Professor Martin Perlmutter
Marty’s legacy is carried forward by his family, his friends, the enduring worth of his works, and by the Perlmutter Fellows Program that bears his name.
Martin Perlmutter, OBM, was a long time professor of philosophy and founding director of Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston. Marty, as he was known to most, was not only a builder of institutions but also an institution in himself. He was a legendary figure on campus and widely known further afield.
Marty joined the College of Charleston in 1979, following appointments at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Tennessee at Nashville. He was chair of the Department of Philosophy from 1983 to 1991 and instrumental in its growth and excellence in this period. His own philosophical interests found focus in bioethics and the philosophy of religion. He taught multiple courses in these and other areas.
During his time as chair in Philosophy, Marty also established a program in Religious Studies that eventually became the current Department of Religious Studies. In 1991, he was persuaded to lead the incipient Jewish Studies Program at the College. Frome that time to his retirement in 2019, he defied all doubts growing the program and creating new infrastructure to a degree that had been unimaginable to many—but not to him.
What became the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program now offers a major and a minor in Jewish Studies, supports Jewish student life, and provides an extensive outreach program to the broader community. All of this and more is supported by an impressive endowment raised by Marty. The Program is also now housed in its own building that was initially constructed by a non-profit corporation that Marty established.
The Center’s kosher, vegetarian, and vegan dining hall is open to students, staff, faculty, and the public was named in his honor—formally the “Dr. Martin Perlmutter Dining Hall,” but affectionately known as “Marty’s Place.”
Marty’s parents, Jacob and Esther Perlmutter, fled Berlin in 1938. He was born in New York on April 30, 1943. He grew up there, attending Yeshiva University High School. He did his BA at City College of New York and his graduate work at the University of Illinois.
Marty was a superb and trusted friend, generously helping innumerable people over the course of his life. He was welcoming to all and easy to like. Marty preferred to focus on others rather than be the object of focus. It was clearly a source of discomfort for him that becoming ill led him to be more the subject of attention than he would have liked. Even then he sought to deflect attention from himself. Despite that, he acceded to being the subject of an article about the novel medical treatment he was receiving, because it might bring some hope to others afflicted with cancer.
Marty’s is survived by his wife Jeri, their children Jacob, Aaron, Daniel, and Esther, their spouses and his 11 grandchildren, and by Marty’s sister Ruth, and the rest of their family. One of those eulogizing Marty quoted him as saying that those delivering funeral eulogies should always speak favorably of the deceased, but not so favorably that people think they are at the wrong funeral. The eulogies for Marty were all glowing. Yet, given who Marty was, nobody could have had any doubt that they were at the right funeral.
Adapted from the eulogy by
David Benatar, University of Cape Town, South Africa