North Andover —   Merrimack College's Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations has been awarded c. $230,000 to enable it to expand its mission to more fully integrate study of interfaith relations among Jews, Christian and Muslims.

New initiatives, made possible by a grant from The William & Mary Greve Foundation are:

• The Goldziher Prize. This prize, named for the 19th-century Jewish Islamicist, Ign·c Goldziher, is a cash prize of $25,000 and will be presented to a scholar in the fall of 2010 in Boston.

• The Augustinian-Algerian Initiative. This initiative celebrates Algerian Muslims, as well as friars and sisters from the Catholic Order of Saint Augustine and their lay collaborators, who work in harmony and reverence together in Algeria.

• The Initiative for Nurturing Collegians in Interfaith Understanding. This initiative provides resources to enhance interfaith study of relations among Jews, Christians and Muslims at Merrimack College; collaborative action of Jewish, Christian and Muslim students to bring greater justice and peace to our region and our world; and research, including student research, on education for interfaith understanding and reverence, beginning with early-childhood education.

As Merrimack College's Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations expands its mission, it will continue to study the history of Jews and Christians together and to nurture these relations.