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Visionary Leadership Award

The Visionary Leadership Award honors champions of the Penn Libraries whose transformational philanthropic support has elevated the Libraries’ distinction, enriched its collections, and expanded its impact. Through their generosity and advocacy, recipients have helped ensure the Libraries' continued excellence as a world-class center for research, scholarship, and discovery. The recipients of this award show commitment that shapes the future of the Penn Libraries — strengthening its role as an innovative and welcoming space, safeguarding the cultural and scholarly record, and empowering cutting-edge research.

Arnold and Deanne Kaplan - 2025

Through their decades of dedicated collecting, Arnold and Deanne Kaplan built an extraordinary archive of early American Judaica — a collection that tells the rich and complex story of Jewish life in America. Their commitment to preserving this history has been matched only by their generosity in ensuring its future. In 2012, the Kaplans donated their collection of over 11,000 items to the Penn Libraries. We are proud to serve as the home of the Kaplan Collection. The Kaplans have continued supporting Judaica at the Libraries, most notably by establishing the Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Curator of Judaica Digital Humanities in 2019.

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