance the Leonard and Arlene Swidler Chair of Interreligous Dialogue.

Swidler has been a professor at Temple University since 1966 and is an authority on ecumenism. "Len knows so many people and has done such a great job traveling all over the world and having dialogues with different religions," said Halloran, chairman and CEO of American Refining Group, an oil and alternative energy company. "I thought it was important to continue this work...