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I encountered the term in a passage from an article in BBC History Magazine:

In her book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, published in the UK in 1994, Lipstadt (now the Dorot professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University in the US) had called Irving a Holocaust denier and a falsifier of history.

I've searched a bit, finding that a few others have this title. but couldn't find the meaning of it. I kind of have a feeling that it is something to do with her being a Jew after I compared the English and Chinese versions of her entry on Wikipedia, but can't be sure. Anyone knows what it is? Thanks.

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because "The {x} professor" is quite a common construction in academia, where {x} sponsors the position. This is therefore not a language question.
    – AndyT
    Commented Mar 10, 2017 at 11:48
  • I think how to understand a modifier before the title Professor is a language question, whether such construction is common or not. But the question's been fully, totally, answered; we're done. Perhaps the issue is how to title it so that others who have the same generic question will find it.
    – Xanne
    Commented Mar 11, 2017 at 8:44
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the question is based on a typo in the quote the OP is asking about: it should be the Dorot Professor.
    – ab2
    Commented Mar 11, 2017 at 18:52

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After a lot of searching for something tangible, item 10 at: https://www.hdot.org/ws-dlipstadt/ quotes Lipstadt's witness statement:

"Shortly after my arrival at Emory, the University submitted a proposal to the Dorot Foundation, a major foundation which has endowed a number of positions at various universities throughout the United States. The proposal suggested a number of different ways the foundation might support Emory. The Foundation selected the most “costly ” of these proposals and elected to endow a chair. They made a gift to the university of 1.25 million dollars. The President of the Foundation, the late Joy Ungerleider Mayerson, informed the university that it chose the option of the chair because I would be the occupant. In recognition of my areas of expertise, the Foundation named the chair the Dorot Chair in Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies."

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    Link-only answers are frowned upon due to link-rot, and may be removed. Please quote the relevant sentences (with textual attribution/citation as well).
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Mar 10, 2017 at 10:32
  • @JonMark How absolutely cool. Could we combine our answers--the specific and the general?
    – Xanne
    Commented Mar 10, 2017 at 10:33
  • @JonMark I added the quotation; it will show up when peer reviewed.
    – Xanne
    Commented Mar 10, 2017 at 10:50
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It is likely that the Dorot Foundation has endowed her position at Emory. Endowing a professorship (often then called a "named chair"), is a common way to contribute to a university. See "https://www.dorot.org/ Dorot Foundation: Charitable family foundation. Includes information about grants for student travel to Israel and other purposes." I would assume that the Dorot Foundation likes her work and wants to support it. See other answer for confirmation. When you see a faculty member identified, e.g., as "The John and Mary Smith Professor of XXX," it's likely a chair endowed by the Smiths.

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