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

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Twenty- Two THE ELCHJNITE Looking Backward am slowly approaehing old age: for I am now passing the few remaining mile- stones ot' middle age. having already reached the upper forties. Lately. I have been obsessed by a strange. queer thought whieh assumes in my little private realm the semb- lanee of the mystie. a haunting exot- ieism. After the boisterous .agitated youthful life-when the ealm is nigh and my thoughts and ideas have been gleaned from my diverse ex- perienees-ai stranger struts in and begins to ereate havoe. It is it a large unsightly boulder is thrown suddenly into a still. erystal lake. whose impurities have gradually settled to the bottom. The water be- eame turbid and agitated. This un- sightly boulder is in my ease-to write my memoirs. something auto- biographieal. And I shall write them merely to gratify this whimsieal passion. Of all the reeolleetions whieh are now overwhelming my mind. the picture whieh the year 1923 presents has. as it has ever sinee had. the sharpest. clearest hues: the most in- spiring, most impressive seenes. 1923 was the year in whieh I made my departure from the Talmudieal Aea demy H. Sfa peerless seeular in- stitution imbedded eompletely in the fresh. revivitying atmosphere of the Yeshiva. The elass of '23 was an unusual product of the Yeshiva-a produet seintillating with the bril- lianey of its eomponents. I ean as- sure you of utter astonishment and then of your eandid aequieseenee when you will have heard of the do- ings ot this elass. The year 1923 witnessed some noble and pathetie separations, but I shall not narrate here the happen- ings ot that year. Here. I rather in- tend to tell you what has happened to these erstwhile eolle-iffues sinee 1923. lx- The first notable seintillation oeur- Veil in 1927. There was one modest. shy boy. who besides being a good athlete was also a good student. He played the violin. I remember that by no means eould he be induced to play some solo for usg yet a few years later. in 1927. when I proeured tiekets to hear a eertain violin virt- uoso at tf'arnegie Hall. whom did I diseover it to be but Mr. Grilihas? So at last I was to hear him. He had always had an athletie torm- whieh moved about with a most eharming. airy graeefulness and as his tall form stood swaying on the platform. and as he was playing a Baeh sonata with remarkable teeh- nique-it all seemed ethereal. The audieuee was enehanted. his playing having set them dreaming ot their eastles in Spain. He eontinued to play for many years. but reeently after a prolonged trip to Europe he retired. I see him but seldom and even then. when I am speaking to

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THE li1.I,'HJX1 TE Twenty, i HX MXN XX I-,IIN I-,H Winnie- Hyman lx un lmnm' mm. Ho :always rluvw tlw lnmt 114- vm. N. U. Vwlllnvxlmzlll. T: .Xswwi:'1t1- I-llitwr V UW M-aaovhrmv.

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THE EL CHAN! TE Twenty-Thrtd him he still retains that eharaeter- istie shyness. That same night as I was making my exit from the hall. I met Joseph Klatzkin with whom I had been quite ehummy at the Yeshiva. He was studying' medicine at Harvard and had eome to New York on a short furlough. I spent a delightful evening' with him fdiseussing' morbid pathology and psyehopathy. ete.l. and then with eongratulatory wishes we parted. Two years ago, in 1950. he was aknowledged the greatest living' speeialist. on eareinoma. VVith this acknowledgement eame also its handmaid-riehes. So Joseph Klatz- kin who I knew at the Yeshiva as a jolly, buoyant youth, who oeeasion- ally brooded over his future, had at last realized his life-aim. He eon- deseends fwhat an invidious word to use. but Joe is a sport. j to have tea with me sometimes.-when we ramble baek in our imaginations to old Yeshiva life. After l927 I visited New York onee a year and luekily always met some old friend. As was only natur- al, I always paid a visit. to my alma mater. Grossman. Eskolsky and Levine were near the eulmination of their Yeshiva eareer. i. e. nearly rabbis. Une summer in the early thirties. upon discovering that I had a super- tluity of money, I deeided to relieve my jaded wits with some traveling'- some educational diversion. I went to t'7ook's Touring Ageney to inquire about partieulars. Here I was over- eome by a remarkable discovery. Ur. tlleieher, who was no mean offieial at l'ook's. was my friendfthe jolly. buoyant, grae-etful. witty Abraham Gleieher of the Yeshiva. But IIOXV he earried a distinguished and im- portant air about him-not ordinary, rather professorial. He was a Ph. D. He also sailed to Europe with me and with his numerous wittieisms soon drove out the slightest vestiges of sea-sickness found in me. Besides, we met two other Yeshiva eol- leagues on the ship to whom I am ever full of gratitude for their major part in making the trip pleasurable. These friends are no other than kolsky and Levine who, having re- de- eided to tour the Holy Land and Europe. Eskolsky. whose superflu- ous tiesh had always been the butt of the elass humor was now thin even to emaeiation, his sallow face eom- prising only two large eheekbones with a thin veneer of skin-the anti- podes of the Yeshiva Eskolsky. eeived their rabbinieal degrees, Levine was still lanky and long- with long, thin legs and large feet. The purity of his eountenanee was enhaneed hundredfold-as he told me-by his assiduous eare and treat- ment. He had then, however. relin- quished the thought of beautifying his figure and had beeome entirely absorbed in his religious studies. The trip was very long, but replete with highly-eolored ineidents. In Pales- tine, one sultry subtropieal day, while strolling' down the deserted streets of Givath Shaul looking for relief from the unbearable heat of the blazing' sun, we suddenly found ourselves at the entranee of a large building. whieh. aeeording' to the numerous signs. was the publishing building' of a famous Hebrew literary