SIMON RAWIDOWICZ 1897-1957 I think continually of thore who were tritly great . . . who in their liver fought for life Who wore at their hearts the jire'J centre. Born of the inn they trtzvelleal iz short while towtzrtls the inn, Anil left the vivid eir Jigneal with their honor. -Stephen Spender When, in 1951, Simon Rawidowicz came to Brandeis University as Pro- fessor of Hebrew Literature and jewish Philosophy, he was a man with a long and distinguished career. The brilliant and erudite Hebraist had published his treatises on Maimonides, had interpreted the medieval thinker Saadia Gaon, the early modern Moses Mendelssohn, the East-European Nahman Krochmal, and the German Ludwig Feuerbach. His works manifested an encyclopedic and profound knowledge of the intellectual history of Western man and his pene- trating and acute judgment. As a thinking jew, Rawidowicz conceived of a bi-polar Judaism, one which would give equal responsibilities to Zion and the Diaspora. In numerous publications he fought for this unity and for its medium, the Hebrew language. I-Ie summed up his philosophy in Babylon and jerusalem, completed when sudden death called him in July, 1957. His word-w1se,.authoritative, keen -will be missed by many. So will be his wit - subtle and resigned. -N. N. Glatzer 5 'E - 1,1 X' ' 'W AJ' it s A -vt sep? 262- ,ti if ' at -'5-,fE4b5'E?1 -35172. P-Ll' . . 4 p,,f,!f..,1x .l'.Z.2'fL,,x ' ,. N.- 9421 ff 1 t., .-,ml ae., .. , ....
”
Page 8 text:
“
we lgrefiiclenfli 056690 If I were able to speak to you as a class in a familiar, informal gathering or talk at some length with each of you personally, we would no doubt recall and discuss what these past four years have meant both to you and the Uni- versity. As for the latter, your graduation, I might remind you with some pride, will mark the completion of the first decade in its history: an exhilarating and fruitful decade, in which you have taken a rewarding part. You are aware, I am sure, and feel gratified that you have helped carry one stage further the ideal of a quality school which will, we trust, always be known as the tradi- tion of Brandeis. In the meantime each of you individually has now gone to collegef, I often wonder, and wish I had the insight to know, in which direction and how far you have gone, what you found on the road and what you are taking away with you. I am not primarily thinking of your particular studies or grades, nor of what you did in college, but of what college did to you. In order to reap the true benefits of education, one line of study is as fertile as another - any- thing that comes to our hand, said Montaigne, is as good as a book, and scholastic grades, when set against reality, merely indicate that an attempt has been made to weigh imponderables in an imaginary scale. I am hopeful that during your college experience you have noted that no course of study, unless I've misread our General Catalog, undertook to teach you wisdom, creativity, or character-building. The most a curriculum and fac- ulty, along with campus living, can do is to expose you to these essential goals of education, goals, moreover, which must be pursued for better or worse by all of us throughout the tenure of our lives. Even in the end, our education merely stops: it is never completed. ,These time-worn and obvious truths are apparently destined for a greater role than to serve as the adornment of a Yearbook message. Unless all signs fail, our education-not only what we learn but our process of learning- will become a matter of unprecedented consequence in the years that lie ahead. Our country will in every likelihood be called upon to muster its utmost mate- rial and spiritual resources in order to checkmate, and thereby avert, the threat of a universal catastrophe. The free world is being put to the proof: it will stand or fall upon the ability of the American people to discipline itself to the accomplishment of a gigantic task, without at the same time betraying or de- stroying its own ideals of freedom. Never before has our nation been compelled in an era of ostensible peace to marshal its strength as though for war. And never before has the recruiting field, the staging area, been so literally our schools and colleges. Waterloo was won on the playing-grounds of Eton, the menace of Armageddon must be dissipated in the classrooms of our land. I am hopeful that the Brandeis ex- perience has contributed its modest share in turning the tide of battle. ca farm
Are you trying to find old school friends, old classmates, fellow servicemen or shipmates? Do you want to see past girlfriends or boyfriends? Relive homecoming, prom, graduation, and other moments on campus captured in yearbook pictures. Revisit your fraternity or sorority and see familiar places. See members of old school clubs and relive old times. Start your search today!
Looking for old family members and relatives? Do you want to find pictures of parents or grandparents when they were in school? Want to find out what hairstyle was popular in the 1920s? E-Yearbook.com has a wealth of genealogy information spanning over a century for many schools with full text search. Use our online Genealogy Resource to uncover history quickly!
Are you planning a reunion and need assistance? E-Yearbook.com can help you with scanning and providing access to yearbook images for promotional materials and activities. We can provide you with an electronic version of your yearbook that can assist you with reunion planning. E-Yearbook.com will also publish the yearbook images online for people to share and enjoy.
