Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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Twentv-Tn ' o MASMID cannot be easily dismissed. In Western Europe, where secular education among Jews has been systemized and encouraged, the problem of Science and Religion has been faced intelligently, and there, as a result, we have had religious thinkers and philosophers like Samson Raphael Hirsch and Marcus Lehman. Today we have there Professor Wohlgemuth and many others. There was anc:her factor involved in the situa- tion. The German Jewish student, who had an academic and systematic training in the sciences and in scientific methods as well as in Jewish religious works, could consider both sides impar- itally and objectively. He could see the bound- aries and the essence of both; he could appre- ciate both. The Eastern European amateur, how- ever, could be neither impartial nor objective. How could he help being prejudiced favorably toward a study which he had acquired surreptitiously, and for which he often had to endure starvation? How could he, moreover, be objective toward two cultures which came to him in a haphazard and unorganized manner? His outlook upon life re- mained deficient one-sided, and bigoted. No won- der, therefore, that the traditional Jews in Eastern Europe were strenuously opposed to secular studies. The truth, however, ultimately emerged vic- torious. It has been recognized that the essence of science, of art, and of religion is necessary to form a well-rounded personality. Religion, to be sure, has, contrary to popular notion, the preroga- tive; its emotional hold is as old as mankind. The desire for perfection in all fields of human en- deavor may be traced back to religious inspira- tion. As man grew in his knowledge of himself and of his surroundings, the arts and sciences de- veloped; yet these merely complement the per- sonality which is essentially emotional, idealistic and religious. For intelligent religionists, the secu- lar studies are only helpful. This had always been the view of the great rabbis of antiquity and of the early Middle Ages — eras which abounded in philosophers, in scientists, and in poets. Various circumstances, however, arising during the artificial and unsound Ghetto life, caused an antogonism toward everything that was not reculiarly and exclusively Jewish. Today those conditions have vanished forever, and with them the attending ills. In order that young men may get the sub- stance of this world-view, it is important to have instructors who possess a keen appreciation of the limitations and the essence of their subject-matter. It is important, too, that these instructors should be imbued with an idealism which does not shrink from duties and sacrifices for a moral cause. Such men the Yeshiva student who attended the eve- ning session of one of the New York colleges did not usually get ; the outstanding professors hold their classes, as a rule, in the mornings. The significant accomplishment of the Yeshiva College has been the engagement of instructors of this calibre. We are aware that we have not answered directly the question: Does the quality of the graduates of the Yeshiva College fulfill the ex- pectations placed upon them? We are, however, neither willing nor qualified to express our view on this matter. Let the Jewish public opinion see and judge for itself. H. M. Old Morality Reborn : For the last generation or so civilization has definitely been developing along Nietzschean principles of life. Industry and science have been unconsciously furthering the theories of the blonde-beast philosopher. Wholly immersed in the founding and operation of gigantic plants and factories, the fairness and justice of their means to attain these ends were not at all considered. The wonders that science was uncovering with a child ' s curiosity, unscrupulous mankind was using for selfish and dishonest purposes. Selfishness and dishonesty have changed their usual meanings. No more were they catalogued in the list of sins. They assumed high honorary distinction among the virtues of the new morality. Stinging con- science, stilled by the brilliant successes, over- powered by the reality of the alchemist ' s elixir of life, cringed into a covered recess and trembling- ly remained unobtrusive. At last humanity was free from the slave morality ! It was building the Superman ! High hopes were entertained for this unparalleled venture which fairly promised

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M A S M I D n ' nl Editorials Commencement: Commencement, paradoxically enough, is a word that connotes to most college graduates an end rather than a beginning. The real meaning of the term, which signifies preparedness to go out and conquer the world, having acquired suffi- cient knowledge to do so, is very often miscon- strued by these very graduates themselves ; and Commencement Day comes to mean to them the culmination of beautiful friendships, the severing of ties comradeship that are but beginning to unite them. Indeed college men begin to look for- ward to Commencement, in their sentimental mo- ments, with a feeling of uneasiness; for there is yet another formality connected with it, besides the enjoyable one of appearing in cap and gown — the dreaded formality of leave-taking. In truth, it is natural for the students to have such a feeling. Too often it happens that brother- graduates — men who have spent the most forma- tive years of their lives together, who have shared identical hopes, fears, and joys — are separated from each other and never see one another, after the glamor of Commencement Day is over. It is a state of affairs, very much to be regretted. We of the Yeshiva College must not let our fate be the same as that of most college-graduates. We have a right to be different. Ours has not been merely an association of four years. Many of us studied at the Yeshiva, connected with the College, long before the eshiva College embarked on its noble career; and some of us will yet con- tinue to study at the eshiva. We have been pioneers together in a great educational endeavor of our people; we have striven these years to reach a common goal, to realize the same ideal: the har- monization of secular learning with our own Jew- ish culture. Ours has been a unique friendship. Commencement must then have for us another and far happier connotation than it has for most college students. It must mean to us the reen- forcement of the bonds of comradeship which hold us together, so thai they may not be easily torn asunder by time and distance. It mutl mean die birth and formation of a powerful Alumni Group that will ever be at the service of our Alrn.i Mater. It must be the first meeting of a group of men, who, having received a wonderful well-rounded education, will attempt to cope with the problems of American Jewry. J. K Yeshiva College: Now that the Yeshiva College is graduating its first class, the question is appropriate: Has the Yeshiva College justified its existence? The problem that faces us now is, does it pay for Torah-true Jewry to continue its support of the first and only Jewish college? Has the College been a credit to the interests of orthodox Judaism? These questions must be faced courageously and impartially by all thinking Jews who have the interests of spiritual Judaism at heart. The opposition to secular studies was strong up to a decade or two ago in Eastern Europe. In Germany and England there was no such con- flict; Jewish elementary and secondary schools, were maintained there by orthodox Kehillahs. The pupils of these schools have remained within the folds of Orthodoxy, in fact, have become leaders in it — after receiving their higher academic train- ing. In Eastern Europe a smattering of non- Jewish knowledge — the reading of a fifth rate novel, for instance, — was sufficient to cause a break with tradition. Why is it. people have often wondered, that secular studies have ill effects in one section of the world and not in another? The reasons for this difference are not far to seek: Stolen waters are always sweet. If secu- lar education is frowned upon and its acquisition regarded suspiciously, the young boy who en- joys the reading of a novel has a simple choice: a burdensome religion or a delightful novel ! And an attitude of antagonism to religion once adopted

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M ASM ;.■■■ I ■ to achieve the Nietzchcan «oal confidence and hardness of individualism, joy, happiness, and wild riotous laughter. We ha e gone far enough to look back and examine our success. Hardness and boldness wet certainly attained, but the vestiges of unbridled laughter and glee are not to be perceived. Nay, we seem to be further away from them than we were ever before. The Captains of Industry go crazy and jump into the ocean; the sailors em- ployed by them are groaning under the crushing loans. The Supermen are breaking one another ' s necks, killing and exterminating their own breth- ren. Strange . . but none overflowing with happiness to freely bestow their gifts on mankind. The old morality, come out of its hiding, is again ready to civilize mankind. The Chosen people, though buried for centuries, have not for- gotten their eternal mission. They are again up, more ready and fresh than ever before, all set, to proclaim the pregnant, all embracing principles of Absolute Unity — unity between slave and master, unity between master and master, unity between state and society, unity that can solve our financial, social, and mental vexations, unity that can give us the laughter denied by Nietz- schean morality. Men of Yeshiva College, as you go out into life, catch for a moment the fiery spirit of our ancient prophets, overflow with righteous indigna- tion at the many breaches of justice, get out of your passive indifferent states, remember the far- reaching Jewish principle — Unity of G-d — Unity of Mankind! E. L. DR. BERNARD REIEL President of Yeshiva College In an office at the end of the second floor cor- ridor sits Dr. Revel, his face lighting with a ques- tion as you come in: What can I do for you? Upon his shoulders rest all the burdens of the Yeshiva and Yeshiva College, and in his mind all its concerns ; but his eyes seem centered on an inner way, as though he has been drawn unwill- ingly from the cloistered study and his beloved Torah to the bustling offi - and il», .iff.nr ' .. Ai head of the Rabbi I .1.1 ' I .l li.iri.in I heo logical Seminary, Dr. Bernard Rrvrl had made a narnr for InniM ' lf, w.i N ' .t only pf-idriit ' ,f lh - I ty, and spiritual leader of the many itudenti there, but .1 student him ' If .ind .i hol.ir of inlTn.i- tional repute. The Yeshiva, however, bearer as it was of th age-old traditions of the Yeshivoth of Europe, stooJ in a newer land, with problems created by its en- vironment, by the opportunities, especially the edu- cational opportunities its students could not but see and desire. Dr. Revel recognized a need, fused it with an ideal, and framed it in a great vision. This three-fold impulsion brought him forth from his scholarly study, and set him upon the long and ardous journey of which th first Commencement of ' i eshiva College is a signifi- cant milestone. The students of the Torah, of the Jewish knowl- edge and faith, who fifteen years ago were draw- ing spiritual and intellectual sustenance from the Yeshiva, looked with legitimate longing on their fellows outside, who in day public high schools were gathering the information, the equipment for life, deemed best by the general educational authorities. The Yeshiva students had none of this, or were forced to the strain of years of eve- ning school, after the ardous days of devotion to their Hebrew studies. So in 1915, Dr. Revel established the Talmudical Academy, where the general high school work was offered to the eshiva students, in their own building, in the afternoons. Approved by the State Board of Regents, this high school was none the less an experiment, to be judged by its results. These have more than justified the Talmudical Academy ; for, although their morning hours have been de- voted to intensive work in Hebrew, the students here have consistently held their high school among the first in the State, in percentage of State-wide Regents ' examinations passed, in the high grades received on these tests, and in the proportion of State Scholarships won by the graduates. When the high quality of the Talmudical Aca- demy work was recognized and securely estab- lished, it was time for the next step toward the