Brandeis awards Gittler Prize to Islamic scholar

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Brandeis University awarded a social justice prize to an Islamic scholar.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an Iranian philosopher who has published 50 books and who has led Muslim delegations to interfaith dialogues, was awarded the second $25,000 Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize, recognizing "outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations."

Nasr, a professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University who has lived in exile since the theocratic revolution in Iran in 1979, will accept the prize on Nov. 20 with a lecture titled "Re-evaluating the Meaning of the Other in Our Lives."

The prize, which includes a medal, is named for the late sociologist Joseph Gittler and his mother.

Brandeis, in Waltham, Mass., is a nonsectarian university founded by the American Jewish community.