New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has donated $10 million to Brandeis University to name a new 28,000-square-foot facility for Jewish life, expected to open in spring 2028, the school announced on Wednesday.

The donation is the “cornerstone” gift of a long-term $25 million fundraising campaign — a partnership between Brandeis and Hillel announced last year — to repurpose Kutz Hall, a vacant university building into a center for Jewish life on campus, according to the university.

Although the center, to be named the Robert K. Kraft Family Center for Jewish Life and Leadership, is designed to operate as a permanent home for Hillel, “all students will be welcome,” according to Brandeis.

Nine other philanthropists or philanthropic foundations — the Beker Foundation, Cordish family, Stan Elias and Donna Shewach, Jick family, Koplow Foundation, Kupferberg/Lorin family, Perlman family, Shapira family and Shane family — contributed a combined $9.5 million, bringing the campaign to more than $21 million, according to the university. That total clears the halfway mark Brandeis had set as a threshold for construction to begin, according to the university’s alumni magazine. 

Built in 1959 as Brandeis’ original student center before being converted to administrative use in the 1970s, Kutz Hall most recently housed the registrar’s office and other services that have since been relocated.

Planned features for the building include a beit midrash, or house of study, along with flexible event spaces intended to host conferences and convenings on “the future of Jewish life,” though the campaign will also fund “staffing and program funds,” according to the school.

Rabbi Seth Winberg, Hillel’s executive director, told the Brandeis student newspaper, The Justice, last September that Hillel had outgrown its offices in the Usdan Student Center and had also been renting rooms across campus for programming, and that discussions with the university about a permanent home had been ongoing for years before Kutz Hall became available.

In a statement, Kraft pointed to the university’s history of Jewish values and said he was pleased to help “create a Hillel on campus” for future students. 

“The Kraft family has always been proud to support Brandeis and I am pleased to strengthen the work of the university and create a Hillel on campus to help educate and inspire students to carry forward the university’s mission,” Kraft said.

Brandeis President Arthur Levine called the gift part of what he described as a “historic project,” and praised the broader group of alumni and donors who funded the project. 

He also cited the Kraft family’s longtime ties to the university, which includes the 1964 graduation of Kraft’s late wife, Myra, and her later tenure as a trustee and honorary degree recipient, a path her father, Jacob Hiatt, had also followed decades earlier. Their son, Joshua Kraft, has also served on the university’s board. Over the years, the family’s philanthropy has funded several endowed professorships and scholarships at Brandeis, along with broader support for faculty and academic programs.

“Robert Kraft and the Kraft family have a remarkable legacy at Brandeis, through their generous support of our faculty and students, and we are proud to now be home to the Robert K. Kraft Family Center for Jewish Life and Leadership,” said Levine.