Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M A S M I D Fiflt From Our Dean DR. S. R. SAFIR Nearly .1 score of yens ago srwnlerii lo I,.- exact — the authorities and leaders of our Ycshiva were confronted with the difficult problem of what to do with the boys who were completing their elementary school studies and would soon be ready for high school work. Two courses were open to the Directors. One was to permit the boys to proceed to the public high schools to pursue their secular studies, thereby sacrificing the rich background of Jewish learning which was to serve as the basis for the further understanding and ap- preciation of the history and literature, the laws and customs of our people and the knowledge of the Holy Torah. The other alternative was to found a secondary school as part of the Yeshiva, where the boys could continue, under one roof, the subjects of the high school curriculum without dis- continuing or interrupting their Talmudic and Jew- ish studies in the Yeshiva proper or in the Teach- ers Institute. Our directors and leaders solved the problem by founding the Talmudical Academy, the first academic high school in America, under Jewish auspices, under the complete control and supervi- sion of the eshiva, where the spiritual environ- ment is in harmony with the immortal precepts and truths of our holy laws; where the Jewish spirit unhampered, is encouraged to develop to its full- est extent. In this environment, permeated by a sympathetic understanding between teacher and pupil and by a close harmony between the atmos- phere of the school and that of the home, the best that is in the student has been brought to the sur- face. How well this plan has worked out is fully and amply attested by the history of the progress and the successes which our high school has enjoyed for the past decade and a half. In all its aspects the Talmudical Academy has writ- ten a chapter in Jewish education of which its sponsors and leaders have every reason to be proud. If, seventeen years ago, the need for a high ' liool was urgent, the nrces-.ity for a college at part of the Yeshiva became in its turn of para- mount importance. With every graduation from the high school some of the most promising stud- ents, only too frequently the prize winners and thr scholarship winners, were lost forever to the Ye- shiva and in some cases to the cause of Ortho- dox Judaism in America — a loss which both could ill sustain. The knowledge-hungry high school graduates, eager and impatient lo go on with their secular studies in college, and not having this op- portunity in the Yeshiva, left to register in the day sessions of the colleges of the city or remained in the Yeshiva and continued their coll ege courses in the evening sessions of the city ' s colleges with all the attending evils of night work, Friday eve- ning classes, absences incurred during religious holidays, and the strain of adjusting their activi- ty to two widely differing institutions. It was to afford these young men the oppor- tunity of continuing their secular studies in an en- vironment conducive to the preservation of their rich heritage of Jewish knowledge and culture that eshiva College was founded four years ago. At a meeting held March 29, 1928. the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York authorized the work of Yeshiva College, em- powering it. as an integral part of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, to give courses in liberal arts and sciences leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. The aims of Yeshiva College may be briefly summarized as follows: 1 . To afford a harmonious union of culture and spirituality, to provide Jewish youth with a college education that will meet the standard of the highest educational institutions in America, but which will be coordinated and closely bound with the spirit and the tenets of Judaism. 2. To provide a college education that will

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Fourteen MAS M I D merging of the spiritual Jewish life in this land and the loss of those qualities that have charac- terized Israel through the ages: steadfastness and devotion to his ideals, and readiness to sacrifice for the things he considered holy. Unendingly the emphasis in true Jewish life has been upon the ethical significances, upon the abiding values of the s pirit. And in this age, when the materialistic conceptions of pseudo-science and partial knowl- elge still flaunt their half formed theories as fun- damental laws of universal scope, science itself is tending to reassert those abiding values beyond the physical and temporal. Science and her hand- maid philosophy are moving again toward the realm of the spirit. The increased knowledge of the cosmos in the wide reaches of space and time and in the infinitesimal field of the electron and the quantum constitutes a turning point in man ' s understanding of the universe, causing a shifting in world-attitude back toward the emphasis on spirit- ual values, to the great truths of Judaism. The understanding is growing that science not only is to be applied to industry, but is mainly to serve humanity in its social, its spiritual aspects and ideals. By its contribution to this point of view, among its students and, through them, ultimately in the Jewish communities of the land, Yeshiva College hopes to play a part in the movement back toward the spirit, as well as in the discovery and interpretation of knowledge, and help toward an increasing understanding of and living in ac- cord with the high and eternal ideals, Israel ' s stead- fastness and spirituality. With the help of Him, Who is, the sublime source of all truth and blessing, this sanctuary of the spirit shall become the altar of which the Bible ;ays: It shall be a witness between us that the Lord is God. Out of its portals shall come a Jewish leadership — lay and spiritual — high in mind and spirit, conscious of its unique herit- age, striving to develop in this land a Jewish life spiritually satisfying and culturally creative, based upon the eternal foundations of the Torah, upon Israel ' s steadfastness and spiritually leading, to the service of God and our fellowmen. You, my dear young friends, have been taught the signi- ficance of values not to be measured in terms of practicability and gainful success, but rather in terms of human happiness, of intellectual and spiritual aspirations and fulfilment. Follow your convictions rooted in the Torah of truth and th? truth of the Torah, fearing neither struggle nor sacrifice. Acknowledge the sovereignty of God and your conscience and be the glad servant of your ideals. Hold fast to them, for in them h the fulness of your lives and the hope of mankind. The ultimate forces of life, which decide the course of human progress, are the spiritual forces. I end with the fervent prayer of our people: The Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers.

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Sixteen MASMID strive zealously to imbue the American Jewish youth with the contribution of the spiritual values of Judaism, of the Jewish ideals of education, of the Jewish life-philosophy and of the Jewish per- spective upon learning and knowledge ; where Jewish studies will be an integral part of the course in the humanities. 3. To provide a college education that will tend to develop the future leaders of orthodox Jewry, rabbis in our houses of worship, teachers in our houses of learning, and a laity versed in the Torah and traditions of our people. At the cornerstone laying of the group of buildings which were to be the future home of the first and only liberal arts college under Jew- ish auspices anywhere in the world, great educa- tors and prominent men of affairs from many parts of our country gathered to bring word of greeting and cheer to the youngest of the city s family of colleges. They recognized in it an im- portant addition to the cultural and academic life of our city and nation and prophecied a brilliant future for it in the field of secular studies. Altho Yeshiva College is only four years old, too brief perhaps a time in which to form any definite conclusion as to the quality of work done by our boys, the results obtained in the various courses of studies and in the comparative tests given by members of our faculty and outside edu- cators, indicate that the work of the Yeshiva Col- lege students is in no respect inferior to that of colleges of the first class throughout the country. After the recent psychological tests Dr. Henry E. Garrett, Asst. Prof, of Psychology at Columbia University, states: These results are truly as- tonishing, when one considers the type of student body and the program carried . . . The Yeshiva student is able to do effectively much more work than the ordinary college student because as our tests show, he is highly intelligent. Furthermore, he is serious of purpose and industrious — traits as exceptional in college students as they are de- sirable. Prof. Charles F. Home, Prof, of English at the College of the City of New York, and senior among our associated faculty members, after four ye ' ars ' acquaintance with the Yeshiva College stud- ent, declares: I have never met youths more able, more alive, more eager to improve and de- velop themselves. A larger number of students earn high grades in their classes here than in any other classes I have ever taught. They grasp every new thought with eager appreciation . . . They are really noteworthy for their eagerness for knowledge, their industry and their breadth of understanding. Statements of the same sort have been volunteered by nearly every instructor and educator who has had opportunity to observe Ye- shiva College work. Pleasant as it is to feel that our student body is thus eminently qualified to derive great good from college work in an harmonious atmosphere of spirituality and culture, no little responsibility is thereby imposed upon the College authorities, to select a faculty adequate to the exceptionad de- mands such students would make upon them. This task has been met, and experts in the various fields, of sound scholarship, wide experience, and rich personality, have been provided, by choosing with the utmost care an organic College Faculty, and complimenting this group with an associated Fac- ulty drawn from the professors of great metro- politan colleges and universities nearby. In this way, in a controlled and harmonious environment, with proper equipment for their tasks, the stu- dents of Yeshiva College have found men by whose measure they may rise to worthy work. Of the many problems that naturally arise dur- ing the first years of a new institution, suffice it to say that for each year of the new college ' s work the official approval of the State Depart- ment of Education (the Board of Regents at Al- bany) was duly forthcoming. In its first year, Yeshiva College was placed upon the approved list of colleges State Scholarship holders may at- tend. Now, after four years of unceasingly de- voted activity, the first stage in its long journey has been reached and in its first Commencemeent Yeshiva College points its way through the years. The extra-mural life of Yeshiva College is as yet, unfortunately, because of lack of time, limited in scope. Thus far, athletics has played a minor role in the life of our institution, which is as it should be, with all due respects to the benefits