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

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.70 fire 7943 gracfuafing KKCLJJ My dear young Friends: You have spent a number of years within the four walls of the Yeshiva, where you have received a dual form of education: one a Torah and traditional education, the other, a secular education-one endeavoring to inspire you with the divine word of G-d, and the other with human knowledge, with the creative ingenuity and theor- ies as formulated by the human mind. This is what our late Rosh-Yeshiva, Dr. Bernard Revel, of blessed memory, used to cali the harmonious blending between religious and secular education. There was a time when people thought that a secular education would be the salvation of humanity from the misfortunes and bigotry that might befall mankind. The twentieth century, however, has refuted this theory, for never in the history of the world has knowledge been so widely spread as in our present century, and never before in the history ot mankind have human knowiedge and secular discoveries been used for such destructive forces as they are at the present. Whatever technical progress the world has made is used today destructively, by leaders, whose morals are of the dark ages and the iungle. The fact is, however, that human knowledge can never serve as the salvation of humanity. The fruits of human knowledge can be used for both construction and destruction. As human beings, we are naturally interested in the mysteries of the universe and in the various research of the human intellect, but such a form of education, as important as it may be, will never serve as a mode of living, will never lift one to higher. spiritual and moral levels. It is only through our faith in our Creator, the sacred origin of mankind, and through the spiritual and ethical values of the Torah that we can serve a higher purposes in life and be true to ourselves an our Creator, to whom we owe our being. The Yeshiva, through its teaching of the sacred mode of living based upon the concept of the Torah, endeavors to give you a spiritual and moral way of life. What- ever secular education you have received here merely complements the Jewish re- ligious and moralt training, which affords you the directive value of the good life. These sacred values above all you must bear in mind. SAMUEL BELKIN, President of Yeshiva Y

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DEDICATICDN To the countless millions in all branches ot service ot the United Nations, who are so courageously lighting against tyranny in the cause ol Freedom ...To the principles expounded in the Atlantic Charter. . .To the Four Freedoms . . . To the successful conclusion ol this War.,.and to the winning of the peace...is this Elchanite dedicated.

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', 1. K 4 ,4 W1.,,.f.,.. s ,, Si.. Q'arLlafing 6241.65 of 1943 SHELLEY R. SAFIR, PRINCIPAL TALMUDICAL ACADEMY Once again our thoughts turn from books and exam- inations and graduation requirements to the day of Commencement. After four years of hard and consci- entious effort, you, young men of the class of 1943, are ready to take your place by the side of those thousands who have preceded you in the course of the twenty-five years that have elapsed since the first Talmudical Academy graduation in 1919. On this joyous occasion in your young lives, when you have reached an im- portant milestone in the course of your preparation for the fulness of the days to come, l am happy to greet you and to wish you well. You have completed successfully the course of the Yeshiva High School - some with great distinction - all with credit to yourselves and to our institution. Whether you choose as your life work some phase of the domain of human knowledge and dedicate yourselves to study and teaching, whether you give your energies to the fields of daily human needs or devote yourselves to the realm of the Spirit, remember the philosophy and the way of life that you have been taught here. Though the problems that you, as Jews, must face in this confused world are not always clear, you must, each and all of you, cling to those elements of our cultural past that have made us great as a people. You, graduates of Talmudical Academy High school, are pioneers. You have had an education different from that of the remainder of the Jewish youth in this country. You have had an opportunity to learn the value and significance of intensive Jewish study, for a deeper and truer understanding of the Jewish consciousness and soul. With this great common bond, you are strengthened to withstand the material influences of the time, less prone to fall prey to the disintergrating forces which are threatening of the time, less prone to fall prey to the disintegrating forces which are threatening united, assert yourselves and your influence in the lives of our youth, so that by your example you may effect that these twenty-five years of the Talmdical Academy shall not have been in vain, but that the instruction and the inspiration you received here shall be a blessing to you and to those who are to be influenced by you. Unite under the banner of the ideals for which your school stands, so that its spirit may widen and deepen, a current of faith and culture in American Jewry. Saxon