The Michigan Wallenberg Institute was established by the University of Michigan in December 2023 as part of a universitywide effort to combat antisemitism and advance religious diversity and inclusion on all three campuses. “We are bringing together leading U-M expertise and diverse perspectives toward a safer and more inclusive world, and even more, a brighter world of peace,” announced President Santa J. Ono.
Raoul Wallenberg, the institute’s namesake, was a Swedish humanitarian who graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in architecture in 1935. Nine years later he volunteered to work in Budapest on behalf of the US War Refugee Board to aid US efforts to rescue European Jews during the Holocaust. He is credited with saving some twenty thousand Jews from deportation to the Auschwitz death camp.
Wallenberg was made an honorary citizen of the United States by President Ronald Reagan—one of only eight people in history to receive this honor—and was awarded the congressional Gold Medal by President Barack Obama.
Since 1985, Wallenberg's legacy has been honored at the University of Michigan through the Wallenberg Medal and Lecture and the Wallenberg Fellowship.
