Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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MASMID Dr. SAFIR ' S REVIEW The Yeshiva College exists to bring a har- monious opportunity to the Masmid, to oifer the devoted student, in the most favorable con- ditions of accessibility and of sympathetic at- mosphere and instruction, the work of the gen- eral college at the same time that he is carrying on his intensive Jewish studies in the Yeshiva. Springing from a need felt for supplying the best graduates of the Talmudical Academy this means of continuing their work, the College had its legal beginning in an amendment to the Charter of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theolog- ical Seminary, on March 29, 1928, when the University of the State of New York permitted the change of the name to the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and Yeshiva College, and authorized the offering of courses leading to the degrees of B. A. and B. S. The work of organization was at once begun, coin- cident with the conclusion of the building cam- paign, so that by the time the magnificent new edifice on the highest point of Manhattan Island was well under way, the College had already begun its work, in the temporary home off ' ered by the West Side Jewish Center. With a faculty chosen to meet its peculiar needs, and an associate faculty of professors from great nearby institutions of higher learning, the work of the Freshman Year was offered to an enter- ing class of 30 students. Selected from a lengthy list of applicants, and representing seven States of the Union, these young men of the Yeshiva, with a confidence similar to that of the young pioneers who ten years before entered the Talmudical Academy, entrusted themselves to the new College, for the studies of their academic career. And what has been the result? At the close of the first year of the work of the Yeshiva College any definite statement on the part of the College authorities would be premature. Let judgment rest with the State University, which, after inspection of the work and study of the plans of the College, has already ap- proved the work of the second year, and placed Yeshiva College upon the State list of approved institutions of higher learning, authorized to receive holders of State scholarships. Among faculty and students alike there is great satis- faction in these signs of progress, and a deep sense that the work itself has been worth while. All look forward eagerly to the work of the second year. It is in the coming year that the Yeshiva College must grow toward its justification. As the present class moves through its remaining years, as successive groups of students enter upon their four-year course, the work will widen, the opportunities for specialization will grow, whether for cultural or further profes- sional ends, and the Yeshiva College will rise toward its proper stature. It will never be a larger college, for its aim is to serve only that portion of American Jewish youth definitely

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MASMID Executive Council (Reading left to rifeht) Judah Shapiro, Sec ' yi A. Herbert Greenljerji, Editor Harry Stein, Athletic Mana ,er, Julius Washer, Pres. Israel Upbin, Vice-Pres.

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10 MASMID devoted to learning, which feels that both Jew- ish and general knowledge are desirable for a cultural development and essential to a rounded Jewish personality. But it hopes to be a col- lege in which the harmony of life may be re- vealed and a cultural and spiritual point of view may be inculcated; so that those who come to know its influence may bear the spirit of their Alma Mater into the wider university of life, and through the activity of their later days realize in their own being, and in the lives around them, the true culture and devotion to knowledge and to the things of the spirit which it is the hope of the Yeshiva College to sustain. INDICTMENT A mental Reign of Terror, Of Nihilism, Thoughtless bombs exploding Shattering idols to dust, with cruel heedlessness. Iconoclast! Radical! Agnostic intelligentsia! It all ends in dreary isolation. Sedate chaos And a huge blank waste Of elemental disintegration. C. H.