Yeshiva University High School For Boys - Elchanite Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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rincqaafii edaage My dear young friends: Thirty-one years ago this month, a small group of six young pioneers received their high school diplomas from Talmudical Academy, the first, and for many years, the only accredited high school organized, managed, and super- y vised by people of the Jewish faith. Since that first grad- uation in 1919, several thousand Jewish young men have gone forth from our sacred Walls to swell the ever-growing tide of young men and young women who complete their high school studies each year. To-day, you are about to join their ranks. Many were the obstacles you have had to overcome. Many difficulties beset your path from the first day you set foot in our Yeshiva, but great is the achievement you have accomplished. Not only have you received a secular education which, judged by any and all standards set up by the local and state departments of education, has been proved to be at least the equal of that given in the public institutions of our city, but you have also received that rich heritage of learning and spirituality which has been handed down by our ancestors for thousands of years. XYll61'Q2lS your brothers and sisters in the public high schools have received only a secular education, you, the graduates of Talmudical Academy, have received, in addi- tion, a thorough grounding in Talmud, Bible, Hebrew language and literature, Jewish history and cognate studies. Your lives are richer and fuller and more closely attuned to the traditions and hopes and aspirations-to the heartbeat- of our people. Even a casual examination of the roster of names that appears in our high school alumni bulletin will cause the heart of every self-respecting Jew to swell with pride and satisfaction. Among their nunrber one finds some of the most worth-while citizens of our community and country. Every walk of life. every trade and profession is duly represented. Not only rabbis and preachers, religious leaders and teachers, but communal workers, teachers and adminis- trators in secular schools, colleges and universities, la.wyers, artisans, business men, engineers, dentists, doctors. artists, and musicians received their first train- ing in Talmudical Academy. Every part of our country, every segment of our national Jewish life, is permeated and enriched by the contributions which our graduates have to offer to make up the sum total of human experience. As we look back with justifiable pride upon the thousands who have pre- ceded you, we can only hope and pray that you, their younger brothers, will follow in their foot-steps. XVe pray that you will hold precious those high stand- ards and lofty ideals of citizenship and service, of faith in. and loyalty to, our American democracy that we have tried to ineulcate in you, and that you will put into living practice, and uphold in your daily lives, the sacred laws and tra- ditions of our holy Torah. May you prove a source of pride and joy to your parents and your Alma Mater! SHELLEY R. SAPHIRE. Prznczpfzl - Four-

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rediolenf 3 ewage 0 June 29, 19-I9 To the Student Body: You, the students of our Tahnudical Academy, and particularly the Gradu- ating Class of 1949 have great reason to rejoice, for your period of transition from boyhood into manhood was spent in the ideal atinospherc of Torah learn- ing and modern culture. I watched your gradual progress and I was inspired by your spirit, and by the selfless devotion of your Roshei ha-Yeshiva and teachers. I exhort you to rcinain steadfast in our religious beliefs: in the inode of living' and in the ethical and spiritual convictions which are the essence and guiding spirit of our lives. It is only by the innnortal truths of the Torah and our sacred traditions, by being true to ourselves and our sac-red heritage that we can best serve ourselves and our fellowinen. Godliness as the foundation of our livesg obedience to the Divine Law of the Torah. and usefulness for the common-good of mankind are the fundamental parts of the training of a Yeshiva man. These sacred values you must always bear in mind. as well as in action. Sincerely yours, SAMVEL BELKIN. President. '-' TI! VCL' '-

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1 ,461 ' ' f f Ifl'lUll.'5fl Cli0l 5 Qiffiafge 'K-f' 0 llea r ttraduates: lt is indeed a source of pleasure for me to greet you. the second graduating' class of the Brooklyn Branch of Talmudieal Academy. Four short. years ago with the founding of our Braneli hy the Yeshiva lfniversity. your elass constituted the hulk of our student hotly. Hur growth during tlzis short period has heen so phenomenal however, that today your class register equals only one-tenth of our total student enrollment. This outstanding success is in itself a tribute to the devotion of the student body, the self-saeritice of the faculty and the vision of the administration. It is true that even now upon the completion of your high school eourse you will not he coming into direct eontaet with the complexities and amhieui- ties of life, for at least. another four years of comparative safety behind the spiritual walls of Yeshiva University await most of you. Yet it is important to examine now what you have gained during these last few years. Although to George Bernard Shaw youth is wasted on the young and perhaps others may go even further and say that education too is wasted on the young: we traditional Jews have always felt that it is the NDTPJW NDTU which is hasie and a most influential factor in the shaping of the individual. lt is the approach and outlook acquired during the early formative years of life that are of prime importance. During- your stay in the Yeshiva we have attempted to give you more than facts and hook knowledge alone. It was our purpose to eultivate. strengthen and develop a strong faith in the timeless truths otf our Torah. We have tried to imhue you with the desire and will to preserve those teachings and perpetu- ate those traditions. NVe have emphasized the development of your moral sense. heeause only sueh issues determine the kind of world we have. The greatest eontrihutions that anyone can make are those ofa moral nature. There is no dearth of scientific aehievements. of political. social or eeonomie progress. The moral law however has not heen ahle to keep paee with teelinolog-5-git is easier l'or man to make an atom liomh than to know what to do with it. You however who are ohsessed with an undying faith in the Divine nature of our Torah and its supremacy in our everyday lil'e are prepared to make moral eontrihutions for the hetternieut of society. By virtue of the specialized training which you have received, you are in a unique position to strengthen the moral structure of humanity. May your future thoughts and aets always retlect these nohle and lofty ideals: may the Yeshiva Vniversity he ahle to point with pride to you: may tl-d hless your paths in lil'e with sueeess and spiritual aeliievelneut. RABBI -XBITAIIABI N. Xl'Rttl1'l -lflmfaisfrfrlor, - Fire -