Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

Text from Pages 1 - 120 of the 1951 volume:

i[pM- b ' d- • MASMID 20tli nniuerSctru d ue J Go forth, ye lea es of dedication, fall L pon the ears of all tiiy readers like The falling red and multicolored leaves Of fall upon the fields and pathways near And far. Shine forth, o leaves! though black and while our colors seem, your shades and hues surpass By far thy brightly tinted counterparts In Nature ' s store, for many are the hues And colors that thy pages represent. For ye, o leaves, are dedicated to The variegated multitude of men Whose fortune was to spend their younger years Within Yeshiva ' s consecrated halls Of learning, keeping always brightly lit The sacred lamps of knowledge, lest they be Extinguished; men who in their later years Looked back upon Yeshiva ' s lofty spires To draw fresh hope and new found strength, as leaves Of trees gain nourishment from roots Imbedded in the warm and fertile earth. To these, the graduates of our dear school. The varied, multicolored group, wherein Each one his own gradation added to Life ' s everchanging spectrum bright — to these Eternal Masmidim we dedicate Thee, Masmid. Shine, o leaves! for ye, we trust. Will shine when autumn ' s leaves have turned to dust! Ira Albeck DR. SAMUEL BELKIN Dear Graduates: At Yeshiva University, you have received a three-fold education. First of all, Judaism which endeavors to define the higher purpose and spiritual values of our own lives and daily experiences; of moral discipline and the divine way of life. Second, the natural sciences which are primarily concerned with the world in which we have been placed; in the hidden secrets of the universe which are constantly being discovered and re-discovered, by the human intellect. The understanding of the physical universe in which we live and move is a part of the educated man ' s equipment. Third, the social sciences and humanities which seek to convey to us a better understanding of our complex society, of which we are individual members, and a deeper appreciation of the laws and customs which bind together the community of men. A better appreciation of the problems and issues which confront our contemporary civilization. The endless search after G-d ' s knowledge which helps us to orientate ourselves in the uncharted land of the spirit; the continuous desire to become better acquainted with the discoveries of the universe, and the search for a deeper understanding of the people around us creates within us a harmonious perfection which may be characterized as the integration of knowledge. I have abiding faith that you will govern your lives by the standards of the Torah and by our American way of life, and that you will consider your education as a means to a greater end — towards the emphasis of man ' s humanity in place of man ' s animality: that you will consider your education as a means to a greater end — towards consecrated service to G-d and our fellowmen. I congratulate you, and wish you well-being and well-doing. Samuel Belkin President DR. MOSES L. ISAACS Dear Graduates: The Masmid this year will minor some interesting statistics regarding ' eshiva College. First, there is a milestone of this graduation being the twentieth in the history of the college. Secondly, the graduating class will be. by far. the largest in our history, approximately eighty in number, bringing the total number close to one thousand. We are all proud of these achievements. The members of the class of 1951 are embarking on their careers at a time of great stress and forebodings and years of strain. May each and every individual, however, look upon this situation as a challenge to be met and conquered rather than as a cause for despair. The faculty at Yeshiva College in its teaching of the Humanities and Science, not to mention the religious atmosphere of the institution, has endeavored to prepare the graduates with the proper background, perspective and knowledge needed for days ahead. Good courage to the class of 1951. Moses L. Isa. cs Dean Division of Languages and Literature Seated I to r: Professor R. Rosenberg, Mr. S. Lainoff, Dr. H. Robinson, Professor B. Floch, Chairman; Mr. A. Imerti, Professor I. Linn. Standing 1 to r: Professors K. Adler, M. Chernowitz, Mr. M. Halberstadt, K. Damon, D. Fleischer, Mr. Vogel, Pro- fessor L. Sas. Not present when picture was taken: Professor S. Braun, Dr. W. Nallin, Mr. H. Redisch, Professor A. Tauber, Mr. M. Weintraub. Division of Social Sciences Seated I to r: Mr. N. Goldberg, Professor A. Margalith. Chairman; Mr. H. Adler. Standing 1 to r: Professor I. Young, Mr. M. Terkel, Mr. M. Silverman. Not present when picture was taken: Professors A. Brody, A. Delatour, Rabbi W. Drazin, Professors N. Glatzer, A. Hurwitz, L. Jung, P. Kraus, A. Litman, J. Lookstein, E. Rackman, N. Savitsky, Mr. S. Pleskin. Division of Jewish Studies Seated I to r: Rabbis S. Wind, Asher Siev, Professor S. Hoenig, Chairman; Rabbi M. Katz, Professor G. Churgin. Standing I to r: Rabbis J. Singer, D. Mirsky, M. Bern- stein. Not present when picture was taken: Mr. M. Arfa, Professors P. Churgin, H. Grinstein, Dean S. Sar. Division of Natural Sciences ini ■ klUHril gpwmwiiiiffl IIMI v - B Bk IL ' Tli BliJlH ' 1 1 i ■ 1 ■§1 k ' G Li ■ 1 1 Wli li ' ' 1 1 IkBI Seated I to r: Professor B. Kisch, Dean M. Isaacs. Professor J. Ginsburg, Chairman; Professors A. Lowan, E. Levine. Standing I to r: Mr. H. Seligson. Professors A. Freed, H. Lisman. Mr. T. Kellner. Professor M. Atlas. Mr. P. Posen, Mr. D. Block. Not present when picture was taken: Professor S. Saphire. Personnel of Masmid Editor-in-Chief Joshua Hertzberg Managing Editor Gerald Krakower Business Manager William W. Wealcatch Literary Editor Maurice Lamm Literary Editor Gustave Solomon Photography Editor Barry Ginsburg Art Editor Bernard Sohn Graduate Adviser Boris Rackovsky Faculty Adviser Abraham Hurwitz 10 Table of Contents Dediralioii - (ricclinjis ' Facully - - ' Classes - - ' - Class History ' • ' Seniors - -■ ' Anniversary Section -- Masmid Staff 6 Literary Section — f Activities Advertisements lOL 11 Freshmen Seated I to r: A. Heisler, M. Chervin, O. Goodman, I. Bierman, M. Dubrinsky, J. Mann, B. Sohn. Second Row 1 to r: A. Bramson, J. Taragin, A. Reichman, D. Rechtschaffen, H. Mordukowitz, L. Rudolph, A. Thee. Third Row I to r: H. Richtman, S. April, R. Rosenak, M. Kula, M. Halstein, J. Heller. 12 Sophomores Seated ! to r: M. Korn. J. Schechter. J. Kreitman. E. Steiman. D. Mond. B. Goldzweig. S. Feder, H. Shapiro, A. Shapiro. Second Row 1 to r: G. Dershowitz, A. Schiff. M. Gordon, M. Danishevsky, D. Hadas, R. Rozen. M. Tokayer, S. Speira. Third Row I to r: D. Rogoff, B. Pshoter, I. Bonchek, S. Bienenstock. H. Miller, L. Burack, A. Hyman. 13 Juniors Ssated I to r: S. Seigel, S. Jaffe, H. Eichelberg, R. Rozen, S. Katz, G. Marcus, N. Katz. Standing I to r: B. Horowitz, R. Starishevsky, M. Stadmauer, D. Mogilner, W. Wealcatch. S. Bahn. 14 ' 47 CLASS HISTORY ' 51 oo ' .v hniin ilinrsls j,liil(is,,iili nih, lolly, srirrirr iiili, Mifif, sliliiin. iiii ' i iirl irilo liriliiiili ) . iliiKr iiitiifl sily r l iiriitinn . , . Okohi K Hkhnahi) Shaw I ' KOI.OM !■; With llif scplcniri ;i(Kirr cil ii|i|)ii classiiK n ringing in cur care. Take certain teachers, Hiaiiii. I,..umii. LiaIuc. iI .. ;n(pi l llirsc . . .. we cmimrkMl on a eruiwr up the creek ol inlcllcrl. VVc urif iniilnhd inin ihr ' |uiri. Huhlinic halls of Ycchiva at approxiiiialcU luriii .(i c u uu II. A. (Ilcfoic lli - Advent of Avruml. In thoxc clays of aiili(|Mil ilnrc ucic main |iri)|iliits who preached the greatness of the potentialities of ' csliiva Collifii-. It was lliu.s that Yf ' hiva tiecame known a a hig college where hursar receipts and absence m(iI vmit- iln- means and ends of Yeshiva education. After the advent of Avrum the inslitulioii was to be known as big, strict college where the concept of We ' re college men. We are trustworthy during examinations was prevalent. After the ijroohets and the miraculous entry of Avruin there appeared the Amosonian Magna, the coining of which was inevitable ill a liif; sliiil college. Cliiiiieifleiilalls . Hrilaiii devalued the pound. These events were llie iialiiial se(|iieii(e aller Aliiain- l ' cainc M.ialiaiii aii.l Isaac became Dean. It is during the four vear reign of our blessed class ihal the famous historian Josephus Al Enbcrgi wrote the best seller St. Ipend. the Influence and the Works. The later historian Herman B. Groan.stone attempted a revision with the accent on Works. These were the years of dramatic political events — the Kellerian Kevolution. the Kurtzmanian Counter-revolution, the Administration Revelation, the Student Revulsion. These are the stage settings — here is the background: and now — ring up the curtain. Folly Mr. Mandelbaum is still a good boy. He teaches and studies Hebrew and English — it looks like he ' s here to stay. Tf I have to stamp my foot on the floor the very next time — it ' ll be your fault. Babe Lobel doesn ' t take off his five-inch brim hat. Who closed the lights? Mandelbaum rips off Y ' armilke — half for student and half for teacher. Ah. they cleaned the windows. Lamm asks questions. Mandel- baum draws diagrams, Lieberman is stunned. It ' s absolutely tangential, peripheral and esoteric to the conversation. I Will we be able to talk like that when we graduate? — Gee. we hope not.) Dave Rosenhan schedules double date with . llen. (Gosh, he acts like a senior. I How do you spell college education? CHLTZP. . Krakower. Eisenbach. Mond act in freshman play Submerged. — Drama about freshman social status — no doubt. School becomes dramatic conscious. Gershon Stern and Zimmerman declared subversive. Zimmerman gets a tuition-free course in English through the generosity of dean (editor ' s slip — supposed to be Dean I. Class night becomes lass night and then gets the el knocked out of it the next year . . . Keller resigns — but to no avail, he ' s not president vet. Damon-Ryan fun till end of term . . . What mark would you like? Hal Ha! D! What Litman calls comedy-tragedy hyphenated. Orenstejn ' s right hand resembles a mechanical tov. Fredman ' s gesticulations are a minute later than his words. Damon and Lamm hum up and down the scales — no talent scouts present. Frednian. Davidman and Dryspiel align themselves with the Y ' eshiva Hopsters. Every freshman class for the past five vears boasts of contributing Artie Stein to team. Aaron Mann remains undiscovered talent. Ruby Davidman has a bu-bu. Dryspiel does his famous imitation of Abrams. Entering s tudents who hear Abraius for first time accuse him of poorly imitating Drvspiel. At Frosh-Senior Smoker we are initiated into the sport of vault-ing and safe-guarding against bacteriological professors. Dr. Freed teaches 1.5 us how to imprison syphilisation by the new Zipper Technique. Don-Dare is hero of hygienic lectures. Some of us go swimming in pool, others in sweat on the basket- ball court. Travelling to 28th Street becomes ordeal — students lose gym — get raw deal. The first good advice we get in First Aid is to call someone who knows first aid. This remains our motto till the end of the term. This was Arty-Fishel perspiration compared to the natural sweat we got up in Moish Kranzler s course in the Junior year. There are sonu- Ik) take Latin and Greek uilli llmli. A useful language down under and we don t mean Australia. Other colleges oiler Chinese — to be able to read laundrv tickets — but not eshiva. We learn Latin which is perfectly Greek to us. so that if we wish to travel to Latin-America where they speak Spanish we should at least know Latin. Ismar Lifshitz agrees that Latin and Greek are not dead languages — with whom is he agreeing? Not with an one 1 know — chas v ' chalilah. Dr. Floch is considered most desirable professor on faculty. Monsieur le professeur Braun initiates college men into his kindergarten . . . Orenstejn becomes teacher ' s right hand tongue (this is probably a misprint I. Rashbaum shakes his head and promises to take French for the rest of his life. Fiszman and Ish Cohen actually know the stuff. Braun demands we buy book . . . we ' ll never want to get rid of it. Second-hand books are bought from the Yeshiva book store. Je ne comprends pas. Fud Lieberman ' s Moici Boucoo. Braun demands that we study. Toutle Mend had French in T.V. Braun demands we suck French loUypops. We demand Braun stop demanding. Lamm gets a B plus, plus. Freshmen learn early that Dr. Linn chooses his words. Freshman — choose — word. Nation-alists get A-rating. Ruby Gross runs after presidency and gets in. Phil Goldman is vice. Gerry Krakower takes the Devine chem course and gets high- Jaked. Eli still can ' t balance an equation. The experiment usually works. There ' s the dean I editor ' s slip — Dean) where ' s Levine. Gus Solomon, Harry Weinstein, Elliot Eisenbach and Pete Lewinsohn take physics with Weiber. All this is done tongue in cheek as Benny explains the difference between mass and weight by saying sweetly if the answer is too small I multiply by 980 — if it ' s too big I divide by 980. The difference between A and B is attained through the same reasoning. The tongue is always in the cheek. Benny leaves in February and Dr. Lisman, a card shark, takes over. A certain stop watch and breakage fees were never heard of again. Scheinfeld and Twersky like Dr. Brody, to be sure. No one knows what the prof means when he says readings. Twersky and Scheinfeld produce tongue twisters in their competition for the love o ' Brody. Rosenhan sits in the back of the class and studies the prof ' s physiognomy. He doesn ' t double date Alexander however. Dr. Brody likes Scheinfeld and Twersky. (Editor ' s note — substitute Margalith for Brody to produce same effect.) A two thousand year old dream is fulfilled as Israel becomes a nation. Leon Levy goes over to protect her against her enemies. School given whole day off a posteriori after unanimous a priori decision not to come. Dr. Litman is not yet in Vogue. Some T.I. students take freshman English with Fleisher as the class receives hints of delights that our soph year has in store for us. Rosenberg has an ear for German songs. Terkel has a nose for news. Braun demands. Solomon, Ginsburg, Lieberman, Hertzberg take Math — Why, was it missing? Yukie receives Bury Ginsburg ' s love letters . . . There ' s the dean (Ed. ' s slip — supposed to be Dean) where ' s Levine? Rashbaum, Hertzberg, Lamm, Solomon and Botwinick take two F.A. courses — Fine Arts and First Aid. Phil Rabinowitz tells Cherubino Nallin about the Detroit Philharmonic and is only one to buy book. He gets his A. So does Conductor Kenner who changes records on victrola. Ruby Heisler works on Doc. Ruby Heisler works for Doc. Miller, another one of the many English teachers around, gives two Freshman courses. Daffinition — an English teacher is a transient, ephemeral being, in the hair today and gone tomorrow. Bygones will be bygones, quothe the Dean. Bye, begone! In a recent sociological survey among English teachers, which was held along the bread-line, it was found, they say, that many of them have pinkish — nay — 16 (■li;iilrcu,sic-t ' ii(l(;n(i(:.H. Mr. IVIilli-r i« IikIIkI In I, ' . ,| l.ip-lill li.,jn - for I ' a.Httovpr iMturlah. Mr. Miller and liis daufjlili-r arc Icfl in llir li ' d. Ilir ic- fmiI |.-fl tlii-n; very lunfi. The purge is on ! Molniek cinlirare.s I ' .iniolofi) . ISini llie sjiaiiias ha- loiind liifu-fK at lahl u wixlon. Uraun eoMunandH Irrefjular Virlis — verh.H eunnol cdtnineiid irregular Hrauii. Dcl)l)y W( ' isenllial. our iiejii irar in our pirriiid of travail, i-nth hc;r  tay a wf; «fnfJ our Freshman year, iril now lie Mr. Silverman whom we ' ll have to  | eak lo lieforc wc { o lo the Dean to have our re(|uest for a ehanne in jirof- ' rarii refunefl. It hadn ' t been so had — there ' s one corisolaliori ari way- As had a- ihings arc — it ' s hard to find worse. Superstition All of us MOW take I ' lcisher. hna !ine. !iO — yes Jif)- sludciil- to whom to tell last year ' s jokes. Do you hear Dr. I itman? Dave Hosenh.ni lurdinr ' s leader of l )ndon and follower of Fleisher. Him conies lo class lale (one inniilh lo he exact I suitcases in hand . . . jusl arrivnl froiii ( iaii foi iiia. M -i-lirr l.r( ,,riic- professor of under- statement. Sophistry is ncA m dcpartnicnl ou iiii ilil lr the Sciences. So there you are — Yeshiva boys first remove the locket. Al Solomon now enters the fleisherian troupe. The purge begins — Miller is given red herring treatment. Mandclbaum is de-Joyced towards the end of school year. He is given green light to leave if he WISHES. Dean WISHES. Mandelbaum does WISH. Mandelhaum opgeWISHt. Lauer, Glaser and N. Lamm get inside story. Glaser and Lamm graduate. Lauer purged. Berts (Rogoway and Mondl take office. The class meetings are a nul class. Red Finkelstein happens to Yeshiva I Lo Aleichemll. Jack Adler and Chile Wenger also link their fate with ours . . . Russian Roullelte is more merciful. Bim predicts the coming of the Moors. Shoham and Shulman become Levine ' s faithful disciples. The lime now is twelve months B.A. Moish Lamm ' s tongue is now purple. Hydrogen sulfide lies en odor. Now become familiar with the smell . . . I ' ll be right back. Wolf. Krumbein, Finkelstein and Lamm tackle the final. Net result — a school of poor fish. Rabinowitz. Kallner and Rudoff compete for honors (or rather dis- honors). (Ed. note — no subtlety necessary; they were only lab assistants. I Incom- pletes reign . . . students cuss like hail . . . s ' no use. There ' s the dean I Ed. note — Dean) where ' s Levine. LTncle Izzy takes full control of guidance for the perplexed. Yeshiva students become perplexed. L ncle Izzy ties Mr. Baer for popularity honors. I ' ncle Izz honors Yeshiva with ties . . . exercises Papal authority ... a cardinal knot, eshiva becomes minyan mad. Threatens delayed purge. All violators of attendance face three man squad . . . questions bv young Hurwitz are bare and to the point. It s not my fault . . . the President gave us orders. But Mr. (Professor) Young. I had a weak fingernail. Our Dear President has said that all brothers with weak finger- nails should be discharged from the beautiful halls of our GRACEd dormitory and even though vou do not attend minyan daily it is assumed thai you at least put on a tie every day. Dr. Braun still demands. French Lit., however, proves to be most educational course. Que s appelez vous. Monsieur Spear? Nineteen years old. Spear under- takes poll of Bais Yaakov poles . . . participates in debate Is Bais aakov here to stay or is it L ' Chu V ' Nailcho? Beelus takes affirmative side and has upper hand. (Ed. note — This is a joke. There is a sentence in one of the holy hooks Bais Yaakov Tchu v ' nailcho. ' Do you get it? Our Literary Editors insist on showing off their wonderful erudition . . . ah. education, it ' s just — just — just — useless.! Aaron Krauss Krucified by Rabhi Gorelick. professor of Talmud. Hyniie Krantz discovers Mr. Abrams and explores. Steady Arthur Schnier s dorm room is a haven for hair brushes and the Cohen brotliers. The school again becomes dramatic con- scious. If not for dramatics, students would remain unconscious throughout entire year. Sam Glaser becomes immoral and founds Sam Glaser Mortal Society. This 17 is in competition with International Retaliations Society which is in competition with the Irrational Aberrations Society, which isn ' t funny. Student Council does not define the most crucial word in Yeshiva history — guests. Students bring guests. . . . resort to individual interpretation rather than Lipshitzian Revelation. Henry Keller resigns but to no avail; he ' s not president yet. Bim. Hy Levine. Lamm, Feldblum and Frank take Dr. Kisch ' s philosophy course. I This is probably the third year but as we ' ve already started the sentence you ' ll have to bear the anachronism.) Weltaanschaaung iss ven vee look from one viewpoint out — zo, zere itt iss . . . Damon and Ryan become discolored as the boys accept a Reddisch tinge. If members of parliament could only sit in on Speech 4, they would learn some procedure. The class is divided into two factions — right and left, or up and down, or back and front, or. upper and lower, or any such political denominations. The Constitution Blockers consisted of Lamm, Rackovsky, Haber, Hertzberg. Lamm. Rashbaum. Bim. Lamm, Cohen. Lamm and Stadtmauer. (You know, the beauty of this history is that you can ' t tell who wrote it). The Constitu- tion Deformers consisted of Gus Solomon, Bill Solomon, A. Fredman, Jack Adier, G. Solomon, Natie Gordon, Gil Shoham, G. Solomon, S. Orenstejn, S. Aronson, G. Solomon, and S. Alpert. (You know, the beauty of this history is that you can ' t tell who wrote it. ) Wiszhy Wishnitzer is most efficient and Orenstejn greatest secretary. Krakower filibusters all day. Reddisch learns to smile ... he has to — Bim! The Moors, mmmmallted. izznat so, hellauh . . . our vocabulary is growing but the main cliches are yet to come. Wacholder learns the art of circumlocution and pontification. M ' Davidman v ' ad Twersky lo kom ke ' Wacholder. (Another salient example of someone ' s erudition.) Commie builds up Shtudt Stadtmauer. ( Shtudt is not a Sephardic pronounciation of another word.) Lutz is BASIC (watch this word). Barry Ginsburg hails from the town that contributed Phil Goldman and his brother-in-law to Yeshiva. (This seemingly innocent bit of irrelevance is due to Bury ' s bringing in a $25 ad. ) For those who are interested, the town still stands — we can ' t condemn a whole community simply because . . . Yeshiva ' s Busting Out All Over. Ginky Churgin thrives as we who are in the Yeshiva division flock to him. Rashbaum, Hertzberg. and Shoham represent Baltimoron cheenuch — Lamm repre- sents Williamsburg . . . and Krasna twins alternately represent each other in com- ing to class. Ginky evens the score at end of term and tells them to share A. Please hand in your compositions on ' Matzav Hayahadut B ' America. ' It ' s getting late. It ' s later than you think. All supersubgartelian krechtzers do not take Litman until their last year. What is medieval about medieval philosophy? Smokey-Stover (hyphenated) presented with over-sized cigar by Logic class. (This happened in last year. I don ' t know why we ' re writing about it here.) The new buildings already look old. From an air- plane view, the new buildings are shaped as if Yeshiva were Fordham. The resem- blance ceases there. Dr. Linn still hasn ' t uh, uh, found, uh, the right uh uh uh word, is it? Yes, the uh right word, that ' s it. Ben-Zion is pontificating uh uh uh again. Well raise my eyebrows, Aaron Sittner! Linn again relates to class the oft-told tale of purchase of his yarmilke. We summon remembrance from things past when, at Augenstein ' s wedding, a chassid, admiring the yarmilke, inquired of the professor philologist if he had a shteleh. Tristan Rosenberg, our zinging Cherman pro- fessor, gains backing from ze growing Verein. Pazz ze beer, mother, I have a final tomorrow. French professor still demands. Spanish Department under Sas grows daily. Eisenbach who was taking Chemistry to fulfill his Physics requirement drops Lowan and majors in Levine. A Physics professor cannot be wrong, ethically so . . . The Dean of Men is seen with a wistful look — he won ' t have most of us till senior year. There ' s the dean (Ed. ' s slip — supposed to be Dean) where ' s Levine? Hey, it rhymes. That won ' t be mentioned again — don ' t worry. The English Lit final turns out to be a near catastrophe. Quite unexpectedly, the students with insight did not make out so well. The halfway mark is here and we ' re still in the driver ' s seat. A Coiletch Hedge- 18 cnlion lias Icfl iis slif lilly iiriijj Iml il liaTi I iufci led us with iiiiytiiiiiK iiKuralili ' as yet. P(Hlantry — Mama. Ii.iu ( .uih- |Ih .li.ln ' l , ,,n„- l,a.ky Wh.-r - ' s IJIi.,! KiM-iil.ach. what lia|)|iciic(l Id I ' clii LculiiMilin. |j|,|, VVi-is-. Ike Azosi-. clc.? I li ln ' l - ■.■ lh -(ii llii- i-iu: Did llir . . . ? — Hush, Imsli, llicy w ' ril away dti a lurj;. ' Iiip and lln woii ' l he hack. You w ' they were Chemistry majors . . . —Oh . . . — And nii lindcisland. cnic uaiilid In ■ n In Vh-d Sihool. other- wrni hark home, and one liilchcd ulT lo Syracuse. - Docs Ihal mean that I can jn) loo? — No, you re stayin; licrc and finishing. ' . No« run ahmj. ' and major m something like a good little Junior. — Is it necessary to major? Can ' t one hmadin himself? Docs one have to restrict himself to one phas( of knowledge, one line of thought, one flimension of wisdom? (Literary, huh? I — No, you can always lea c colie ' e . . . Oh, have you heard? it ' s (juite the thing to he a Physics major in college. Nine out of every ten Hunter High School seniors jjrefer fellows who can integrate. Izzat- so? Gus Solomon. Bert Mond. Chile Wenger, Leon Levy, Phil KaLsman. Harry Weinstein, Paul Teicher and Fud Lieherman all storm the Physics front, as Dr. Arnold N. Lowan becomes a full-time full professor, head of the new full Physics Dep ' t. Three full year courses are given. Ah, what fulls these mortals be! Wwwwell! Anyone who doesn ' t know what e to the x is just doesn ' t deserve to live. H one is sufficiently mature, one just knows! You may have written exactly what the book has word for word BUTT I can read between the lines. The intoxicating Hydrogen Sulfide fumes lured four unsuspecting juniors, who joined Gerry Krakower. Wishy Wishnitzer and Wolf Helmreich in the Chem lab. Gil Shoham. Dave Rosenhan. Moish Kranzler, and our editor Hertzberg threw reason to the winds and for some obscure reason or other (Med School or lust for life) chose work. Jos h gives up Math, English and the Ghost and is heard from no longer until he — Well . . . The retreat, or shall we say the organized withdrawal of Editor-in-Chief Sol Blumenfeld and Associate Editor Lou Lauer from the college caused some changes in the Commie staff. Moish Stadtmauer becomes Ed.-in-Chief with Rakowitz and Leon Levy (back from Israel) as News Editors. Hilty Dryspiel in at the Sports line. Henry Keller is President of the Student Council this year. Now, perhaps, his resignation will accomplish something. Bob Kurtzman Veeps and Arkv Landes in as Sec ' y ( Nu, so you ' re mentioned. Big Deal ! ) . Dr. Luchins, who took a leave of absence, was replaced by Isaak Orleans. In this course you must analyze every event carefully. That ' s Psychology! If I do some- thing there ' s obviously- a reason. Now. why do you think I gave you this exam right now? What is tlie underlying factor? Ah. you hate your father. Bim. Bim! Brother Smiley, Director of Guidance at Yeshiva I where else — Young Israel? — Yeah, there too, he ' s a big man) was appointed lo instruct the newly instituted Freshman Orientation. The lab assistant to his course was often seen in the Dorm late at night serenading everyone with exquisite verbiage and scintillating phraseol- ogy-. Your majesty, may I interest you in this exquisite tie. this voluptuous yarmilke. this lascivious arba kanfos? Danny ogel is the new instructor in English replacing Mandelbaum. who as you recall replaced Miller, who as you may remem- ber replaced . . . What will happen? ho will replace whom and when? Lloyds of London refuses to insure his stay due to the prevailing high mortality rate. YL ' , according to the Juniors, has a tremendous Agriculture School. The Messers Twersky. Weitz. Vi ' ohl — all stalwarts of the Landsmenschaft ( IRS i — cul- tivated the fields of Political Science which in turn fertilized their patterns of thought. 19 Speaking of History of Education — that course was BASIC . . . The Class Menagerie. under the whip of Meyer Terkel. a Dewey man himself, contained all sorts of . There were the realistic Science majors who needed the TI diplomas and would stop at nothing to get them — not even Ed 11 or 12. This group — Gus Solomon. Phil Silverstein. Shimmy Hellerstein — did stop at nothing. Then the Hegelian Sophists, i.e. Nadelman. Fleischman. Twersky. Wohl and Weitz. whose concepts of society are all embracing, pragmatically reasoned — two credits is two credits. And last but not lost — the essentialist. classicist, reactionary school consisting of Red Finkelstein and Moish Lamm who were determined that they ' d go out knowing at least as much as they knew coming in. The point I want to make is — Orientation. One word for this movement? — Pragmatism. Thats it. One word for the Realistic approach? — Science. — Yep. One word for Hutchins and his colleagues? — One word for this course? — What is one word for this course. Red? Basic, roared the wrong answer.- — This course can ' t be given in one word. It ' s a three word course — History of Education. Oh yes, Dave Mogilner enters the school . . . gives up engineering and tries organic chemistry along with Jack Adler who admires English . . . And the Lord said. ' ' Let there be light. The Dorm Committee agrees but only till one A.M. The poor students must sleep, said Smiley as he sweetly tucked Mr. Baer into bed . . . Hilty Dryspiel urges the students to become better fans and pleads for more inter- mural intermurals. Aaron Mann outlives athletics. Yeshiva gets a fencing team and a good one. ' What epee-phenomenalism! That ' s Shimmy Hellerstein ' s . . . well I don ' t want it! A certain junior writes certain senior write-ups for Commie. Seniors aren ' t pleased. So what? — What time is it. 1 can ' t sleep. — Hold it . . . it ' s 3:30 O.K. I ' m going to sleep ... I can ' t read this page any more, anyhow — Turn off the lights. — I think they ' ve been off since one. — Oh. I knew they forgot to tuck me in. Hilty Dryspiel writes an impassioned plea for inter-class intermurals and berates our class for lack of spirit. Whatever happened to Purvis ' s dog? Oh — Victor Balowitz! The senior writeups are being written by that same person and we wish he ' d be more genteel . . . cut it out or we ' ll tell! Groans are being heard from the full Physics department. Harry Rashbaum, Steve Jaffe and others are getting a Broady education. Godwin Fleischer is pleased with his new batch of English majors— Al Solomon, Ruby Gross — they speak it. Bill Solomon is a sociology major whose background is obtained from acting in every college and TI play. Red Finkelstein and Al Solomon collaborate wdth Wordsworth and ode the siyum of one of Words- worth ' s pomes. He ventured, ' May I, too partake of life ' s effervescence? ' We gave him a glass of soda. Hilty writes a stirring piece in which he casts his lot proudly along with Stein. 1500 words of Stein, Stein, Stein, Stein . . . who carried on alone, sick, dejected, weary, a picture of sheer will power, struggling fiercely and successfully until forced to the sidelines by overpowering fatigue and Nathan Hale went down into history! It ' s probably anti-Semitism!!! The sudden passing of our beloved Dr. Klotz, Professor of Bible, on Thurs- day, December 22, 1949 shocked the Junior class greatly. Those who had the genuine good fortune to be his pupils mourned the loss of a friend and a teacher. A specimen of humanity that will remain as a symbol of Prophetic Judaism in our hearts forever . . . January 7, 1950 witnessed a mixed Music for YLl — remember that date well! What a term!! Here come the finals. TI in the morning and college in the afternoon. But don ' t worry . . . you ' ll live . . . there ' s always the GEM. I think I ' ll give the whole class in Mechanics incompletes. You really should have a note- book of problems. I should have told you in advance but . . . well, you should have read my mind . . . Oh yes, Jack Adler and Dave Mogilner — late of organic — decided to forego the rest of the Chem Dept. and forewent it. Josh is still in Chem and Barry still taking Physics and ... oh yes, Azriel Rosenfeld and Boris Rackovsky (Satisfied?). During final week the FIVE — Lane, Empress, Gem, Heights and RKO — report an increase in attendance . . . quite mystifying. 20 ' I III- S|)riiii. ' si-imi-h|i-i I)ioii; ' IiI nulliiii;. ' ii(rw cxcr ' i)! ten junior HWt annfi they wiiiilil ili(i|) a iiil.iiii Ir.irlici ill Scplinil.ii. lifliifaliod II now hcroinf ' H 12 — llixtory (if K(l ! • iiiiw riiild 111 :, . We also know llir one nhout ihi; rye. of a n ■. ;rl|( Philo 11 liccdrnis 12. .S(i|iliisli V II lii ' coiiics SopliiMlry ii I I with n approaching infinity, Udsliidd liiiiviTHily |)iil)li.sli(-H nil ()i i.iilalor which announces iha! I ' .uhhirlo haft icicJM.I ihc Holy Law. Sliidcnls lifl out in Cod.- . . . d.-nionslralc violent approval. One of iIk- iHovisions .if lli.- 11., K l„iv i- llial -lii.li-iilv an- l.i he treated like mature, r.-s|.on.sdili ' lii.liviclNak iiiilil llii (..■-in 1.. .i. | a- such, al which time they will he licaled like lh( dirt the) aic. Sludcnl (iouiicil vole.s to spon.-or an open r-laHw nijiht with oulsid(! {;ucsls altendin;;. l5oh Kurl man is now president with you-know-who finally ficllin ; his .li.iiin- lo nwij n. SludentH vote for (lass ni;.dit in n-ferendum an 100 Hal. his p,r sinidia. Class night, Henry Keller and the Hundred Hahhis arc never heard of a aiii . . . Our class achieves douhlful fame as Hilty. in a doleful dirge, pens, Indillcrent .Juniors make tragic travesty of current intermurals . . . He ' s right Junior.s — wake up — get in lli.rc and fight — Please? Kslher Adier (Basic) le(-tun-s ii.fon- the Math Cluh on (ioedal ' s .S stem of Ax ' oms Sigma — nu, and vat else is new hy you? The Krasna Twins get their senior writeups. Look here Red, cut out those digs and slurs or . . . there I ' ve told! TI inaugurates Hchrew dohates with .Sue .ShifT representing Herzliah. As Pinky Churgin said when he heard of it. This will he the very last word in Hehrew dehating. — It was!!! Gee, Litman hasn ' t heen mentioned once this year. The Commie celehrates fifteen years of rahhie-rousing. More power to them! Fud Lieherman takes the French .Scientific Exam. He claims that French should first pass the strict Lieherman scientific test. No one. hut no one. agrees with him Student Council abstains from the Dean ' s Deception ami in this case an ah.stenlion amounts to a veto . . . Oh. here they go again. The ll[ misrepresents Uruguay (our former ally) at the Model UN. Twersky, Rakowilz. Weitz and Natie Gordon (all of whom should have known better I are on the Committee for Human Rights — such lack of experience! ! Rumor has it that a Basic Society is being formed. At the word ' s mention heads nod. mouths emit uh! and index fingers rap three times. The word is used everywhere . . . yes, even there. Speaking of there. Seymour .Aronson. There is the Chem lab. Ha, ha. Can it be that the Josh-Chem romance is dissolving? .As we intimated earlier — they had been united too late. Rubie Gross wants to know if the leaf in Paradise Lost stands too. Our sports scribe mourns the passing of the Mite Basketball season. He ends the memorable hoop campaign with a dis- cussion of the merits of Artie Stein. Say. who is this Stein, anyhow? Litman lectures on Freud and Aristotle at a Fireside Chat — there he ' s back! Yeshiva announces a raise in tuition . . . S15 per credit. We are now as expensive as Columbia. Who says we ' re not expanding? Somewhere along the line thev open the new dorm. Even the lights are opened. Time marches on. The term is coming to an end . . . Elections are held and Arky Landes. running unopposed, is swept into office. Some would rather be right — others would rather graduate. Artie Schnier becomes Vice. Leon Levy becomes Editor of Commie for our SINior vear. Will he survive the summer? is the popular question. Hilty Drvspiel signs off with the note that the summer will not thrill him. His is a dear old YU Edifice Complex. — Of course, now that the finals are coming up you ' ll no doubt want to impress me. The final, announces Dr. Lowan. will be on the whole term ' s work in English and in good hand vriting plus the two problem books that vou owe me. Hand your term papers in this week — announces everv prof of Social Sciences . and some otliers including Philo. Freshman Philo (Hygiene). English and Philo of Ed. Phil Silverstein in Ed takes the first five lines of the introduction to some book and gives it a mature, penetrating treatment in a stvle similar to what any rigorous math major would pen. If I get away with this Fll know that I can graduate college doing nothing. Needless to say three years of college had really taught him sometliing. Dr. Lisman shuffles his caaards and gives a Vector exam. Straighten tliese out 21 in order and vou pass. Advanced Calculus is given thus — Take any old caaard, explain it. read it and pronounce the Greek letters. The Physics crowd is seen limping through the halls mumbling Never again . . . again, again. A whole term ' s work. Two days before the end. they are heard vocalizing a little louder. Four topics to memorize plus an oral on everything — what a concession. The night before — certain students faint — a call is made at 11 P.M. Wenger and Solomon are shipped off to the Catskills . . . Lowan relents ... a sick class, head bowed, walks into the exam room the next day and comes out singing. Never again. they exclaim. Agmas Nefesh 12 is not for me. In Ed. the sentence is to be filled in with a word. Guess what word Im thinking of? Sorry. Mr. Finkelstein. however is not correct. The term is over but rumor has it that Hertzberg has left Chem for Baltimore. Others have left too. The summer catharsis is on. . . . Oh well, here comes the Senior year. University Education October of 1950 found one half of our original class back in YU preparing for the final spurt. The seniors returned with mixed emotions — ranging from extreme relief at the prospect of leaving, to utter joy at the hopes of graduating. With Bill Solomon and Gerry Krakower, our class prexy and veep, we, the Senior Class, officially welcome the Class of 1954. We can do this in cold blood with the learned knowledge that time healeth all wounds. Five new faculty members are added as the new term begins. Lainoff and Robinson in at English replacing no one. The school ' s just expanding — that ' s all. Dr. Halberstadt over to Advanced Finkelstein (oops Latin), Imerti in for Speech and Adler relieves Orleans at Psychology who needed relief. A psychology teacher is a transient ephemeral being (period). Academically speaking, there wasn ' t much to say. Last year ' s rather large group of Physics majors had been decimated with Bert Mond, Paul Teicher and Harry Weinstein exclaiming, Veil — ve ' ve had enough! Solomon, Katsman, Levy, Wenger and Lieberman still persisted in taking a variety of Physics courses — namely Electricity and Magnetism. These never again majors of last year ' s Self-Justification course attributed all this to Ayn Breirah (who blamed it on the Dean) and hoped for the best. Dr. Lowan announces that this would be a problem course. His prophecy comes true and solutions to this problem were arrived at as January 30, 1951 rolled around. They went that-a-way ! ! ! The Physics-Math majors along with some Juniors take Theory of Numbers with Yuki and find Arithmetic a very fascinating subject. Sheeye Hertzberg — our editor — returns to his first love. Mathematics, as predicted exclusively in this column. Remember, you read it here first. Despite this love, he takes Theory of Equations, Differential Equations, Theory of Numbers and Actuarial Statistics. There ' ll be no work this year, was his motto. This slogan, it seems, reflected very accurately the turn of the senior mind as sixty-five students, half of them seniors, registered for Psychology 11 with the new instructor, Mr. Adler. Finkelstein, Adler, Mann, Solomon, Borenstein, Twersky, Gross, and Heimowitz all attended occasionally. EPIPHENOMENALISM— epi- phenomenalism epiphenomenalism, rah, rah, rah!!! Scattered applause greeted the name of Freud. Havelock Ellis brought whistles with feet stamping. At Kinsey — Red, Jack and Gus stood up and cheered for five minutes — after which they left and didn ' t return until the final. Anything else after that, they felt, would be anti- climactic. The name of E. J. Wohlgelerenter must be engraved here as it was he, yes he, who, faced with the dilemma of boredom or non-attendance, met the chal- lenge squarely by bringing a radio to class — sat in back and listened to the Sym- phonic Matinee. In keeping with the concept of no work, Dave Scheinfeld has just informed us that he is president of the Economics Society. Ditto with Philo 11, under the 22 ucliv(r liit ;lunc of I ' rof. Liliiiaii. inlisicd in il« rank) 55 winior arul I (J nil-inn of iIk; Mulh-l ' hyHicM vari -ty. The ..iji-c in Modftrn Philo covcrwl Spinoza very ,i,|,;,(iial ' ly ... if only lln- ' l ss li.iJ lioilntiil lo n-ad him, what lh«ry itiiKht have learned!! I.iliiiari s|MrHl- ami levnlr. ilu.r |,(ii.,ds a wm k to an impartial .l«jc :tive discusHioii tif our Soiilli Arncrriean neinhlior: with their Latin iojiic and Dominican manners . . . isli Ccilien shows his true colorH . . . your pajier haH that Brazilian I, null |,„, iiiiiili ili lliiii . ' irid M(j friiisii-. . . . [■.niiUfih of thi Gaiizian Kreehtzeiden yon (cilainK ina iiol a; rrc vsilli rni- . . . ev(!ryorie ha.- a ri ' hl to In: ViTDllfl. Hicli, t?iving me a ( if;ur. iven a luenly-fivc cent one, eannot expiate that crime of Imd thinking, l-nsl week Irri .ciil cigar was a shocking exhibition of slip-shod logic ihinking thai I smoke dime stogies! ' I ' lie liasic S()ciel ol lasi year announ (s ihe as-nniplion of ifie ZKS (juite eaiU in liie term and declares the Senior year, IJasic Year. The hoard of permanent Zes m( inhcrs, consisting of Gus, lied. I,ulz, Leon Zes Levy and Huhkins immediately get lo work organizing Peoples ' Movements and evaluating lertain items as Ztrs or Unbasic. A Hasic of the Month Cluh was inslitiiled All Ahout Eve receives the Zes rating. Certain Chem courses were declared iinZrs and Organic was jjuI on the Index. Peoples ' Palace, . ' LS, 302. 424 Zes!! Arky Landes, a distinguished senior, our Prexy. just back from a restful summer at Massad (Zes I, gets to work early. The first Dean ' s Reception takes place, unboycotted and uneventful. The Math Club this year holds its meetings weekly and the Mites take their beatings meekly. I That last line is terrible — P ditor or not, either that line goes or I go . . .) Red Finkelslein. our former literary editor. ex-Ed. of Nir and President of Eranos, resigns himself to the task of graduating and resigns from everything else. Paul Teicher. a Physics major, lowan behold, takes psych with statistics. He just loves numbers. Paul embraces Dianeties and is practically a full-fledged auditor. Dianeties ... is that people with a lot of sugar? In a way. honey. It ' s a science of people who have a lot of sugar and don t care if they spend it. The mind, you know . . . His Registrarship begins to interview the seniors to finrl out who ' s graduating and to get to know us better. It looks like 8 Summas. 9 Magnas and 12 Cums. The January term is coming to a close. Gil Shoham. Dave Rosenhan and Moish Kranzler are still taking Chem . . . Leon Levy, Bury Ginsburg are yet in Physics ... the bird is on the wing ... the exams are in the safe . . . Avrum is sharpening his knives . . . and Fantasia is at the Heights (Zes! I. The week of the finals wit- nesses nothing momentous except that the old. established records for attendance at the Empress and Heights are broken. Leslie Kimmel — EI Mustachio — studies with Barney Koenigsberg, heap big chess man, for exams. Barney figures that the scenery at Llnion City will be much more conducive. Machlaka Vov is declared Basic Zes when it walks out of a certain History exam given by a teacher whose name will not be mentioned. Dr. Pinkos Churgin. (This line is through the cour- tesy of Dr. Litman. whose influence is being felt more and more every day on the land, in the air and especially at sea.) The term ends with the number of summas hahed. the magnas thirded and the cums — well, cum now, your majesty. ' hen the programs are handed in for the February term, the birds are still on the wing but the picture at the Heights has changed. Barry Ginsburg. who despite all warnings took Mechanics 11. decides to dispense with 12 and keeps his A anyw-ay. A quite remarkable achievement. The first social event of the term takes place with the announcement of the new Basic list, as Lennie Aronson is declared Zes! Shimmy Hellerstein is voted a full krechtzer by a peoples tribunal and debasicized . . . Sheeye Hertzberg accepts the assumption in public and gets himself a piece of Zes!! Prof. Litman still pulls them in. Ed Psych has a registra- tion of seventy-five — fifty to Mr. Adler I what, still with us?) and t venty-five to Mr. Terkel (still a Dewey man and still making some points K Twersky. Moish Stadt. Steve Jaffe. G.S. keep the ball rolling as each one gives over his experiences . . . in the field of ed. of course. Dave Steinberg majors in Chem — what, still with us? Babe Lobel still s■earing 23 the same hat as in first year. Ira Albeck, the Bard of Staten Island, has writ some pomes for the Masmid. This was done while not engaged in the Great Debate with Gersh Sadowsky in Blackie ' s shiur. How does that song go? Anything you can krechtz. I can krechtz better. . . . Yukie, in his nos. course learns Metallurgy, with Louis Cooper becoming Silver, Silverstein becoming Cooper and Mond becoming Borenstein. ( How did that get in here?) Pushie Lieberman emerges from his shell in the TI office — becomes titled Mr. Lieberman and calls Dr. Brody. Pushy. ( We didn ' t get that one either.) Work on the Masmid is progressing with Izzy Moseson of Commie s Business giving Willy the Wheel the benefits of his rich experience — Rob a bank. Moshe Salman . . . Leonard Estra . . . Joseph Schultz . . . Litman delivers explosive lecture . . . Gootkind cries . . . writes. Litman cries . . . Commie WTites . . . Dean cries . . . Senior class picnic planned for some Sunday in Sphira — oops, Central Park. Turns out to be Rosh Chodesh who is basic . . . Some seniors ask to make sure it doesn ' t fall on May Day . . . something about impossibility of being in two places at the same time . . . Impresario Bill Solomon, who has now activated himself up to a peak of high dramatic intensity, directs all the plays given this year. Every one of them. Aaron ' s Krauss and Mann reach the pinnacle of success ... or its bridge. Leonard Estra . . . Joseph Schultz . . . Moshe Salman . . . BIM Feldman. the three ring circus clown — TI, RIETS and YC — philosophizes and concludes that Bim is inconsistent with Feldman and drops it. Botnick, however, no mean philosopher himself, is kind enough to pick it up and keep it. Incidentally, Bim ' s si-x brothers and sisters move in from California; Goldie Feldman is working in the Scripta office for Dr. Ginsberg. Attention Creditors! Student Council breaks diplomatic relations with Faculty-Student Committee, headed by Dr. Lisman, Bernstein, Freed, Grinstein. etc. Dean ' s Reception in gym this term. Orchestra withdraws! Acoustics terrible . . . they claim. Spear writes famous letter to Commie . . . Fleischer acclaims writing talent; Truman also writes letter about music . . . Spear acclaims writing talent; Acoustics withdraws from gym . . . claim orchestra is terrible. Joseph Schultz — Moishe Salman — Leonard Estra — Willie Slomowich takes Theory of Functions. Marcia Leibner becomes engaged (Ruby Heisler ' s name won ' t be mentioned here if we can help it — Imagine printing finals for the other side, and not letting us take a peek! ). Dr. Fleischer publishes his book on Godwin in Jolly old England. Linn reviews for Commie . . . Commie publishes Administrator . . . Lispman becomes S. C. Prexy as students vote as one man, gets 21 gun salute aimed at office. Stein (remember him!), still an entering Freshman, and Hershkowitz win 2nd and 3rd positions on All-City Basketball team. Hilty (remember him!) sends out 1500 cards alone. Ah, publicity! I hear you calling. Steve Katz gets the Hart- stein Public Relations Award. What ' s Yeshiva? asks Bert Lee and Marty Glickman. Natie Gordon becomes key man as Bill Solomon works for Senior dinner. Pesach comes as Moishe Sanders announces 2.5 more school days until libera- tion. Arky Landes asks to be sure to be mentioned. Seniors ask to be excused from finals. It ' s not the work, it ' s the principle behind it . . . Principal decrees that students work. No excuses! and that ' s final! Senior Class awards plaque of gratitude to Prof. Litman in recognition of his service to the school and in particular to our class. We assume that the Class of ' 51 will be graduated on schedule, intact. Rumor has it that this will be the ONLY Class of ' 51 to be graduated from the ONLY Jewish University in the Diaspora located on 186th St. Amsterdam Ave. But we just can ' t be too sure! ! And now we must finally come to the end of this little idyll. Our four years at Yeshiva College are rapidly drawing to a close and will be culminated on June 19 when we are officially bestowed with the title GRADUATE. GOOD LUCK SENIORS, AND SMOOTH SAILING. 24 JACK ABLER Bio Club. Pie-Med BiolosY ISRAEL BILIS Philosophy Deutscher erein. Psychology Club IRA ALBECK Eraiios. I.R.S. Philosophy LEO BORENSTEIN Intramural Basketball Math 25 4 n i m i ■ i SOLOMON P. BOTMCK Deutscher Verein Philosophy ISMAEL COHEN Philosophy Pres. Le Cercle Francais 47-49, La Ter- PYNCHAS BRENER Orchestra. Commentator — C 49-50, Managing Editor 50-51 Math !opy Editor LOUIS COOPER Math Math Club 26 Kb ' MJSLdjmBm MORRIS Eranos DESHELL Eiifclish ALBERT D Economic . EISEMANN History s Club. Deutscher Verein HILLEL D. DRYSPIEL Basketball arsitv 47-51. ( Biolos:} ' onimentator LEONARD Auclio- is ESTRA ual Service. Veteran Sociology s Club Sports Editor 49-51. Maccabean 27 MEYER FELDBLUM Psychology Club Philosophy DAVID M. FELDMAN Philosophy Chug Ivri, Pres. Deutscher Verein 50, Eranos PHILIP FIJNKELSTEIN Classical Languages Pres. Eranos 51. Commenlator. Masmid LUDWIG FLEISCHMANN Psychology Commentator, Co-op, La Tertulia 28 AARON FREDMAN Philosophy Basketball Varsity 47-49, Eranos. La Tertulia JACOB E. FRIEDMAN Library Staff Ens:lish .MORRIS GANZ Political Science-Philosophy ice-President Junior Class. I.R.S., Deutscher erein BARRY S. GINSBURG Masniid Photography Editor 51. Math Club. Commentator. La Tertulia. First Aid Instructor. Junior Math Award 29 PHILIP H. GOLDMAN History ELI B. GREENWALD History Vice-President Freshman Class, Chug Ivri Library Staff MANNY GROSS Sociology NATHAN W. GORDON Political Science Intramural Basketball, Eranos Secretary Veteran ' s Society 48-49, Deutscher Verein, I.R.S., Economics So- ciety, Swimming Club 30 REUBEN E. GROSS Ens:IM President Freshman Class. Cheering Com- mentator. La Tertulia. Swimnnng Cluh JOSEPH HEIMOVilTZ History La Tertulia. Economics Society. LR.S.. Tennis Team REUBEN E. HEISLER English Commentator. Masmid. Maccabean. Co- op. Library Staff. Debating. Placement Service T OLE HELMREICH Chemistry Fencing Team 49-51 — Captain 50-51 31 JOSHUA HERTZBERG Math Masmid — Business Manager 49-50, Edi- tor-in-Chief 50-51, Bookstore — Sales Man- ager 49-50, Le Cercle Francais STEVEN JAFFE History Co-op, Sec ' y-Treas. Economics Society 50-51, Deutscher Verein, Library Staff PHILIP KATSMAiN Physics Weight - Lifting Instructor, Deutscher Verein, Math Club LESLIE KIMMEL Psychology Deutscher Verein, Psychology Club 32 BERNARD KOENIGSBERG Psycholoi y President Chess Club 49-50. Captain Chess Team 49-50. Biology Club. French Club GERALD W. K.R. KOWER Chemisiry President Junior Class. Vice-President Senior Class. Masniid Managing Editor 50-51 HYMAN KRANTZ Inter-niurals. Commentator Math MOSES N. KR_ NZLER Biology Manager Co-op 50-51. Pre-Med Society-. Biology Club. eight Lifting Instructor 33 AARON N. H. KRAUSS Psychology Commentator, Debating MAURICE LAMM English Masmid — Literary Editor 50-5L French Club AARON LANDES Psychology Student Council Sec.-Treas. 49-50, Pres. 50-51, Manager Debating Team 49-50, Dra- matic Society LEON S. LEVY Physics Commentator — News Editor 49-50, Edi- tor-in-Chief 50-51, Math Club 34 ALFRED LIGHTER Classical Languages Eranos SIDNEY LIEBER.MAN History Soccer Team. Deutscher ereiii AARON I. LIEBERMAN Physics Math Club ice-Pres. 50-51 NOR.M. N LOBEL Deutscher erein English 35 AARON J. MANxN Biology Manager Basketball Team 48-49, Athletic Manager 49-50, Pre-Med. Biology Club, Deutscher Verein BERTRAM MOND Math-Physics Vice-President Sophomore Class, Chair- man Fireside Chats 50-51, Math Club, Masmid, Chess Club BENJAMIN MIGDAL History President Veteran ' s Organization 49-50. Le Cercle Francais ISAAC MOSESON History Commentator Business Manager 50-51, Fencing Team 36 PHILIP RABINOWITZ Psychology Co-chairman Arts Crafts 49-50. Com- mentator — Business Manager 49-50. First- Aid Instructor HARRY L. RASHBAUM PhUosophy Economics Society Vice-Pres. . 0-51. Eranos Society. French Club. Bookstore Associate Manager 49-50 MYRO E. RAKO MTZ Political Science Coiiinientalor Cop Editor 49. News Edi- tor 49-50. l.R.S. MEYER D. RICH l.R.S. Political Science 37 DAVID L. ROSEXHAN Chemistry President Debating Team 49-50, Com- mentator — Editorial Ass ' t 50-51 MAURICE SANDERS Political Science I.R.S. MOSHE S. SASSON I.R.S. NOEL H. SCHALL Deutscher Verein Political Science Philosophy 38 DAVID SCHEINFELD Political Science JOSEPH P. SCHULTZ English Tennis Team. Pres. Economics Society Debating Team. Deutscher Verein 50-51. Co-Captain Chess Team 50-51. Chess Club GILBERT L. SHOHAM Chemistry- Math Club ARTHUR SCHNEIER Biology Student Council Mce-Pres. 50-51. Presi- dent Pie-Med Society 50-51, Student Place- ment 39 WILLIAM SLOMOVIC Math Club Math ALFRED P. SOLOMON English Commentator — Copy Editor 49-50. News Editor 50-51, Library, Orchestra, Dramatics GUST AVE SOLOMON Math-Physics Math Club President 50-51, Masmid — Literary Editor 50-51, Junior Math Award WILFRED SOLOMON Psychology President Senior Class. Dramatics Society President 49-51, Psychology Club. Deutscher Verein 40 ARTHUR SPEAR Sociology I.R.S., y. U. Orchestra 47-51— Manager 50-51 MURRAY E. STADTMAUER Philosophy Commentator — Copy Editor — News Edi- tor 48-49. Editor-in-Chief 49-50 DAMD STA SKY Psychology Library Staff. Psychology Club DWin H. STEINBERG ChemUtry Co-captain Chess Team 50-51. Pres. Chess Club 50-51. Chem Club 41 PAUL TEICHER Physics Library Staff, Psychology Club BEN ZION WACHOLDER English Economics Club NORMAN TWERSKY Philosophy Pres. LR.S. 50-51, Economics Club, Deutscher Verein, Placement Service HARRY M. WEINSTEIN Library Staff Physics 42 AARON WEITZ Political Science SAUL WISCHMTZER Chemistry I.R.S. Vice-Pres. 49-50 Cheni Cluh. Pre-Med IRWIN WENGER Math-Physics NORMAN WOOL Political Science Malh Club President 51 I.R.S. 43 J4 MASMIO 4t !5 This June Yeshiva College is graduating its 20tli senior class. Since 1932. when the fii ' st class graduated, Masmid has appeared each year without fail as the annual senior yearbook. Much has been written in the nineteen previous issues — articles, short stories, poeti - — some good and some bad, some that could only be appreciated midst the disillusionment of the 30 ' s and some that can be enjoyed at all times. In the following pages of the anniversary section we have endeavored to recapture a glimpse of the past by reprinting a few of the literary contributions of former years. Those pieces selected are not necessarily the best of the lot — they were merely chosen because they represent and thus recreate the moods of the time in which they were written. Our choice was a difficult one — we weighed, debated, con- sidered and finally reached agreement. We feel though that the enjoyment that you the reader will derive from the stimulating pages to follow will be well worth the many pains that were put into the selection of the material. The Governing Board The editors of the respective Masmids follows : appearing on the previous two pages are as 1932 — Joseph Kaminetsky 1933 — Abraham Guterman 1934 — Aaron Kellner 1935 — Louis Leifer 1936 — Simon Noveck 1937 — Louis Henkin 1938— Isadore Miller 1939 — Morris A. Landes 1940 — Seymour Krevsky 1941— Meyer Heller 1942 — Joseph Sokolow 1943— Morris Margolies 1944 — James Gordon 1945 — Isaac Friedman 1946 — Theodore Comet 1947 — Emanuel Greenwald 1948— Paul Peyser 1949— Matthew Katz 1950 — Boris Rackovsky 1951 — Joshua Hertzberg 46 Apologia Literaria [Rcjitiiilcd jntni 12 Masiiiifl) The Literary Seclimi of :i riillc; c magazim- Receives no more allcMlinji ihaii a firied ii|) nrclarirn ' . And I ' M ' ri lliiisc wild lake llic lliiic hi lliiiriili it jiafrr- lliiniif;li. Give il just a iiurried glance and Ini ri In xitnelhing new. So I don ' t ihinic we ' d percii ourselves Inn far out on a limb Were we to say the chances that you ' ll read il well, are slim. But should there be among you folk the type who likes to read, Who pays real strict attention, and to every line gives heed. We ' d like to ask you, if we may. all errors to excuse. And not to la the blame upon our Literary Muse. But in the hustle, bustle, and the chaos and confusion Which drove us nearly crazy ere the Masmid reached conclusion. It ' s more than likely that we lost a comma or a colon. And couldn ' t stop to find it cause we had to keep on rollin . Our editors are not at fault, our printers aren t either. It just results from working hard, sans time to catch a breather. So when you read it. think of us — don ' t scrutinize each letter. We will be happier by far. and ou ll enjoy it better. Mvron I. Reis 47 Just Another Wheelchair BY aTHAN ' RoSENBAUM [Reprinted jroin 45 Masinid) When the sun is shining on the terrace you can see all of us — excepting those that are bedridden of course, lined up in our wheelchairs, looking over the visitors who have come to smile and pity. Really tliough, we don ' t envy the fact that you have two legs or two arms. You normal people would never be the center of attraction on a subway or a bus. But take me for instance. When I get out of this da — — . . . beautiful rehabilitation center, just think of all the attention and sympathy I ' ll get. Why everybody will make as much of a fuss over me as if 1 were a movie star. I can see myself being helped across the street by some beautiful girl scout. Of course, I ' ll shoo her away, with the words of a typical returning hero. That ' s all right miss, my dog Prince can see when there are cars coming. There ' ll be loads and loads of people about me. Now doesn ' t all this limelight I ' m going to harvest make you turn green with envy? Don ' t you wish that you were in my boots? What are you laughing about? I will have boots. ... I admit it ' ll take a little time until I get my feet — but. . . . Don ' t mind me. I used to have a good sense of humor once but it seems that the doctor amputated that along with everything else. . . . It ' s darn nice of you people to come to see us loafers. Do you see that fellow over there — no, not that guy. ... I knew you would look at him . . . everybody does . . . My God, haven ' t you ever seen a man with the shivers. . . . Frankie there has them perfected in such a way that they bring out the worst in him. . . . But take a look at the chap next to him. I have his spot memorized by now. He ' s just about the laziest bum on one foot hereabouts — Won ' t even read the magazine with those sexy looking fems sprawled across the pages. The nurse told him that she ' d gladly turn the pages for him but he only shakes his head — the loafer. We certainly get a big kick out of seeing you big healthy people come around to look at us puny fellows. You ' re a great bunch of sympathizers. I don ' t know what we would do without you. And just think if not for the war, we never would have met. Now take a fellow like me, for example. If anybody ever got up guts enough to saunter over my way and stay long enough for a second look, just think of the push along the road to recovery I would get. But the gosh awful truth is that nobody ever gives me a tumble. I ' m left to talk to the air — and after a while it gets a bit putrid. I know . . . that ' s right mister, pass me by. Did you have a good shudder? I ' m cer- tainly glad to hear that. . . . Hope I can do as much for you some day — maybe after the next war ! As I was saying before that wretched creature refused to interrupt me, nobody ever stays around me after a passing hello or a hi soldier. For example ... by the gates of Juno! get a whiff of that perfume heading this way . . . Ma-muh! Hi soldier, nice day isn ' t it? Sure is, would you like to. . . . That ' s right, don ' t stay longer than you have to. . . . I ' ll tell her a thing or two. . . . What ' s the matter lady? Does the sight of me turn your stomach? . . . uh, uh, I smell that toilet water again. Here she comes . . . probably gonna apologize ... or something. Hello again soldier. I ' m terribly sorry about having had to leave you in such a hurry. You see I have my husband here and I hope you don ' t mind if I seemed over- anxious to be on my way to see him. I ' ll be glad to stop here on my way back . . . if you ' d like me to. I ' m . . . well . . . gee ma ' m. . . . Would I? Don ' t go away now. 48 ' I ' hal voici ' ... in llic riiovicH lliry wniilrl nay, It noundrA like nilk it Houndod liki ' . . . lli.il ' s ridiculous. ... I rcidly iriUMl lii; going Imtly. . . . . . . My family was a large ont;. ' I ' hcrc were nix of uh for mama to lake care of. Mama used to do all thi; tioiiscwoik hi-rsclf. You .see we eouldn ' t aflorfl a maid -among several oilier lliiiif s wliii li wndd |],i i- iikmIi- mama ' s lot an eauier one. IJul the lack of material comfort didnl |.ri inl oiii f.iniilv from heing a happy hunch. Around that rick(;ly table of ours that hragged of one solid leg, were gathered a handful of youth that never missed a chance to heckle anrl kihitz each f th(rr. Mama worked liaid. il n.i- line. I ' .ul -lie never u,i- sick a day in her life. An a matter of faet she ncvir even hollieied lo liiink alioiil llic consequences that straining over the tub until the small hours of the morning after a hard day ' s work at the ihcM factory mighl bring, or that her organs wonM become im|iair d from the bark break- ing drudgery to which she subjcclcrl her IkjiK. When the children cami; home one afternuoii llic fnund mama i ing on tin- bed and Dr. Fink standing over her. The doctor told the family that if mama was to sur- vive she must cease working her way to the grave. Cruel, cruel Dr. Unk. It was he who had once told Naomi when he was treating her for an upset stomach that if she didn ' t stop gobbling her food, she would have trouble with her appendix. Little did the old buzzard know that Naomi ' s appendix had been removed when she was vacationing in the Catskills. If there was the slightest possibility that Dr. I ' irik may have been mistaken, it soon vanished. Mama kept to her bed and sradualK became reconciled to the life of a chronic invalid. Now that the situation had grown severe, papa arose from his glass of tea. ran his fingers through his mouse colored beard and announced that it wasn ' t at all improb- able that he might seriously contemplate going out to look for a job. Mind you, he didn ' t promise us that he would go out in search of work, but at least he convinced us that he would entertain the thought. Naomi was serving the soup when we heard a springy step on the stairs. Vi e were just about to clear the table in anticipation of some visitor when the door was flung wide open and there wreathed in impudence stood papa with his head held aloft. Gladys rushed for a glass of water and Joey fetched a chair. Papa gave them both an icy stare and strode to the center of the kitchen. The gold tooth in his mouth glistened meaningfully, as papa parted his lips to speak. Children, for a long time mama has slaved. Believe me. it always hurt me to see my beloved working so hard. If only I would have been able to help her. But you all know that your papa is a sick man. Joey, please give me a chair. . . . That ' s a good boy. Now that mama darling is so sick. I decided that 1 must forget about my sickness and provide for you. my little lost sheep. Children. I want you to be the first to know that we ' re going to be rich beginning right now. Sol. ask mama if she has some change, and then run down to Izzy ' s and get a few bottles of cream soda. This calls for a celebration. The manager of the factory got to like papa ' s work and his salary kept rising like a thermometer. ' lien papa told us of the new apartment on the Grand Concourse that he had rented, we all went into tantrums of mingled happiness and hysterics. The twins wanted to know if there would be a backyard with trees and flowers. It took papa just a split second to inform them that the Bronx wasn ' t the country. Mama took it all in with a philosophic smile. Who knows. said mama, maybe the cockroaches are just as big in the Bronx. Yeai-s passed and papa became a big man in the factory. Now that papa was a man of some wealth he began to take the futures of his sons seriously. Joey was working as a manager in a wholesale produce concern and Sol was on the way up in 49 the haberdashery line. But all this was not good enough for papa. It was his idea to have both Joey and Sol quit their jobs and enroll in a good college. He claimed that it wasn ' t respectable for a man in his position to have sons who weren ' t professionals. Of course Joey didn ' t have to be a doctor and Sol didn ' t have to be a lawyer just because he said so. Papa was democratic enough to let them choose who was to be the doctor and who the lawyer. Needless to say, papa ' s plans seemed highly ridiculous to the boys. Even mama tried to convince the boys — that is, after she had failed to convince papa that he was talking nonsense. A battle royal would have been fought had it not been for the timely intervention of the Japanese Air Force which was trying to test American courage on Pearl Harbor. The family was stunned when Sol came home early one afternoon and let them in on the news that he had enlisted in the Navy. Joey told his brother that he was a fool for doing it and that he would regret it for the rest of his life — that is if he would come back with one. Do you think that Rosalie is going to wait for you? She ' ll probably get hitched to the first fellow who comes along. Sol felt miserable. Rosalie meant everything to him. With her gone, life would be empty. Sol went off to the wars leaving Rosalie with his love and the hope that he would return. . . . When Joey was drafted he was bitter at the whole world. Here he was mak- ing eighty a week, the prettiest kid in Brooklyn madly in love with him and the Army comes along to put the screws on his life. . . . Mama and papa were all alone now. Oh. yes, there were still Naomi. Gladys and the twins. Naomi taught kindergarten, Gladys was a bookkeeper, and the fifteen-year old twins kept on worrying whether or not it was patriotic to make dates w ' ith sixteen-year-old civilians. . . . Papa read the papers and mama knitted scarfs for the boys: papa didn ' t know what he was reading and mama kept on dropping stitches. Everywhere they went they met the war — every- thing they did shouted war — and that meant Joey and Sol. The newspapers shouted war and the radio shouted war ; the empty beds of their sons shouted war ; the rows of suits lining the closets shouted war ; the empty seats at the dinner table shouted war — and that meant Joey and Sol — away from home — lying in dirt — in mud — no food — bleeding — lying — gone forever — Joey and Sol — no more. . . . Aunt Bessie was on the phone wanting to know if mama and papa were making a party in honor of their 25th wedding anniversary. Mama said that she was postpon- ing all celebrations until the boys were home again. What, are you crazy? Who knows how long the war is going to last. Fool, you. Why do you worry about the boys so much? You act is if you were the only ones who have sons in the service. Listen to me and make a little family reunion. By the way, I forgot to tell you, they ' re not taking Sammie. He has such bad eyes, you know. Now don ' t forget to invite everybody. The doorbell hadn ' t stopped ringing all evening. Gott in himmel, cried mama, who ' s got room for this whole coxy army. Mollie was there and so was Aunt Sadie with her bald headed attachment; Jonah brought his rheumatism along and cousin Stephanie hadn ' t forgotten to drag little Hymie with her. In case the family would feel like a musicale, Hymie would oblige. It would take very little coaxing for him to show what he could do with a violin. Uncle Jerry once remarked after being forced to listen to cousin Stephanie ' s prodigy — that if he was a little bolder he would tell Hymie what he could do with his violin. The lights were on in the whole apartment and all seemed so gay and carefree. Everybody was hustling about taking bottles of cream soda from the ice box and grab- bing slices of honey cake from mama ' s fancy tray reserved especially for such com- pany. Dishes were scattered all over the place and it almost seemed like old times. If only Joey and Sol were 50 There gocH lli.il d.irn (|r,(,il,(ll again. Oh, il ' s |)roli.il l .1 c •.nfi;iliilal(.ry Iclcfjriiin liom ' , -rk ' ir. Hit . ouhiri in i!i-lUt ii inHrri(r(l loiiight ho slir coiilchi ' l rnuir lirri-. IJoii ' l lie so stupiil, ' said ilcM-r Aiinl lii-ssie. WifHtcrn Union dochn ' t acrcpl such nicssagia these days. You ,im ncsrr idl. I have a rif ighhor who rennvcrl a lelo- grail) from the War Ueparttnciil jii l ulnu ■- ir was Aiiiil Hessie was always ri rlil and lonif lil inori ' --i) than i ' it licfore. . . . We regret to inform you that I ' rivalc Joseph. . . . . . . Everybody cried. What else was there to do. They cried and then when they were finished, they wiped their eyi s. Then they began crying all over again. riu! Kabhi s|M)kc elof|uently and the Cantor chanted in heart rending tones. But ail that couldn ' t bring Joey back iiol even a small |)art of him not even — not even his remains — ■ . . . Tragedy comes in ImiikIIcs arul a sp,( iai (NliviTv paikaf c- arrived bearing the name of Mama Kisciibcrg. Williiii luo iiH.rilii- nf tin- faii-ful ucws about Joey, mama ' s licail ipiil on llic job. I ' ai)a had become old and dried up. Tlie li;:lil of llie ini-,- had failed and all was black before the lonely man ' s eyes. The pillar of the house had fallen and papa felt the weight of the crumbling structure heavy and unbearable on his slender .shoul- ders. Despondent, grief stricken and misery stained, the olrl frame that was once haughty and proud had now become bent and brittle. . . . Rosalie kepi writing to me every day. She wrote me everything that hap- pened at home. Rosalie was mother and father to me — life itself. Without her at my side — I know that I couldn ' t have continued suffering. One day. I didn ' t receive mail from her. I thought that she might be ill. . . . For six months I didn ' t hear from her . . . never again . . . never again . . . did I ever hear from her. I suppose though, that even if she would see me now, she wouldn ' t recognize me. I ' m a pretty ugly guy. You wouldn ' t believe that I was voted most handsome in my senior year at High School, would you? Would you? Aw. you ' re not even listening to me. I don ' t blame you. You must be bored by now. But you see I just have to tell my story to anybody who will listen. Maybe somebody w ill be able to trace my Rosalie for me. . . . You see the rest of my family is scattered and ... if I had Rosalie. . . . Do you think that she would come back to me — even though I ' m . . . ugly . . . and there ' s only half of me around. . . . I have ... to ... go ... . now . . . soldier. Tliere ' s somebody waiting ... I mean .... Look, it ' s not. . . . I understand . . . Tm terriblv sorry to have detained you. It seems just as if I was talking to. . . . I must go now . . . goodbye . . . Goodbye Soldier . . . best of luck ... I hope you find her . . . goodbye . . . goodbye soldier. . . . She thinks I didn ' t recognize her. Vi ' hy I could tell that voice anywhere. She was left unmoved and cold . . . even after I finished talking to her. She wants to have nothing to do with nie. . . . I ' m blind . . . ugly ... a cripple . . . can I blame her . . . she wants somebody who can take her in his arms — not somebody whom she 11 have to nurse . . . she ' s gone . . . and I ' m forgotten. . . . Maybe things aren ' t so bad . . . I ' m a hero . . . got a purple heart . . . oak leaf clusters . . . decorations . . . ribbons . . . I ' m a hero . . . that ' s right mister, shudder when you look at me . . . hof e I can do the same for you . . . sure you ' re probably healthy and fat. . . . Rosalie w ould marry you. ... I don ' t blame her. ... Of course I don ' t . . . she deserves a man . . . not a guy ■ho ' s onlv a decorated mass of twisted flesh and bones . . . shudder, that s right . . . hope I can do the same for you . . . next ar . . . that ' s it . . . next war. Here comes the doctor . . . gonna ask me how I feel ... a lot he cares ... to him ... to evervbodv. . . . I ' m just . . . just another wheelchair. 51 L ' on Solved problem in my wake. And, all the while, greedy Neptune sucks at me. Where? There, where the waves break BY Morris A. Landes Somewhere in that dark — In that dark! If but the moon would shine, Perhaps I would not trip so much, Nor fall so oft in the slime, Nor wander ever aimlessly O ' er sludgy Sands of Time. The wayfarer smiled, A smile dead from the instant of birth. There w ere steps on the Sands of Time, Swerving to and fro. As if the wander ' d lost his way And knew not where to go. There were steps on the Sands of Time, Short steps, cautiously taken, As if the wayfarer feared to tread Upon a shore, forsaken. Unkempt hair, drawn face, long and lean. Whither do you go ? Ah, stare not on me with that troubled eye. Answer me; I would know. The wayfarer smiled, A bitter smile, bereft of mirth. Where I go, I know not. Why I go, I care not. There is a magnet, pulls and pulls And leaves no time for rest. It is a longing: it is a curse, That burns within my breast. What I want, I see not. Unkempt hair, drawn face, long and lean, Where did you disappear? You were standing near, a moment ' go. Whence did you pass from here? I looked to the skies above me. Dark clouds of dreary night. I gazed in front of me. Blindness I could almost feel. Beside me. In back of me. Beneath me. Black. Black. Black. Nothing, nothing but pelting Rain, that washed, but could not wash ' Way, steps that had lost their way. Poor fool, why do I stare? ' T was I talking to myself. But, on oo ' fon . Where? Where? Where? Foot follows foot, and I walk and I walk. I damn each step I take. I pray, I pray to God that I may but This wretched sphere forsake. Yet, I don ' t want to die and leave a not yet [Reprinted from ' 39 Masmid) 52 The Humor in Bialik ' s Works HV IsKAKI. I.KIIM.H {Nrpiliil,; jinni 12 Mnsiinil) li]( ii|i(.r;iliiif; uilliin IiIiiimII Iuo ,i |)I ' (Is ,f r Jcwi.sh j oul, suffering impoHcd hy a liolocuusl of liostilily and laiigliliT cinaiiatinf; from an inner radiating nource, Chaini Nachman Hialik ( IHT. ' i- I ' Xil) l)C(|ucalhcd to us a multi-faceted literary work. Alllioiifjli his f;iiiic rests ])rimarily on those works in whieli he shows the perpetually pitiahlc pliglil of ihc Jews, his other works must not he negleeted. A man who refuM-s to i)ecome deaf to life ' s lighter hatter in spite of the predominating volume of its graver elements, shows that he an l th(; people he comes from, are of stern stuff. Hialik ' s soaring imagination rehelled against literary narrowness. Just as he did not limit his fiery thoughts to one specifi(;d literary mold, so did he not exploit one mine of humor to the exclusion of all others. His writings contain spices that were originally ground by his literary teacher and friend. MendeJe Mocher Seforim. but they also have a powerful original flavor. Mendele methodically built up a long .story whenever he felt constrained to satirize certain aspects of Jewish life in Czarist fiussia. Bialik, on the other hand, expresses the essence of his observations in a few lines of poetry, or in a short story, in such a manner that clearly chiseled works of art emerge before our eyes. Bialik hurls his satiric shafts against emptiness. While he views with scorn the materialistic point of view and the profound ignorance of certain Main Street Jews, he objects still more strenuously to the half-baked intellectual. Knowing that oppor- tunity for material and cultural advancement was curtailed in Romanov Russia. Bialik could sympathize somewhat with the unlearned small town Jew. This can be seen from the two stories, Aryay Baal-Guf ( V) and Behind the Fence. (-I In these works he describes a healthy, ignorant and indifferent type of Jew. the type represented by Aryay and Noah, the two heroes. The author is interested in them not because he approves of their way of life, but because the recesses of their mind s at least do not serve as hideouts of hypocrisy. Even when Bialik writes more bluntly about the small- town type of Jew, as in his poem Who Knows the City of Listina? ( ' 1 we can find a good-natured undertone beneath its satiric lines: What ' s the business of a Listinite? There ' s one who belches, one who sweats, And one who yawns every night. There ' s a joker, and one gets Maftir without missing an affair: And one whose hogs -hairs business nets Him millions, if there were hogs there. ( ) How ' ever he found very few good words for the aforementioned individuals who left the intellectual oven too soon and who thought of themselves as finished teachers and writers, whereas in reality they were but callow artists in content and style. It is no wonder that so erudite a person in Jewish learning as Bialik. regarded the invasion of the provinces of Jewish culture and Jew ish affairs by the self-styled intellectuals and leaders as sacrilege of the meanest sort. In the description entitled The Merchant. ! ' I a short, stocky, gesticulating, slow- witled. and nimble-tongued fellow is drawn quickly but expertly before our eyes. The merchant is the financial wizard of the community. The trouble is that he is regarded as the buzzard of the town. The preceding year he proclaimed at the top of his voice Complete ' « orks. Tel-Aviv. 1933. Book Two. Page One. - Ibid. Page 39. ' Complete ' ork . Book One. Page 201. ' quolations are free translations bv writer of this essav from the original. ■• Ibid. Book Two. Page 167. 53 and from the bottom of his heart that they should give him wine for business pur- poses. But, he told them, to keep away from pickles as from cholera. Heeding not his words, his fellow merchants did just the opposite, dragged him into it, and he was ahnost ruined; that is to say his financial ability to carry on business was over. But do not think the finer and nobler things in Judaism escape his attention. Here are the Merchant ' s own words in portraying his contribution to the survival of Zionism. So, so .... I work. I and my cousin Velvel. Last Simchas Torah I and my cousin ' elvel wanted to take a Torah to a separate room in which the donations would be dedicated for Zionistic purposes .... came up our two fathers, mine and Velvers. and said ' no. ' What can you do with a father? Suddenly Velvel sprang up ... . Let s exchange. You take care of my father and I will take care of yours .... and so it was. I pushed Velvel ' s father away and Velvel pushed mine. And the Torah was taken to a separate room .... By the way, tell me, to whom do I have the honor of speak- ing. . . . What! An author? Then I ' ll read my poem to you right now. It only has one hundred and nineteen stanzas. ( ) Nevertheless Bialik, the humorous, friendly, smiling Bialik cannot condemn a man completely. He says of the merchant; Sometimes .... I say: good for nothing .... go to ... . and at times I sigh and say : You pure soul .... Woe to you and woe to your life! (-| Bialik ' s satire, unlike most satires, is constructive. While a great many satiric works are written in a supercilious vein, and therefore tend to grind everything dis- tasteful to dust, Bialik ' s is in the nature of a prop to strengthen the weak points in the Jewish life about him. Where decay has set in in the structure of Jewish society, our author uses his devastating tools with effect. However, even then, we can discern a method in the destruction as if the author ' s blueprint called for saving the bits of good material that are intermingled with the decaying matter. Since it is a labor of love it accomplishes complete results. For by ferreting out the faults of the fathers, Bialik aids the younger generation to build high enough to reach its fondest aspirations. Occupying the next place of importance in Bialik ' s humor is the anecdote. In the satire the faults of his fellow Jews are depicted, while in the anecdote, his own personal failings are described. Sitting on a pinnacle is, at its best, a lonely position, and at its worst a precarious adventure which may end in a downward plunge with the slightest false move. He therefore never desired to inspire awe in the hearts of people. The anecdotes reveal him as decidedly human and, therefore, all the more lovable. In Afterglow (■ ' ) Bialik describes how, as a child, he learned the alphabet. Looking at the Hebrew alphabet for the first time, he began to probe his childish memory in an attempt to find something associable with the letters. Little by little the letters assumed the shape of soldiers in a marching line. The third letter which had its foot forward, (the gimmel ) especially enchanted him. The Rabbi, without much ado, began by showing him the Aleph when he was checked by a troubled look on the child ' s face. Well, what is the matter? inquired the Rabbi. What are you looking for? The drummer, was the response of the child, who couldn ' t conceive of an army without one. The Rabbi eyed him, transfixed. Goy, this is an ' aleph. ' Say aleph, aleph. ( ) But the army fixation persisted in putting up a last ditch fight until a thorough thrashing effected its annihilation. Even more indicative of Bialik ' s preference to be regarded as a man of the people is the short sketch entitled: To the Rule of the March. { ) The poet was sitting one day in his chamber and was trying to find an appropriate rhythm and meter to form the lines of poetry that were in his mind, when the martial rhythm of a march burst forth in the street. A parade of soldiers was passing by. Enchanted by the tune of the ' Ibid. Page 170. - Ibid. Page 167. ' Ibid. Page 121. Most of the material in the story is autobiographical. Ibid. Page 132. ' ' Ibid. Page 202. 54 march, the whrilc pupiiiiillor] uf tlx; town n :i:miu] to ki:i: it goirif loriff aftrr tliir pnradi: pa.sHcd avvuy. Tin- uojimh -ui|)l [ u: Hlair.H to llic tunc of the march. ' I hi; woo(|(;hojj|x:r accornpli.shcd )iis lank in ihc same manner. Kvcryl)0 ly wa captivated. GregariouH animals, thoup ht our poet. One march tune comes along and dcHlroys all their iridividiiiilily. The curs(!d liiin; ' will |ii ciIjmIiK riili- llji- louii for many dayH to come. Ah, il is only wo poets who wru- rndnucrl uiih ihc j ift of individuality. Sufldenly our |)0(;l fell that the inspirulion fur llir |iro|)(r rh)lhm had arrivi-d. He wrote hid poem. To his innnensi; aniazcmcnl. afli r il was finished he noticed that it followed not the pathways of the excepted rhythm hul inslead it was infested with that of the march. The magnetic powiT of the anitcdote lies not only in thir fact that personal exjieri- ence, if interesting, arousc s intc rest in others, hut also Ix cause an anecdote mirrors a past of which we or our ancestors were once a part. Our own memory or imagination hrings to the fore actual occurrences or fahricated stories of the times with which the ane(!dole deals. Many people may he prejudiced against certain portions of the meat of liislory as hiiing too hi-avy to digest, hut most of us can stomach the gravy without undue dilliculties. Cooking this gravy, lu)wever, requires skill of which few are pos- sessed. Bialik ' s anecdotes are so expertly flavon d and sati f inp that we usually call for a second and third helping. In the article entitled llie Melilz. The Tsfira. and the Color of the Paper ' ( a new way of studying geography is presented. Allowing practically no secular studies in the Yeshivos of those days, the teachers left it to the ingenuity of the pupils to pick up some broken crumbs of knowledge. Bialik, as a young boy, desired to learn some geography. In opening various editions of the tractates of the Talmud, he noticed names of cities such as Slavita and Zitomir. Now every tractate of the Zitomir edition was beautifully bound and printed. As a consequence, a picture of a clean , slushless, sunny city suggested itself. Her people emerged as healthy and good natured speci- mens of Homo Sapiens. On the other hand, the blurred print, rough paper and weak binding of the Slavita edition suggested a bleak and dreary image for their point of origin. The boy ' s mind fancied a perpetual snow and rain beleaguering a treeless city whose people must have suffered horribly from colds and tuberculosis. However, this mental edition of local geography had to be revised somewhat when the boy grew up and found out that it was not at all difficult to become ill at Zitomir and that Slavita was actually surrounded by forests and served as a health resort for tuberculars. The lighter side of the struggle within Jewish education, whether or not to permit secular learning, unfolds itself. Pleading for the affirmative side of the controversy, the anecdote, in revealing the inquisitive nature of a bov. is a more powerful argument than a dozen long-winded speeches. Not neglecting other aspects of humor. Bialik generously sprinkles Prince Onions and Prince Garlic with puns. A work of a farcical nature is The Short Fridav. But satire and anecdote are Bialik ' s chief vehicles of humorous expression. For thev are not merely palatable pills which act as antidotes to the overdoses of melancholia, hut they teach us. albeit in the sugar coated manner, about the people and the times which produced that unique phenomenon of Hebrew literature. Chaim Nachman Bialik. ' Ibid. Page 203. The Beavers BY Jero:me Robbins t Repriiiled jrom -IS Masmid) An event which did not receive the recognition it should have in the daily press occurred some time ago in the animal world. I think it only fair to report in detail on this matter which is or is not important depending upon your point of view. . . . It seems that long ago there was only one type of Beaver — the Scudges. All worked hard, took only a moment or two off every few hours to rest, and then con- tinued with their duties, building dams, changing the course of rivers, and gnawing down trees foolishly placed in their way by silly men. Everything went along nicely until a few of them began to see how futile it all was and gradually decided not to work at all. These lazy ones — they were called Jivs by the Scudges — who got away with as much work as possible, were scorned and disliked by the hard workers. One day, a Scudge got into an argument with a Jiv, and chased him out of the woods. He was a silly Scudge. young and headstrong. When his fellow Scudges criticized him for wasting his time on a lazy Jiv, he said, I don ' t understand why we Scudges allow a Jiv to sit around and do nothing while we do all the work. He eats the same as we do, and sleeps in our palatial mud homes, but he doesn ' t deserve to, I think. The other Scudges. older and wiser, of course laughed at this silly young fellow and his foolish talk. A few more Scudges reported casually, as time passed, that they too had quarreled with Jivs who were insolent and spent their days lying on their backs and getting sunburned. What follows now I didn ' t get quite clearly from the one who told me the entire affair, but it seems that somehow the beavers suddenly became convinced that they needed some sort of system — they were working aimlessly, they were told, and needed some efficient planning. It came about like this — It seems that the Jivs, in order to protect their honor, got together and formed a Mutual Aid Society. Then they approached Scudge I who had nothing whatever to do because of his elevated position as King of the Beavers. Well, they went to work on him with flattering words, and by good use of their persuasive tongues — you ' d never think beavers were such talkers, to look at them — they put a bug into his ear. After careful deliberation, Scudge I realized that he needed such an honest, sincere, patri- otic group as the Jivs to help him with his laborious work for the betterment of Beaver- dom. Why, he needed them for planning out further expansion of the Beaver empire, figuring out the size of dams, the number of trees to be cut down, and scores of other things which no one had even thought of before. Foolish Scudges, to be working aim- lessly without definite plans and never coming to him with a plan like this. . . . Anyway, one morning the Scudges awoke and found that the Jivs were now to be called Sir Scudge, the name Jiv was outlawed, and the Scudges were to follow out the plans and instructions laid out by all the Sir Scudges, as seen fit by the infinite wisdom of Scudge I. The Scudges were amazed. They just couldn ' t realize the benefit to themselves and to the cause of Beaverdom in general of this new system. They couldn ' t under- stand at first how much more work would be accomplished now. And somehow, they just couldn ' t get through their heads an understanding of how much arduous toil the Jivs — er, Sir Scudges — were doing now. Why they were the real leaders of the Beaver Society, their work was more important by far. However, after grumbling a bit, they began to realize these inescapable truths and settled down to their work as before. Only now they had to report at the end of every day to a Sir Scudge and find out their duties for the next day. How wonderful it was they soon realized — now we ' re going to accomplish something, no more aimless 56 working! And iil iIjc rnd iif !i lijiid (lily, llicy jii ' l ale as iiiin li ai llicy ( ould liold, and wont to sl( (|). The Sir S :udg(:.s tliouf lil up acinic incui- wnudcilul |ilan an tiniir went on. Why Id (iviTyoiK; ( ' ul UH inucli as lii JnlK ( cKild linld; ' lii.irs juttl foolish extravagance. Why not ration to (;V(;ryonr a ccTlairi .iripnuiil ol lnnd and save thir rr-sl in caw; of an emergency. .Seiidge I agreed ininirdi.ilcK .niil l lessed the sagacily of his clever advisors. S i llie Scndfrcs m-ir IcjIiI III Ipiiri; ' .ill iIm- f ' .od ihey found to central head- quarters, and llicic ciiiial |i(iiliiiii- wiic- fivcn In all. ,ind a large |)iTcenlage was saved. The foolish Seudges eouldn ' l iinderslaiid llie reasons for this, hut siiKc .Scudge I ruled it so, ihey eompliefl, al (irsi relnrlaiilh . laler without ser-fjnd thriughl. After all, it was all for the advancement of IJi averdoin. . . . Lo and liehold ! after a few years the system wa-- woikhi;. ' -•iiMMillily and | erfe(tly. A Scudge was allowiul to sle( ' |) a c(!rlain nurnher of minutes a day, he receivcfi a flaily allotment of food from a Sir .Scudge, he; was told where to work and just how much he was expected to do each day. Of coursi ' im one --aid anything perhap.s they were a little inconvenienced, hut it was all jjlaiincd out liy .Scudge I and his noble a-ssiBtants. No one dared to complain- why should he? — if everyone else did as he was told with- out squawking why shouldn ' t he? Everything was wonderful! The Golden Age of Beaverdom had arrived. The sons of .Sir Seudges became Sir .Seudges and din-cted Seudges who were the progeny of other Seudges. But Time, which has a unique way of passing, did so even in Beaverdom. And something terrible happened. It seems that a young Scudge began to complain under his breath! He was probably a descendant of the Scudge who had just chased a Jiv. And this Scudge had the most naive ideas. He said to all who cared and dared to listen, Look, we Seudges work and work and work, and sleep and get a bite to eat and then work some more, and then we die. The only recreation we get, it seems to me, is the by-play involved in bringing some more Seudges into the world to work and eat and die. Now I don ' t mind too much, but why don ' t the Sir Seudges work the way we do? They eat the food we bring them, but they don ' t do anything for it. One old Scudge explained to him that on the contrary the Sir Seudges really worked hard — they did all the planning. Besides, it had been like this for as far back as he could remember, so why should they complain now? The young fellow just couldn ' t see the wisdom and philosophy to be found in these words and continued to complain. One dav a Sir Scudge heard him. The next day this foolish one was assigned to no work, and at the end of the day was given no food (very simple — no work, no food). After a few days he was forced to leave Beaverville and go farther up the river, for having such dangerous and foolish ideas and for criticizing the system. The other Seudges, though, felt vaguely that somehow, something was WTong. No one said anything, of course, but the crazy ideas they had heard expressed bv the ban- ished one remained w ith them. Somehow, they reasoned, everything must be O.K. Things have been going on like this for years and years, which naturally proves it ' s the best way. Still, we seem to be doing more than the Sir Seudges. And what the Devil! If a Sir Scudge decided that he didn ' t like one of us he would just not assign us work, and then no food! That can ' t be right, can it? These thoughts were tossed back and forth in the little beaver brains, and finally like a disease thev all caught it and came down with the complaining sickness. They even had the nerve to sav things out loud! Anyway, they finally decided to complain to Scudge I. He. of course, was angry at them — why. the progress of all Beaverville lay in the hands of the Sir Seudges and here the ungrateful Seudges couldn ' t get it through their hairy heads that all thev had they owed to the Sir Seudges. They beat an awkward and hastv retreat — after all. thev didn ' t really have a decent argument, did they? One day, another young fellow who got up at a meeting — it ' s funnv — the old beavers are usually content with the way things are run — after all. this is the wav that things always have been run. so why look for something else? This argument is of course iron-clad and irrefutable. But the younc silly ones with none of that mvs- terious virtue known as ' experience always try to change things, really a nasty habit. Well, anyway, this inexperienced one arose and said words to this effect — these words were never really recorded, the way sensible speeches are — I just heard it from some- one who heard it from someone else. Well, he said: Look brother Scudges. As things stand now, we are being ungrateful to the Sir Scudges. for their wonderful efficiency in planning out our work and carefully dividing the food and making other progressive laws. It ' s perfectly right for them to stop giving us food if we complain about the way things are being run. But look! It seems to nie that if many of us complained, many of us wouldn ' t eat. It all depends on the way the Sir Scudges feel toward us. and we are really in their power! Now I have a question. ' Here he took a deep breath before continuing. ' ' Why must there be Sir Scudges? Here there was deep laughter in the audience — of course, there had always been Sir Scudges, so there always would be! Is it because they make all the plans for us? Well, then, why couldn ' t we. the Scudges, make the plans? If we do the work, why can ' t we also make the plans, and have everyone work equally, so that no one would have to fear that his work would be taken away from him and he ' d starve? Is it fair that most of us have to depend on a small group of Sir Scudges and if we displease them we ' re sent up the creek? (This incidentally may be the origin of the picturesque expression used by another crowd of animals.) Why, he continued after another pause to let some of this sink in, don ' t we all have an equal share in the planning, all have an equal share in the work, and all have an equal share in the food? Why not? It seems that this young fellow had a pretty convincing manner and knew how to sway an audience. We, of course, see how ridiculous his audacious and naive theories were, but everyone of those beavers — even the old ones, who should have known bet- ter, got up on their hind legs and cheered him till they were hoarse. . . . The very next day, the Scudges just got up and drove out of Beaverville every single one of the Sir Scudges, and went to work following the advice of the young orator, who became their leader. Well, anyhow, that ' s the end of the story of the beavers. They had fallen for a persuasive speaker and probably already repent it. Things like this could of course only happen to a sub-human species of animal with less brains than the Good Lord provided us fortunate human beings. Silly Beavers. . . . r -s ' J-- ' — rf 58 Revissa in I ' .KIINAKIi l)n Mll.IANS [lii ' ltriiilrd jroiii S. Ma.sinitI } I. Death knocked one evening as you lay asleep And called lo you to ft llow silently; I did not hear the sombre angel sweep Away, with you, our joyful harmony. I heard the scream which I had heard hefnre. It deafened nie — I shuddered and 1 shrank — Was it imagination and no more That froze my soul and left my mind a hiank? How well I saw your bitter waxen smile, The glassy stare that peered beyond the sky, I cried: mother, yet remain a while, Much rather fate had willed that I should die! Now you are gone, but still you shed a light That laminates the sadness of the night. Forgive me, mother, if in sad lament I should disturb your everlasting peace; A stubborn destiny will not relent, And with grim smile it sees my woe increase. tell me, from your macrocosmic world How can I best avoid the precipice Whence, through the ages, millions have been hurled By fate ' s command and Cupid ' s artifice? 1 square my shoulders. I am not afraid, One moment I would dare to face a king. The next my head is bowed. I am dismayed And cry that death should leave its poisoned sting. But oftentimes, although my head is bowed, My rebel soul stands firm and is not cowed. in. The moon and stars were shielded by a cloud And groaning night-winds chilled the dismal air. The dreamer stood alone and wept, aloud — He wept — and of the world was unaware. Then suddenly he recognized a sound, A muffled whisper scarcely audible. That grew as it approached, until it drowned The noisy wind that seemed implacable. A flash of lightning cut the sky in two With roaring, rumbling thunder in its wake The heavens cried, their tears were blown askew. And mother Earth herself began to quake. The dreamer heard — and sighing, bent his head.— i o;( must accept! ' ' was counselled by the dead. 59 The Political and Social Philosophy of MAIMONIDES BY Danid . Petkcorsky [Reprinted from 3-1 Masinid) The year 1935 will witness the 800th anniversary of the birth of Maimonides. Exercising as he did such a profound influence on Judaism and Jewish thought, it is but to be expected that the Jewish world will ring with his praise. Countless tributes will be paid to his genius — and rightfully so, for religion, philosophy, science, logic, and law — all flowed with equal facility from the pen of this most versatile thinker. No realm of human endeavor was left unexplored by his penetrating mind. Those who have attempted to elucidate his doctrines have been legion. Yet, strange to relate, none have seen fit to develop that significant aspect of his thought, his system of political philosophy. The attribution to Maimonides of a comprehensive Staats-philosophie demands explanation. For, unlike his famous contemporary Aquinas, he left no individual treatise on political science. Neither was he a social reformer intent on eradicating the roots of the existing system and substituting in its stead an order which he advocated. Maimonides was primarily the interpreter of Judaism in all its aspects. G — d had revealed to His People a system of laws whose entirety embodies the Divine scheme of life. Many of His precepts seemed incomprehensible and irrational to those who had tasted of the forbidden fruits of philosophy. But the human mind, insisted Maimon- ides, is a spark of the Divine Intellect, and man can comprehend in his finite man- ner the workings of the Infinite. The Law is not entirely foreign to Nature, and just as we are able through the principles of philosophy to achieve a rational conception of natural phenomena, so too can we attain some sort of understanding of the Divine commands. It was to this Herculean task of reconstructing from the body of the Law revealed to Moses its underlying philosophy, and of rendering in this fashion the com- plexities of the Torah intelligible to thinking man and compatible with Reason, that Maimonides devoted himself. In his interpretation of the laws pertaining to social organization and economic practices as an integral factor in the Jewish system of life, his views on political theory find expression. His rules regulating political and eco- nomic institutions may be but a codification of the principles as revealed in the Pen- tateuch, preached by the Prophets, and applied in the Talmud. Nevertheless, his explanation of their Biblical context, his decisions in cases of Talmudic disagreement as to their practical realization, and his personal comments, impart to the whole a flavor peculiarly Maimonidean. Any attempt at an understanding of Maimonides must be preceded by the realiza- tion that his fundamental philosophical assumptions were those of Aristotle. The tenor of philosophical thought of the 12th Century was predominantly Aristotelian. Aris- totle ' s teachings had thoroughly permeated Maimonides ' thought and its influence on the shaping of his doctrines was profound. It was the foundation on which Maimon- ides erected his philosophical structure. And if Maimonides strove to make religion compatible with reason, it was with the tenets of Aristotle that he attempted to effect its conciliation. Following the path blazed by the Stagyrite, Maimonides declares that everything that exists in the world is an harmonious blend of matter and form. Maimonides, in true Aristotelian tradition, is neither a crass materialist nor a flighty idealist. The world is neither a collocation of atoms nor a bodiless conglomeration of ideas. The universe is a fusion of both. Matter or physical properties, and form, the essence of 60 things, unite in liic formulioii of pMilii iil.n olijid-. To illuhlralc, a row; han for IIh matter a inaHn of clicmie-iii cDii-iiiinni-. Ir- loim i- ili.ii lii |i iranHforrnw thin amor- |)houH inass of .iloins Iriln ji inr.minj ' liil .uid ijiltlliffihlc huliHtaiici; an l whi :h rcnflcfH it (li.stinct fiiMii ollici ciliji( Is. riic I ' ll III ol .1 lliiiig JH itM i-nn :iu:i% that whir ' h iinpartit to it incuiiin;.; and iiuiividimlih . I m i|ii ' ilr i)r. Saiitayana, the aroma of a rone in the soul of tile rose. In the world nl |i;ii liriihu .,lijecl no matter can exittt without form. Neither ean form lir iiidciMiidrnl d in.illn. { ' or a  |) ;eirir: thinji to he intelliKihl ' - it must jJOHsess iiolli. I lir criliir ui.ild ul |i.ir licnlars if in a eonntant flux of dr-velojj- menl, evolving from the- siin|ilc in iln- himh- i Miii|,|r . fi.,iji |iolentiaI to actual, an every- thing strives lo achieve ils |)inc fdini. i ' lin- fniin. iIm- lilf. ' hcsl degree of excellence which a thing can allain. is ihi: goal towards which all natural ohjecls are evolving. Man is no difTerciil from any other natural organism. He, too, exists hy virtue of the coalescence within him of matter and form, th(; matter his physical emhodi- ment. the form — his soul. Hut that jtarticular faculty which tenders man superior to all other forms of Cr ' alion is the rational. Irilikr nllier species, man is endowed with the capahility of rational thought. He is ;iMr In ac (|iiire vast stores of knowledge. He possesses a moral sense which enaldi liini in differentiate hetween right and wrong. Man ' s true form, therefore, consists in lhi iirojierty of intellectual perception. And just as the ultimate end of everything lies in the consummation of its form, so too should ail efforts of man converge on one goal — the utmost development of his intellect. The highest purpose of the Law lies in this perfection of man ' s rational faculty, the glorification of the intellect. Man is lo scale the heights nf intellectual achievement by learning Eternal Truths. He is to be taught the knowledge of the things in existence that a person perfectly developed is capable of knowing. The Existence, the Unity, the Omniscience, the Omnipotence, the Will, and the Eternity of G — d are to be the factors nurturing him to nooscopic maturity. But the evolution of form is always dependent on changes in matter. The mind cannot exist somewhere in the ethereal realms of the Universe. It is inseverably bound to and encompassed by the limitations of the flesh. Hence any attempt at the improve- ment of the intellect — man ' s form — must be preceded by the betterment of his physical condition. Like a tiny boat on the ocean, the mind and spirit are tossed about with reckless abandon by the tempestuous billows of emotion and bodily passion. If man is to be favorably disposed to the reception of Truth he must be happy and contented. He must conquer his lusts and desires. As a result, though the teaching of G — d ' s attributes is the ultimate aim of the Torah. the establishment of material well-being and physical self-control must receive prior consideration. Man ' s material happiness is attained by the satisfaction of his bodily needs. It is when the problem of securing subsistence and material comfort becomes of paramount importance that the mind is no longer receptive to the tenets of Faith. To render the intellect capable of absorbing these Eternal principles, man must be assured his food, shelter and other natural requisites. But one man alone cannot procure all this. For man is very self-sufficient. It would be necessary for him to learn tlie art of ploughing, of threshing, of weaving, etc.. etc. But even the lifetime of a Methuselah would not suffice for the learning of all this. Man. avers Maimonides in consonance with Aristotle ' s famous dictum, is of an inherently social nature. Life in society is the very breatli of existence. Without it. man perishes miserably. ith it. he can achieve the well-being and economic sufficiency without which our dreams of spiritual develop- ment must flounder in miry myth. Society is therefore created to render possible man ' s physical synthesis by providing him with his material wants. But no mere herding of individuals into social units will solve man s economic difficulties. The natural tendency of all human beings to enforce the dictates of their own egos will inevitably result in the clash of ambitions. The simple must give way before the crafty. The weak will be ground under the heel of the more powerful. The utter absence of ethical standards paves the way for the entrance into tlie midst of society of cruelty, domination, and injustice. Were the Law ' s efforts in the direction 61 of physical well-being to cease with the aggregating of men into communities, it would increase man ' s misery rather than effect his security. The crying need of some regulatory agency to supervise society is therefore appar- ent. It is this role that the Maimonidean state is to enact in the drama of the Divine scheme of life. The State exists and functions to secure for man material happiness by establishing order in society. It operates as the tool of the Law to lay tlie ground- work for man ' s spiritual perfection by guaranteeing him economic security. By insti- tuting and enforcing that economic organization and legislation posited in the Torah, every Jew is assured of subsistence and physical comfort. This surety of material sufficiency coupled with the enactment of laws rendering impossible the accumulation of wealth will prevent over-exaggeration of the economic motive. No race for com- mercial primacy such as that which led to the degeneration and crass materialism of other nations will feature the ideal Jewish society. But the formation of society itself is an insufficient guarantee of security. Unless there exists a basic code of ethics and a standard of moral values to which all adhere, society will be plunged into strife and chaos. It is imperative that the relationships between individuals be so adjusted as to permit the entire populace to live in peace and harmony. This is realized by the teaching of such ethical values as will be most conducive to the peace and welfare of the community. The State has already achieved for man, economic security. The code of morals which it has established has enabled man to attain a high degree of moral perfection and social well-being. Man, who need no longer make economic concern his chief pursuit, who need no longer fear and dis- trust his fellow-man, finds himself free to center his efforts on his intellectual and spiritual development. The State to Maimonides is no hedonistic end in itself; it is a means to a more noble goal. The purpose of the State is to lay the groundwork upon which man can rear the superstructure of rational and religious perfection. The State is therefore obligated, as we have seen, to provide each of its members at least a minimum of physical happiness and to establish among its residents mutually beneficial relationships. It is to discharge this responsibility by erecting the economic structure preached by the Torah and by instilling in the people a love for the ethical principles postulated in the Law. It is important to note that this onus of providing material happiness falls not only on the shoulders of the State but on the subordinate units of society as well. This is best illustrated by the fact that after the original conquest of Palestine, the distribu- tion of land to each Jew devolved on the various tribes, and in Talmudic laws such as that requiring the head of each household to educate his children and to instruct them in a trade. It is interesting to observe that the historical evolution of the Jewish polity had been from the family through the tribe to the National State. The expansion of the major governmental unit occurred each time simultaneously with the failure of the prevailing organization to secure protection and economic well-being. As long as the Jews were a pastoral people the family proved sufficient to cope with the difficulties of life. When, with the Exodus from Egypt, the need of concerted action and of pro- tection against the ravages of enemy bands arose, the tribe became the paramount social group. The settling of the Jews in Palestine so increased the complexities of communal life that the tribe could no longer administer the business of government; and the establishment of a national body-politic became a vital necessity. Based as it is on the Divine Commandments, the Maimonidean State is essentially a theocracy for it represents that system of state organization and government in which G — d is the centrality and the acknowledged ruler in whose name authority is recog- nized. It must be realized that for Maimonides no conflict between Church and State such as that predominant in the Christian world could exist. The struggle for power between these two groups, long a tremendous force in the molding of history, has always been occasioned by the attempt of one to dominate the other. In medieval Europe, the Church, though rightfully having dominion only over ecclesiastical mat- 62 Icrs, was fuiiivinccd llnil lli - iwi-Hh ( f the hduI, In whirli it iriiniHlcrcd, were of far vattlcr im|K)rlan(i(- lliuii cuiKcfM- i( llic liocly, iitirl iillciiipti-d to clolhr ilwrif in th ' g«rf of l(;ni|)oral authority. Our hhkIiim (I.i Iim- u ilnc- Hcd many pr ' Huni))lioMM on ihf part of the Stal(: who, fcrlinf; lli.il |jm1iii.iI rry:ii - liav ; hc.cn n lffgatcd to th - liack round, has .souf ht to (!Xt(!nd its .sphere nf (loniiii.irje, iiMo the religious life of itn inhahitantn. IJul lo Maiinonid(;H, Stale and (iiiiin |i in ihc ji.irrower connotation! of thene lerrnH did not exist. ' I ' Iktc could lie iiij hasis for conflict over the ]U(; tion of priority for every aspect of Judaism cccjrioruic. r( ' ligious. and moral — is an equally important and in- tegral factor in the Divitii! system of life. Judaism is a totality, a system of life, an harmonious hh-ridiiig of ail aspects of man ' s jjersonality. F.ach treamlet r:ontrilMil -s to swell the river of life as it Hows majestically onwards. Man is the pinnacle of Oeation. We. is comjjoserl of ;i niNlliplii iiy of (omplex elements. As a result, the variety of individuals among the human species is Iretnen- dous, for the element of chance and acc ' idcnt has a very great sphere for its operation. In any society we are certain to find the widest extremes in character and human nature. But the well-being of .society demands that there h(! a leader able to regulate the actions of man; he must complete every shortcoming, remove every excess and prescribe for the conduct of all so that the natural variety should be counter-balanced by the uniformity of legislation and the order of society be well established. The existence of society is essential for the attainment by each individual of his perfect form — the perfection of his intellect; and without the leadership of one gifted with this faculty of government, the machinery of society cannot function smoothly. .Some persons therefore possess the power of enforcing the dictates of lawgivers and of com- pelling people to obey them and to act accordingly. Such are kings. The civil juris- diction of the State is therefore to be entrusted to a monarch. At various epochs of Jewish history this ruler bore the title of Nasi, Shofet, or King. The kingship is to be hereditary, the royal family is the House of David. Nevertheless, the failure of the lineal descendant of David to execute his duties wisely and justly constitutes good cause for the selection of another king in his stead. The appointment of a king com- prises one of the functions of the Sanhederin of Seventy-one. Alongside of the king is the High Priest in control of the ecclesiastical establish- ment. The religious life of the nation is to be directed by the Priests and the Levites. Both are to dedicate their lives to the service of G — d. Strikingly reminiscent of the philosophers and auxiliaries of Plato ' s Republic. they are to live under a system of strict communism of landed property deriving their sustenance from the tithes of their communities. Judicial authority is vested in a number of courts, supreme among which is the Sanhederin of Seventy-one to be established in Jerusalem. Two inferior courts, each to be composed of twenty-three members, complete the national judiciary. It is beyond the scope and purpose of this thesis to enter into any comprehensive discussion of the organization and duties of the civil, ecclesiastical, and judicial branches of the government, all of this being explained in meticulous detail by Mai- monides in his Mishne Torah. ' Though it is not our intention to treat at length the economic policy of th e Mai- monidean State, several factors must be noted. Private property is the inalienable right of each individual. Every Jew received a parcel of land after the first entry into Palestine. Similarly, the return of the Jews to their national homeland will be marked by this equitable division of the soil. The Divine laws pertaining to property are to be enforced, ensuring each family the per- petual ownership of land. Through the enactment of the Jubilee ear wbereby all land acquired during the preceding fifty years is to revert to its former owners, anyone forced through adverse circumstances to sell or to transfer his estate will eventually regain it. Too. anvone selling his property exercises an option on its repurchase. The importance of this feature of the Jewish state cannot be overemphasized. For. as the preponderant majority of the people both at the time of the promulgation of the doc- trines of the Torah as ■e as in the age of Maimonides were engaged in agriculture. 63 it was essential that each household possess landed inheritance, thus assuring itself of the primary requisites of life. Its significance should not be lost on us even to-day in our own highly industrialized civilization for the Inuklidne of any nation must continue to be its agrarian populace. Through the reversion of all property in the fiftieth year to original owners, the prohibition of usury, and the limitation of the legal rate of profit to one-sixth, accumu- lation of wealth is rendered practically impossible. Economic exploitation is reduced to a minimum. That destroyer of peace and culture, the struggle for economic su- premacy, is hounded out of our midst. While countless volumes of commentary have been written in explanation of every other phase of Maimonides thought, scholars have been conspicuously silent on his doctrine of political philosophy. Centuries before Maimonides ' birth the Jews had been exiled from their homeland. Problems of national organization and political science were alien to the Jewish mind. On those aspects of Judaism which played the most important role in Jewish life, such as religion and law, Maimonides ' works became a second Bible. His political philosophy, being a negligible entity in Jewish considera- tion, was relegated to the limbo of oblivion. It has remained even to our day en- shrouded in darkness and ignorance. The increasing interest being manifested everywhere in the political and national life of the Jewish people makes this subject a most vital one. With the establishment of a national state instituted along traditional Jewish lines in Palestine no longer the fantastic dream of a prophetic idealist but converging steadily on reality, the im- portance of discovering and clarifying Maimonides ' views on the State and its func- tions cannot be overemphasized. Tree of Knowledge How pleasant is this tree to human sight! Be not diffident to eat therefrom. Why keep its gifts in esoteric light? And you, a creature above the dumb. Quail not — partake of its ambrosial fruit; Let not your brain in delitescence be, For whoso surfeits his felicity, Does hardly rise above the bestial brute. ' Tween right and wrong shall he that eats discern; Knowledge both revealed and latent learn, Fear not — forsooth you shall not die. But gain possessions that no wealth can buy. Thus spake th ' inveigling serpent with his wiles. And caused to perpetrate the pristine sin, Which has not been condoned by many trials, And ne ' er from Nemesis will freedom win. Yet Paradise is not beyond retrieve. Although without its fields of ecstasy; How manifold thy fruits, forbidden tree! Did Adam such beatitude conceive? BY Louis Mintz {Reprinted jrom ' 38 Masmid) 64 Silence m 1, 1. 1 ' - l,l, I I Ri ' sniiilrd jrniii ' . ' , ' • Mdsiiiiil I Till- Inline 111 llir l,irk faiiiiK u;i-- renowned wjtiiiii ' knowing cJiHtance at the nrecplaelc of that aliMiucl suhslanee ( allecl ileii i- — thai dr-ep iiicoinparalilc;  lillM   wliich reigns supremi! in graveyards, ulien I lie wind is ahsi nt and the Hluiriix-ring foliage has ecas(;d its rustling. Here lived and inoveil luo phantoni-likc figures a father and an only son — who flitti d noiselessly alioul llie rooms, strictly avoiding conversation, each living in the limitless, unexplored region of his own thoughts and hearing his own liurdens. David Marks, the master of ihr- liousehold I though the only (illici- innialc u as liis son), sal iii aiia|p| al llic- liea l of the tahli-. with the ponderous olunic nf die Talniiid liefoie liiiii. nirdilaling 111)011 ils text (for he always assiduously sludii ' d in silenee), and occasionally pulling out a stained grimy cloth (a sort of handkcrchic ' f ) from the pocket of his long coat, to wi])e his perspiring forehead. He was a tall, strong man in his early sixties, with a closely-cropped grey heard, and bore his age astonisliingly well. As though bound by a terrible oath which could never be expunged, David dreaded to disturb this heavy, brooding stillness: for his long years of tailoring, from which he had retired with a tidy sum invested for the proverbial rainy day. had taught him — if nothing else — to sit speechless and motionless like the statue of Buddha, gazing blankly into space. What a profound change everything had undergone since he had lost his jewel — the companion of his earthly pilgrimage. The Reaper had gathered her into His har ' est while she was yet in the prime of life. But David was not without his consolation, for she had left him with an only son Nathaniel, the gift of the Lord, who was then five years old. A time there was when faithful Ruth, his wife — peace be upon her soul in the abode of the blessed — supplied the tangible link between him and the child who was the delight of his eyes. A meek, timid woman she was. of stunted physique and intellect, whose comprehension of things was very limited, but who, splendid little woman, could not harm a fly even if she wanted to. Ruth lived in total dissociation from all intellectual effort, for her mental activity was hindered by gross physical actualities. Bound to a purely domestic routine, she could claim only a few minor accomplishments, but for fully fifteen years she had been his trusty partner in life, the confidante of his joys, hopes, and dreams, the soother of his great sorrows: and he had not found her wanting. A woman of superlative goodness. he boasted of her. She was a shining epitome of that class of womanhood which gives itself up ungrudg- inglv in absolute devotion to its menfolk: she nursed him in his illness and busied herself sensibly with all those details of comfort for his sake, which reflected her tender feelings towards him. and her homely manners and methods always met with his approval and praise. When she had completed her household duties she would sit opposite him — who was steeped in the delights and rigorous discipline of the Talmud — and dread to attempt any trifling conversation, lest she thereby commit the grievous sin of Bittul Torah and consequenetly bring upon herself the perdition of her soul both in this present world and in the future existence. Instead she would sit silent, and allow her mind to wander aimlesslv. now and again admiring the dark, meditative eyes of her husband, his broad and intellectual brow: her patient and long-suffering face would shine with delight, and a benevolent smile ever played at the corners of her thin-lipped, ashen-white mouth. In the spiritual realm especially. Ruth allowed herself to be shepherded by her husband. She had a fixed notion that her husband ' s scrip- tural studies •ould provide a passport to Heaven, where they would be elevated to the status of sitting on golden thrones, w ith crowns on their heads, along with the other righteous. But alas. Ruths constant, excruciating rheumatic pains never left her: they 65 ravaged figure and face. She shrank and shrivelled up before her time. For countless, dreary weeks she lay on her bed — her countenance expressing suffering — like a preg- nant woman convulsed with the pangs of child-birth — until the Angel of Death flut- tered his wings over her bedchamber and her spirit vanished to the Yeshiva Shel Ma ' la. And with the passing of Ruth a portentous silence came and settled down in her place, that seemed to take on a mysterious Promethean figure, towering above father and son and ready to smite them down if they articulated but a single word. Nathaniel, the son. deprived of feminine care and concern from early childhood I for his mother died before he was capable of retaining any reminiscences of her), was left alone with his tragic thoughts, and as a consequence of his loneliness grew up to be a shv and sensitive youth. The house seemed to impress his mind with its haunt- ing unhappiness. He felt his mouth gagged by the hands of a strong and powerful presence as soon as he crossed its threshold, and as though to relieve himself from this heavy, oppressive atmosphere, he was seldom at home. It was rumored that he consoled himself with amorous adventures, and his father was disturbed and agitated by the close secrecy with which he succeeded in shrouding his movements. An impas- sible barrier seemed to separate father and son. As immiscible as oil and water, so David and Nathaniel could not learn to appreciate and understand each other; for the perceptions of maturity are often restricted and sapless, but the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. Thus these two, so near each other by reason of their affinity of blood, were yet so distant from each other in their thoughts and deeds, living in complete detachment from each other. But as Nathaniel would pass by his father to go to his vocation (he was a teacher in the unpretentious local school I the fond father would be transported to the seventh heaven of bliss, for he joyfully anticipated the day when this blossom of his happy married life — the pale, slight, keen-featured youth of twenty-two — would marry, which, pray God, would not be remote. Thus of late there was an irrepressible, secret joy within his breast, and a perceptible litheness in his footsteps, and slowly and steadily he would build his airy castle in the course of his dav-dreams. But one day his whole spurious edifice suddenly fell to bits, and he found himself in the nadir of disappointment, for Nathaniel had passed the door and — Lord have mercy — had failed to kiss the Mezuzah on the door post. All his best hopes had dissolved into nothingness, had vanished like an iridescent soap-bubble, for it was a step further to a bleak realization of the fact that his son treated with utter disregard the customs and ceremonies that are the raison d ' etre of every Jew. So David fasted and prayed for his son ' s sin of omission, and. sad and stricken, beat a retreat from the elusive happiness of the doubtful future and gave himself up in philosophical resignation to his books. But Nathaniel was in the dark about the whole affair. The mighty dreamer, Nathaniel Marks, lovelorn and misunderstood, sat in the first-class, fawn-coloured compartment of the train. Beside him was a slender, attrac- tive gentile maiden, displaying her pertly pretty face and slim legs. There were no other occupants in the compartment. Presently amid the hustle and roaring noise of a railway station the heavy door was slammed, and the train snorted away, and as it clanked and rumbled along it seemed to say goodbye to the past: the town and all his friends and acquaintances: his father whom he had disillusioned in his sunset days. Suddenly he shivered and turned chilly and thought of home and safety. His heart went out to his aged father, who seemed to symbolize everything that he had left behind. It made him sad and sick. Copious tears poured down his cheeks, and he clenched his hands over his chest as though about to lacerate it, so vehemently bitter was the train of thoughts that entered his soul. At last, however, he submitted philosophically to the force of circumstances that had compelled him to take such a step. Love was indestructible; it acknowledged neither racial nor religious boundary lines. The confidence of his comrade was infectious. His heart warmed towards her; he straightened his back and inwardly resolved to do her credit. She gave him one of those fascinating smiles of hers, when every one of her teeth shone like an oriental beryl. Fortified by it, he discarded the burden of his heart-searchings. It gave him just that pleasant sense of security of which he was in 66 (lire need: Ijc ' ;is|ji(| willi nliil. Hi- r iiinl inii.il tiiood ovcrwlifliiiitd him, ainJ he lorilii ' il in llii ' idi ' . ' i ol liis -ii{iii ' ijii ' :-;i riliii ' loi the kindred hduI liy hiH n ' i U% for NiilliMiiicI li;i(l an insliiiil lor (;;cllinf tin- lull (hivour of an i!X|)(rri(!nr: ;. (Jnii- mini- lie ( ' .i .c-d irj iii|)t woMiIrt and athniration at the irtipoHing ln auly of ] rr counlctnancc : onrc mori ' Iji- heard h T exiiheruni voiee and he wac af;ain ohli ed lo pay uUcwiliiin lo iri. Ill ' lost idnscioiisness of everylhin« hut the j(irl alonf{ ide of him. She Hyinl)oli .ed llir (|ninlissi-jici- ol ulial hi- iilory meant lo him. With her, I ife would he veslcd uilli ri u niiajini;-. ilolliiij illi new magnifieeriee, and crowned with iK w tnajesly. Al llml jnonn nl In- icil i y: In- utterly despised the whole world. Kvorylhiiig was liehind. Iml llir . ' iniioN- Inlnrf uas in front. In aggrieved siThisinn. I)a id Mark- -:i a- n-nal al llir head of the lalde. Hi (■y(w ga ed down ii|ii n ihr ImU Mihinir M|irii hifnn- liini. hiil loflay they eould not con- liimc ihi ' ir roving i|iirsl afln llir ' iral liijlli- ol llie Word. ' I ' o-dav for the first time in his lil ' r. lie could nol idiicrnlialr ii|ion liu- h l. for everything was filurred and indislinii lo his cncs. Ihr uholr wmld -.iiiniij i,, ii-wiIm- in a demoniac dance around liiin. Mis soul uas sour, his hcuil lilcak. liis jniml ImIIit. his eyes leaden. How he had aged since ihc calamitous days of his son ' s descrlioni His shoulders drooped, crushed bencutli the hurdeii of his sorrows. His crisp liuir hud lost its colour — a sure sign of worry. The blue, velvet skull-cap that crowned his head accentuated the distressing paleness of his complexion. The deadly white face, haggard and seamed and lined. registered the boundless sorrow which he was undergoing. He could not but think with affectionate regret for the de|jarted transgressor. It was the greatest tragedy in his life; in losing his son he had lost everything near and dear to him and he felt as if he had left everything a great distance behind. The last link with the physical world had snapped like a thin thread, and in vain he tried to dislocate his mind from terres- trial affairs, finally attempting to console his sense of failure and unhappiness by turn- ing to that ideal companion of every Jew in every affliction — the consoling Word of God. llavid felt his whole (lesh burning wilhin him; everv fiber of his whole phvsical being quivered from the shock. For many long minutes he sat rigid and motionless as Death. With difficulty, he tried to reconstruct his life from those very remote begin- nings: how abject, inglorious, and squalid seemed the closing chapter of his life. He wanted to pierce the air with his anguished cries, but suddenly a cold tremour ran through his veins: the stony stillness of the atmosphere seemed to take on some tangible shape like the furniture and walls of the room. It seemed to expand and take the form of a hooded giant with clunisv expostulating arms. David felt the evil pres- ence of this important, mysterious being and bowed his head in fear and shame. And as a Master governs his Slave with absolute sway, so did this Olympian-like Silence bind his cruel iron fetters around this humble, quiet man and claim him as his victim. ■LrLnjirLrLnj-LTj-L-L-L-L-L-L L-i7 67 BARRY GINSBURG Photography Editor MAS JOSHUA HERTZBERG Editor-in-Chief Seated I to r: B. Ginsburg, M. Lamm, J. Hertzberg, G. Solomon, W. Wealcatch. Second Row I to r: S. Auster, B. Mond, B. 19 MAURICE LAMM Literary Editor MID GUSTAVE SOLOMON Literary Editor Sohn, D. Miller. Third Row 1 to r: A. Mann, J. Adler, S. Bahn. GERALD KRAKOWER Managing Editor 51 WILLIAM WEALCATCH Business Manager ' Impulse ' in Browning and in Jewish Thought BY Maurice Lamm Impulse. as found in several of Robert Browning ' s poems, particularly The Statue and the Bust ' and outh and Art. ' can best be understood as compared with Impulse according to another philosoph . Judaic literature can well supply this necessarx- comparison. Impulse is a vague description of a spontaneous explosion of desire. A com- parison of the sort undertaken in this paper cannot proceed without first carefully understanding the complications and then narrowing the discussion, or broadening it as the case may be. In the poems by Browning in which the problem is treated (this spontaneous explosion of desire, as I have called it), the situation is such that it is open to moral or ethical scruples. If we were to broaden our limits to include all impulse, including those which obviously have nothing to do with classical Jewish religious thought, we shall have very little indeed to say about the matter. On the other hand, if we narrow and restrict ourselves to the problem of impulses which can be labeled morally, one way or the other, we shall have embarked upon a great adventure into religious thought, upon the problem of Good and Evil, whether im- pulsive or not. We shall choose the latter and make the best of it. The impulse to love, basically involving moral decisions, is the meeting point between the Brown- ingesque and the Jewish philosophy of Impulse. Browning, in moments of high flight into poetic fancy, believes that the Impulse should always be followed without regard to immediate outcome. Let a man contend to the uttermost For his life ' s set prize, be it what it will! Impulse and contention form the striving in which Browning harps on in many of his poems. In his powerfully imaginative and irrational treatment of Impulse, the poet disregards all other elements of existence. Neither physical, financial, psycho- logical nor spiritual values are considered in the immediate outcome — as contrasted with the far-reaching effects. It is the Impulse first and last, always the Impulse. Once the idol has been erected, its dominion is absolute and all-inclusive. The fact is, of course, that this is the very nature of Impulse; it seeks a blitzkrieg conquest of the frail human, and, before the victim has realized what has happened. Impulse is demand- ing squatter ' s rights. Browning simply adds, More power to the tyrant. In all fairness to the poet, however, it should be stated that in advocating the supreme reign of Impulse, he seeks the best for humanity, or better, for the individual. Had Impulse been given the right of way in The Statue and the Bust, both the Duke and his love would have lived happily ever after. This Browning calls a divine end. No thought was given, however, to the fact that the girl was a married woman. The moral and ethical values are subdued, and in Browning ' s existential anarchy Impulse itself determines all. All religions, when faced with this problem, superimpose an ethical frame upon the raw Impulse. If this drive aims for Good, more power to it. The Evil Impulse, if such a thing dares arise, must be crushed mercilessly. But does this Evil have its roots in reality? What is its relation to the Good Impulse? Here Judaism, in its development in different schools, has something to offer. The elements which must be covered in any intelligent discussion of this sort are: the source and reality of the Evil Impulse, the reality of the good, the relation between the two, and the treatment of the Evil. 1. The source of Evil and its Reality. The Droblem of how Evil can exist in the dominion of the All-Good Creator is a 70 Hcrloils (lisliiilMiirc t(, llir iMir nli ' ioiis f.ii« ' ioii-ri.-H . Iloiiio ri-ligioxiis. fei-dt - I ' l lli : icjilin ol ilif (,on(l. Inl- ,li-iri( liiifJ 1., oiji li loi ili : rcalily of ihir Kvil. ■| he ..ciiiilc uoilil li.iM ivi.lvrd iu(, vii-ws, iiiuliiully cxcluHivi ' , which may In- I ' -riiiw) III,. ,,ric ■■i,|iliiriisiir ;iri(l ilir oilicT ■■|icw imi lir. Thr; Nifo-I ' latonic, or o| liiiii li(;, .school wiis |.ii|.li ((l ((.riciTiiiiig how lium? matter roulrl havir i-rn iri-aU-tl from lh r pun; spiril. (• il. Iln-ir soliilion was a iria( t«Tpir-r:i- of spiritual archilwlurc, which was till ' fi.iiiirwiiik fill ihrii s|,iiiiiial rMiiiillMii ill rcvcr.si!. Ocalion wast t.DnM ' .ivi ' d a l ' ' ,lii,iii;i rnins lir-iiiiiiiij: liniii thr hi;_ ' hr-t ..I -|iiiilii;il Kourcos, G- 1. f ' ach tiUfXCMJve ciiiaiuUion. m -unilir ' u.i- li-s |iiiitii.il .iml iiinii ' material. Thus there wa more (•onliiminalioii in r.irh adilitioiial ■uoiM. Our pri ' seni worhl is a result of ten pre- x ' idiisK i. nl ril rinaiialinii-. ' iiii- iKiiaiiiii hiriairJiN i,r cmaiiation.H RolveK our proh- I,.,,! ,,l till ' iralit ..I l ' ; il. Ihr oii; iii,il .iii.iii.itioii rn-aled by G— fl was all f;oo l. Kvil. ill,. II. is :i iii.t;alioii of ,. i.-.|rii( r wliirli i- i. iiili.illv (;ootl. Fivil is not another niii- ill thr |iiiitiial ladilrr. hut ' in i ,i -iHil-i-. This theory of the AII-Goo«l rhaiactri (.1 thr hiiilir-l -jii i it ii.il nititv i- iirii atiK an ojUimistie viewpoint. T|,i. ,hialiMii mI thr (inii tir- i- thr part and puicri.- of the pessimislif sehool. The Gnostics saw K il iml a a iiiHatixr riitilv. hiil rather as a very real, formiflahle power in direct opposilimi In llir ( ' , I. I In Dnniuifje was creator of the F.vil. and was prime antaunnist to Man. wlm wa ncalcd to do Good. Man s duty wa.s to liberate himself ridin the enslaving K il. riii iliialisni gave reality to both Good and Kvil. The niniHithrislic r,inrr|ili(in of Traditional Judaism is diametrically opposed to the Gnoslir ilualism. t ihr saiiir tiiiir il carniot fully accept the solution offered by the Neo-f laloiiists. Judaism recognizes the reality of the f::vil Impulse, but il denies the auto-genetic element, claiming rather that Evil, as well as Good, was created by G — d. Evil was made for the purpose of the realization of the Good. The power to F.vil must be sublimated and harnessed to achieve a more divine Good. Within Man there exist two tendencies which, when sharpened to a point by circumstances and inherent con- stitution, become two impulses — good and bad. The approach of the Kabbalah to this problem has still not been successfully unravelled. The Gnostic view was rejected outright by the Kabbalist Rabbi Ezriel of Gerona ( Mishnat Hazoar by Lachover and Tishbi. p. 2981 and some tendencies to the Neo-Platonist solution can be detected (ibid.) : however, the fact that the Kabbalah did consider, to some extent, the reality of Evil, can be seen from the fact that Evil was supposed to have its origin in one of the Sephirot. Hassidism. while maintaining the traditional attitude towards Evil, is yet the closest to the Gnostic view. While it does not admit the outright dualism and independence of Evil preached by the Gnostics, it does find the root of Evil in G — d. Because most of Hassidic thought has been transmitted by word of mouth, it is difficult to tell how it would resolve the obvious logical difficulties presented by such a doctrine. Let us now return to the problem of Browning and bis Impulse. If we are to insist on the Neo-Platonic thesis, following the evil impulse becomes a perfectly nonsensical phrase. It would be analogous to advising people to follow the trail of not-lions and shoot them with not-guns to save the pretty not-girl from their terrible not-claws. All this is. of course, nonsense. Tlie poet is evidently very serious in the advice he gives, and he earnestly believes in the reality and sanity of his preachings. A Neo-Platonist. like Maimonides. on this point, would therefore not understand the words of Browning, while they would be comprehensible, if not acceptable, to the Traditionalist or Hassid. The Impulse, even if it be towards Evil, is something real and concrete and must be dealt with. Of course this does not mean that Hassidism advises doing the Evil. 2. The RealitY of the Impulse Totvards the Good. Not main words need be used in expounding the positive attitude by all branches of Judaism to the reality of the impulse to do Good. Without the foundation of Good all religion would vanish. This idea is precisely summed up by M. Lazrus in his Principles of Jewish Ethics. P. 1.50. The impulse to do Good has its source in the 71 all-Good and is the sine qua non of the Jewish code of Ethics. Its reality is of the highest order, and it must therefore be dealt with most seriously. 3. The Relation Between Good and Evil; A Common Source. W hen Browning speaks of Impulse, he does not recognize a dual source for this phenomenon. He does not know of one type of impulse coming from the good side of Man and the other from the darker side. Impulse, if it is to be treated as Browning would treat it. must be conceived as coming from a single source in tlie recesses of the human psvche. Clearly, then, if we are to compare Browning ' s beliefs on the subject to those of Judaism, we must find some support, in Jewish sources, for our thesis that all impulses, whether good or bad. have a common origin. Such support can indeed be found. The idea found its culmination in Hassidism, in the discredited sectarianism of the false Messiah Sabbatai Zevi. and in the writings of Maimonides. Maimonides. in his Peirush Ha Misthnayot, Abol .7, offers a philosophic definition of the Hebrew word Hessed. Any excess or sudden overflowing is called ' Hessed ' . whether it is good or bad. Rabbi Yaakov Emden, in his Hagahot Mahariyavetz on the Talmud, notes a source for hessed as referring to an over- flowing for evil. He refers to Leviticus. XX 17: And if a man shall take his sister, his father ' s daughter, or his mother ' s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness: it is ' Hessed ' ; and they shall be cut off, etc. Here the Bible speaks of a sudden overflow of personality, in the form of passion for an evil deed, and this is called Hessed. Whereas this is a single use of the word to denote hessed for evil, there are innumerable examples where it is used to denote the urge for good. We are inclined to translate hessed as impulse. The Jewish belief, then, if we accept what was written in the last paragraph, con- siders the urges for good and evil as coming from one source, the pouring out, as it were, of the personality in one great and overwhelming pulsation which may find its expression in either Good or Evil. It is tempting to draw the psychoanalytic analogy and identify this primary impulse with Freud ' s libido. Unless we turn, as a soul knows how, The earthly gift to an end divine? These words of Browning must not be taken literally. Divine obviously means something other, in the context in which it appears in the poem, than what is usually understood by that word. By all standards divine has something to do with a moral order: adultery is its very negation. The poet obviously means the good of those individuals concerned, and not their ethical or moral good, but their very psrsonal good. Browning, then, attributes an absolute goodness to the primary impulse which has yet been unchanneled. Follow it. he tells us, and the best will come. It is doubtful if Browning is a proponent of ethical nihilism : it seems most reasonable that he would reject, with religion, the impulse which has already been channeled to evil ends and which has proved itself to be of no good. The major difference between Browning ' s and the Jewish outlook is that Browning preaches the worship of the primary, or unchanneled. impulse, whereas Judaism demands that the impulse first prove itself to be ethically or morally beneficial before embracing it. Browning seems to be more of a gambler, — Oh, a crime will do As well, I reply, to serve for a test. As a virtue golden through and through. Sufficient to vindicate itself And prove its worth at a moment ' s view! and. as is obvious from his poems, is ready to make certain concessions in the moral sphere. Recognition of the common origin of good and evil impulses leads to certain interesting consequences. Most important of these is that sublimation appears as an easily achievable and highly desirable form of spiritual therapeutics. Since Good and 72 I il Mil-, .iflir .ill. Iiorii iif lli(! Haiiic woiiili. and .iiifi- llic rliaradirr of th ; irn] ulw! in lil(i iiiirircl iii(isil ;ilicr il- jj fiwHin, why not foil vert lh(r evil iin|)ulHe lo a good impulftf;? (Vliicli li. ' i- lircri vMiiirn nil iliiv i,,|)ir. .iiiil llic (tlcincril of HuliiimutioM M ' trrnH lo hav«; irailiid llic |iinii.M li- nl il- |pi oimIimimi- in llir HoH idic school (hci! IJuh ' rrV Hashid- ism I. I III ' vniiiii ' ol llii ' ll. ' issidii ' ailvoracy of Hiihliiiiatioii tn cvirlriilly the Kalilialah uliii li Ii.kI iiiihIi III -.i .iliiiiil (liviiif; l)ca(l-fiisl into the ' kclipi)!!! or shclli of Kvil. ;iilil riiiiM ' lliii; ' iK riirr;. ' ir-. In (innil. Tin- idi-.i nf iniii ' -i- lari lii- duilgcroUH, Hifirc many |irn|ilr unlllil (■Min lIll- cll.lllrr nl l;irklin;i l. il -n dill-lil uilll ihl ' 0«lfri ihlc | Urj OM; nf iiiakiii; a saiiil mil nl a dr il. Tin- rni iii|)lii)n of the original idea and lh ; frxlf nnion nl il In ils I idii iilnii-- ami daiif. ' !! nii - I ' vlri-iiH ' M has occurrfd in ihi- movcmi;nl of ihi: Messianic |iiclcmlci. Salilialai i. ami |Milicularly of another Mcssianir pri-lrrnder. who urdikc Salilialai i sa iml a |i- cn|ialli liiit a shrewd and uiiserupulous eharlatan. Jacol) Frank. The cdinparisiin nf alliliiilc Inuanl- llic illiical (|iialilie- of Inipulsc has already liccn mailc: sniiic addilioruil rcmaiks sliniild he made on Ini()ulse per m:. I jVP of { ' , il seems llie first cxaiiiple of wlial we call lm|iulsc. L ' nfortunalely this topic is much loo great l(i lie treated thorougiiK in this article. Yet a few lines must he written on it. iho Halaeha seems to have stripped it of its ecstatic element and attributed to it merely the aspect of positive action. Thus, all jjositive commandments were related to love of G — d, whereas the negative commandments were related to the fear of G — d. (See Nahmanides ' Commentary on the Torah. Yithro. I The Kaliltalah. however, raised Love of G — d to a most significant rank, equating it with d ' vakul. or com- munion with the Aim — ty. Of course this is an Impulse of the first rirder. There is much independent support for this thesis. (It should be mentioned here that while the Halaeha may define Love of G — d for its own pragmatic purposes, it certainly does not exclude its more literal and intense meaning as developed bv the Kabbalah. I The Prophets thought that the Love of G — d can be equated to the love of human lovers (again supporting our thesis that all Impulse is unitary in origin 1 . Isaiah (chapter V) presents a dialogue between G — d and Israel in the form of a love song. Solomon ' s Song of Songs was declared by the rabbis to be a dialogue between G — d and Israel expressed as a love song, and R. Akiba goes so far as to say that the book is Holy of Holies. Very interesting is the remark of Maimonides ( Mishne Torah. Hilehot Tshubah. chapter X) : And how should one properly love G — d? — it should be a great, overpowering, overwhelming love till his soul is all flooded with the love of G — d. and he should think of it constantly as one who is love-sick and whose mind is all enveloped with the love of that certain woman, and he thinks of her constantly. when sitting and standing, when eating and drinking . . . The mystics saw visions in which the entire cosmos was aflame with this burning impulse, the Love of G — d. A considerable section of the Zohar is devoted to this theme, and later Kabbalists enlarged it even more. But if we are to seek the presence of Impulse as a constant factor not only in theory but in practice as well, no quotations will serve the purpose. We must turn to history. Hassidism is that movement which practiced and nourished the development of the impulse to love G — d. The warmth and affection and strong love which hurst forth from the Hassid ' s soul were both cause and effect of his particular temperament. Gloom is discarded and the impulse to be happy and to love is encouraged, if they are ethically justifiable. Hassidism went even further than just accepting the impulse which was channeled to a goal which was obviously ethical: it encouraged those impulses which were even mere potentialities of ethical accomplishment. Thus eating and drinking and even copulating were important parts of avodat Ha slieni. service of G — d. In this manner Hassidism comes closer to the Browiiing idea of Impulse than does the Traditional idea which waits (or the idea to be channeled and to prove its ethical or moral value. Prophecy, too. can be regarded as a matter of Impulse. The vision came suddenly and without forethought. The Prophet was not anticipating tlie vision when it came. This can be proved by careful study of almost all of the Prophets. Particularly inter- esting in this respect is the verse in Samuel 1. 3. 1.: In those days no vision was nifralz. The word nifratz comes from tlic root p-r-tz which means breaking out or explosion. The Prophetic vision is, then, another and more sublime case of Impulse. This thesis must be elaborated on, of course. Summarizing we see that neither Gnostic nor Neo-Platonic tendencies in Jewish thought can agree with Browning ' s concept of the Impulse and a mode of behavior based on it: that, in fact, the Traditional and luirlicularly tlic Hassidic expressions of Judaism come closest to Browning ' s ideas. Dark Span Martling ' s elms stood bare and dark Like fairy monsters groping. The cloudless moon shone on their bark, W bile twinkling stars broad heavens marked; A gust of wind disturbed the dark — A forlorn man stood hoping. Hours long he paced the span That bridged the waters flowing; Above his head the moon now wan; Upon his mind pale thoughts of man Beneath his feet cold waters ran — He felt the cold winds blowing. Memory ' s darts oft draw the blood Of heart that once was vaunting; His mind shot arrows hewn of wood; Dread recollection ' s aim was good — In writhing pain a poor soul stood Who found that he was wanting. Standing o ' er the wall so steep He stared in darkness thinking; He closed his eyes as if to weep — The air was flurried by a leap; A splash disturbed the murky deep — A struggling body sinking. Splashing waves with quickness wrote An end to mortal suffering. They dashed his body still afloat; Their clammy hands soon clutched his throat. He languid sank and left his coat A shroud above him hovering. That night the sky let fall a snow For heaven too was crying; The silvery winds her teardrops blow And guide them to the waters low To cover him, who with his woe. Lost hope of ever trying. Ira Albeck 74 Hoi i da y in Ml III! Si Aur mai i.ii (Thr jiillinriiiii sliiiy i( ii.s llic iniiiiriil tij llir h ' niiiir l i)hliiii Mriniiritil Slitiil Story I ' liir jiii I ' I ' id llhiill is ,iliiin r,i (iiiniiiilh l, llir ( liiss iij ' i.S. — Ko. NoTK. ) Sill- a ,111 iiM vMiiii.iri. , ' iimI irli ioii-. lif liail iiril lr;fl a liff of (-awr ttufTfrriiign ill l ' ,mn|]c , ' iikI li.ii(Mii|i- III llii- ciiiinliN. Slir liad raiwrl a family — ihrw; sonit — by llic r:[ (il lici I.1IM-. MiiK i, have lun lliiin ilic for the Kaisi ' r. ' I ' hc old man ua- a ictiii-iil. Millliiailcil iii(li idiial. ca-iK Ipiokcii 1p misforturir ' . ' I ' lHrre wan no (lolllil aliiiiil il il a llic old vvoiiiaii ' - c i.ni a;.M.,ii- lirail llial k -|it llli-m Roin . Th ' old man acrc|ilrd lair hp(. icadilv . and uniild liaw .-imii ii{ loji; af;r) wiTf it Mol for her. Slic liidkrd l(iuii a! Inr hand-. I lii ui-rc i-M-ii iiiori- cri-ascrl lliaii li -r face. fj;c liad lakcii a lirav li ll ' A n. and il -liowi-d on licr frail l)0(ly. She sal silciilK and -niiird lo liijsrll. lor rif.dil now shf; was happy, very happy. And why iiol ' . ' ' Ilrr l)a id lln- oijii;ji- l. llic oiil one she; had left — was sitting at the tabic uilli Ik r. And ihr old man ua- lln-n-. loo. David li i ' d in (Hiio IMPW. iPinipM-d lipiin lii |iairiil miiiic- lial — allofjfithfr too imicli so lor llip ' pp|d lail . lUil lip ' uppiild ippiiw lo isil ihcm on the Kast .Side for the Jewish liolida s. lie cipiild ikpI iiiakp- il on all the holidays, but this was Rosh llashanah, and he would always ■ ■ fipi lliis one to wish his parents a happy new year. They sat there, the three of llicni il was the holiday alomsphere. what the old woman always liked. Why don ' t you eal all our (hirken. DaviflV ' a ki ' d the old woman at once. She had not noticed that David was not eating well, she was so enveloped in her own happy feeling. Now that she studied him. though, she could see that he had a worried look. I guess I ' m not very hungry. Ma. replied the son. Aren ' t you feeling well, David? she persisted. Oh, I ' m feeling well, I guess. ' You don ' t look well. I said I ' m all right. David seemed ' ery annoyed by now. and his mother decided not to question him further at the moment. After all, she could not afford to antagonize him on one of his rare visits. It was not just a matter of argue today, make up tomorrow. If he would leave now. he might not come back. Certainly, his wife would not persuade him to return. She had taken their oiih boy away from them: she was a bad woman. Il was several minutes before anyone said anything. The old lady got up and put her hands on her son ' s shoulders. Is there anything wrong. David? Tell Mama. She felt reasonablv safe in using this approach. David would never shout at her when she would come up to him this way. T don t know. ' said David, his back to his mother. There is something wrong. said the old woman with definitiveness. ou can tell me. David. If you have any troubles — well. that s what parents are for. aren ' t they. David? David tightened his lips, closed his eyes, and nodded in a yeah. yeah, we know fashion. Is it ... ? It is Gloria! Yes, Ma. I guess that s it. replied Da id after a pause. That woman! said the old lady scornfully. Please. Ma. snapped David. I don ' t want to hear you talking like that agaiii. I had enough of that. All riaht. Da id. All risht. But vou can tell me what ' s wrong, can ' t you? David shifted his head from side to side in a wobbly fashion as if to say it did not make any difference either way. His mother knew that there was friction between himself and Gloria. He may as well tell her. We argued just before I left this morning. She iliihri waiil me to come here ... She never does. iiilerrupled the uld Avonian angrih . Doesn ' t she have any human feelings? Doesn ' t she realize were vour parents? She glanced suddenly at her husband. Yankel, stop reading the paper, and listen to me. If you can ' t say anything, at least listen. You sit there like an outsider, as if this didn ' t concern you at all. lin sorry. Mama. ' apologized the old man. 1 was just reading an interesting article about ... Oh, stop it, ' ' said the old lady. 1 ou get me sick. Please, Ma, intervened David. 1 don ' t want you and Pa to get into an argument over me. ' ' We ' re not arguing. replied the woman in her preponderant manner. Your father knows Pm right. ' ' The old man shrugged. And if she wasn ' t, what could he do anyway? Gloria was a little right this time, Ma, resumed David. I told her a couple of weeks ago that I ' d go to New York for Rosh Hashanah. and she didn ' t object. But the baby took ill a few days ago — just a cold, you know — and when I started to pack last night, she got all excited. She screamed at me for leaving her with a sick baby. And she accused me of being a bad husband, and a cruel father. I might have listened to her if she hadn ' t yelled like that. But she got me angry. I told her the baby only had a slight cold, and that she knew it, but was deliberately trving to keep me from going. I told her that I was looking forward to this, and that I was going no matter what she said. When I left the house, she was crying. I didn ' t even say good-bye. David lowered his head, and his mother could see that he was disgusted with himself. She tried to think of something cheerful to say. You were right, David, she finally remarked. You were absolutely right. Right or not — what difference does it make? retorted David angrily. My home is at stake. It may be broken up. And you say, ' You were right, David. You were right. ' Don ' t be angry with me, David, pleaded his mother. You know I mean you no harm. You know I only want the best for you, David. Just the same, I can ' t stay. Ma. I ' m sorry. I ' m going home first thing tomorrow morning. David, not on Rosh Hashanah! implored his mother. You always spend Rosh Hashanah with us. I can ' t control what you do away from us, but in my house you must observe the holiday. Oh, Rosh Hashanah, nonsense! said David, spitting out the words. My home is more important to me. For this I had to struggle all my life, David? sobbed his mother. Is this all the nuchas I get from you, David? And you were always such a good boy. Oh. for God ' s sake, stormed David, getting up from his seat. I don ' t have to come here to argue with you. I have enough at home. I have to argue with Gloria. With you, I don ' t. Pm leaving now. I have my car out front. I don ' t have to stand for this. Please, David, a little more respect for your mother, said the old man, rather timidly than forcefully. You know how she tried hard for you all her life. She slaved ... Oh, enough of that, Pa. I don ' t want to hear any more. David walked over to the foyer closet, and took out his coat. He took off the skullcap he was wearing, folded it neatly, and returned it to his father. All right, David. If that ' s what you want to do . . . all right. You know I was always very lenient with you. If I couldn ' t train you when you were a 76 liltle I)oy, it ' s cr rluinly i liic in ' ■ijul now. Hiil don ' t you think you shouKI say };o()(l-l)yc lo your inullii i In -I. .luil ui-li lui ,i happy new year? David gliirircd li.K k Jiiln llii- kilclicii. ulii ' H ' |]i- rriolhiT was Hillinjj and sohhing (■onvulsivcl . ill- sliMiik III- held. ' Ao. ' : . I r.inl (In il. .Slii ' , loo h -liri .d. on belter try to (juiel her down. I ' ll (mII ytii up dir day aflc|- lomoirow in liie evening, right after the holiday. David u.dkiil In iIh ' dnoi. Ill- l;illiri lnl|in iiig. ' Ilicy hooi handw. and a tear rolled douii llir old iii.in ' -. clitck. (;ood-i.)c. Davi.l. So long, i ' a. I!(llir|lll.r,. Ill rail.- The door clo.srd lnlwcni llinn. I lie ol l man -Innd llini ' fr,i a ninnienl. he ilalinj. ' to enter ihe kitch(ui. lie ucll kinw the task he had before him. You lei him gfi! mi Icl liiin go! shrieked his wife as he r-ntered the room. He opened his iimulli In say somelliiii;:. luii ua- iiiiaMi- In find the words. The old woman leaped up. and lirushed past liiiii. Mr fnllnucil inr as she ran into the bedroom and fell on her bed. f couldn ' t slop him, Mama, began lin- nid man in low lniii-«. He ' s not a little boy anymore. He ' s a man with a family. If that ' s what he decided was best for him and his family, we have no right to sto|) him . . . Arc you listening to me, Mama? She was no longer crving. hul cnMliuui-d In -nli. l)a id . . . mv good little boy, David. Just then a starling motor could iir inard in ihe slncl ln-inu. ll whirred once. twice, and then started going strong. The mother raised her head lo listen, anfl ihen ihn u iicrself liark upon the bed as the car sped off. Why, oh why. did you let him go? On Rosh Hashanah yet. Tell me, Yankel. don ' t I have a good religious home? Don ' t I keep kosher and light candles? Didn ' t I raise David in such a home? Why do I deserve this now? ' She started to weep once again. Mama, I ' ve just been telling you — it ' s not your fault, it ' s not mine. We can ' t help it. He ' s a grown man. He does what he wants. What can we do? . . . We have no right to do anything, lo stop him. to interfere with his private life. He must lead his own life. Yes. so you say. Yankel, ' answered his wife amid heavy sobs. But what will the neighbors think? On His 111 Fortune Abr. ham InN EzR. Tlie orbs and constellations from their posts Swerved upon coming to mv birth: W ere lamps mv ware The sun. in mv lifetime. ould ne er set. I take pains to succeed, but fail. For my stars in heaven spoiled me: Were I a dealer in shrouds Men. in mv lifetime, would ne ' er die. TranslcUed b Ira Albeck The Problem of Fiction Writing BY bOL bTEINMETZ It is a well found and perhaps lamentable fact that the once known art of hctiun writing has in our day been altered into the science of fiction writing. This nominal change, to be sure, is only a faint repercussion of the wider, and more fatal, mutation of values that has come about in our literary orb. The term science, despite its noble connotations, is from an aesthetic standpoint the bitter enemy of art. While science pursues formulae, proofs and facts; art persecutes them. The ideals of both are the same; truth and order. But science seeks them through the means of fact, and art through the means of beauty. It is, once again, the inevitable dam of means-and- ends that hinders the outflow of universal coordination. The young and modern writers of today are the very samples of the science they, quite contagiously and I am certain unwillingly, have managed to create. Innocent products of narrow literary college trainings, vaguely acquainted with the pain and forbearance that true creativeness imports, these men soon discovered the formula — I use this word deliberately — of literary success. Fiction writing to them is a systematic transfusion of timeworn technical devices. The limitations of time, place and point-of-view, the more recent stream-of-consciousness scheme, and a number of other much-abused tricks, for tricks they are, are open to the access of any would be writer. There are even circulating among us magazines that specialize in teaching the methods of manufacturing vendible stories! Naturally, there are the small few, the exceptions, who, due to their actual youth and nearness to us, have as yet not gone through the trial of time that reveals supremacy. I am referring to authors like Norman Mailer, and I regret that I cannot name any more of his caliber. I think that it is safe to assume that the contemporary mind is not atrophied ; that the mental acumen and creative spirit, and, mainly, the faculty of thought, of our generation, is not minimized at comparison with the writing masters of past decades. I also think that literature, for whatever sake it may be, endures and renovates, conquers, as it were, new grounds, new beauty, in spite of the dead-ends that progress seems to have reached. What, then, hinders the American literary genius? The answer is misguidance. Everything that education is supposed to encourage — creative thinking, scholarship, objectiveness — all that has been interred under a heavy pile of sophisticated knowledge and so-called progressive education. How and why this was done is not my purpose here to disclose. Much rather than that, as H. L. Mencken puts it in his evaluation of the critic ' s function, I am interested in acting as a catalyzer, as one who attempts to provoke a reaction between the artist and his art. The critic ' s object, like that of the artist, is only to point out, to suggest; the stimulus of a needle may cause rational responses, but not so of a blackjack on one ' s head. Before entering into details about the various concepts connected with fiction writing, I must make clear that I am treating the term fiction in its broadest and most edifying sense: that of fiction being a true reproduction of life, devoid of artificiality, and. most important, shorn of all that is superfluous. The task of the artist is to show life in the light of his own, and all human, experience; and true experience is neither artificial nor superfluous. But a novel, for example, must by its very definition tell a story, and can every human experience be translated into a story? The answer, of course, is that it can. For experience begins and ends in the minds of individuals, and whatever tangible relationships or story situations may take place between two or more persons, they are but minute reflections of the multifarious experiences of the mind. Hence, the contemplation of a painting or the audition of a symphony may tease the mind into bringing about a momentary flux of ideas where past, present, and future situations mingle to form that emotional or intellectual state which is experience. 78 ' I he .liiii of llic ■.ir - . if Im- ui-lii- I.I li;iiislal(- lh(! inpiTiriic.i; in lo analyze the niliiiilidr] in Midi a iiiaiini-i iIkiI In- -limiKI I - ;iiil - td hcIm;1 hrrtw(; rn tb ; irrcli-vaiit anri lh( vital, the cDiiiirioiiplucf miii llic ili.nn.iiii . ill. ' iirliricial anrI ihc Hourid. In Maupat.- sunl ' .s wohIh, lo liririg tin- cNHcnliai .mmI- im full light and to give lo all othcrn the (Irf ta: of r(:li ' f Huitcd I.) lli.ii iiiip.Mlanii-. Ilii ' - i- tin- true ordf-al of ihf arlihl. If he is al)l(! to wciuli and .s.,in lli. ' ixpiT iiMi. .• lo llu ' advaiitag ! of a Hlory that, without l)(:ing a conini.-iilai of lif. i a |)orlia ,il ..f il. li.- Ii;i inawtf rcd his art. Througlioiil oiii .scli.iia li. ' .ai.-.i f lia .- In-.ii fonsistcntly r -riiind -d that lh - hcst way of telling a Htory is lo 1. 11 of sotncthitig you know. The (|uc lion of auto- biography is aduallv no (|ii.slioii. Anv slorv. if told honfstly, without of ncMwuity fontaining facaual |ir...if ..f iN ira.il . Iia- l.. I..- in some degree autohiographieal. Oceurrences nrouii.l iis ar. ' niii. Ii loo liillii.nlial lo he consciously avoided. Here, again if the artisi is lion. si. ii. ' Iia- lli. ' o|i|mii lunity to |)resent the experience with a background of social. ps)(:bological. and cn.ii universal behavior. This last statement can be misunderstood. Most people believe that the paramount purpose of the artist is to entertain, and the scatheless telling of a straightforward and unambitious story is entertainment, an. I llni.f.ir. ' arl. ' I ' .) a certain extent they are correct. None so much as the French I ' Jlli Century fiction writers, men like De Mu.«sct. Gautier, Balzac and Flaubert, to mention just a few, excelled in the art of the raconteur. And in England we bad Dickens. Theirs was the straight plot, the simple theme. But — and here is where a distinction is drawn — these men never claimed to be didactici.«ts or sociologists: yet they adhered to the principle of ars est celare artem. Their art. Dickens ' art of varying the color and tone of life because that is what life meant to him. Balzac ' s art of showing life in its naked crudeness without discussing his revelations, are not mere entertainments. They are founded on a philosophy, an understanding, a program, of life. Theirs is true art under the mask of entertainment. At this point we may mark another distinction between art and what I called previously tricks. Art is creativeness, and as that, it denotes originality. An elec- trician who, by former training, is able to adjust some tubes and wires to form a radio set is unquestionably a good technician, but hardly original or creative in the strict sense of the word. Thus a fiction writer may strut over the road of technical invention that has with untold labor been paved by people like George Eliot. James. Conrad, and Joyce. But his fruits will amount to gross imitation. It is the endeavors, the pangs that even art cannot conceal, that perform the miracle of creation. Tricks of trade have not, nor can. attain greatness: to paraphrase Conrad, literature cannot aspire to the plasticity of sculpture if its clay has been disintegrated by overuse. Up to now we have dealt with the treatment of subject matter. As to the form or style of fiction, two aspects, the syntactic and the qualitative, make up its characteristics. The former embraces the treatment of language, particularly that of words. In order not to delve too deeply into its unweighty. though manifold, implications, a quotation from C. E. Montague will suffice: A sculptor alone in his studio will fondly stroke a lump of unworked marble or bronze: he can dote on its qualities. A writer will do much the same: his mind will finger single words and caress them, adoring the mellow- fullness or granular hardness of their several sounds, the balance, undulation or trailing fall of their syllables, or the core of sunlike splendor in the broad, wann. central vowel of such a word as ' auroral. ' Each word ' s evocative value, its individual power of touching springs in the mind and of initiating visions, becomes a treasure to revel in. There is no method of implanting the knowledge or appreciation of words. But a native awareness from part of the writer of the beauty and. at the same time, rigidity of the groundwork of language, will for a while compensate for a want of verbal scope. The qualitative aspect of form, as the term indicates, sets up the question of quality in connection witli one ' s style. In other words, whether the au ' hor ' s approach, in view of the substance of his experiences, should be witty or sarcastic, sentimental or dignified, and in a wider sense, objective or purely subjective. This is. obviously. wholly dependent on the temperament and disposition of the author. He may. if the 79 medium favors him. be dry and objective. This attitude is advantageous as far as realism is concerned, but the quality of empathy or feeling with the character created can he lost in the process. Sherwood Anderson seems to me the only American who, though thoroughly objective, somehow was able to share sympathies with his people. The major factor that the writer should keep in mind, however, is that within each approach there may be an endless number of variations. Gradations of subjective treatment may alternate or combine with the objective, just as description may with dialogue. The objective characterizations of Thomas Mann, for example, blend in almost musical precision and harmony with his famed philosophic symbolisms. Literary approach to style, which, when sufficiently reduced, is not more than a way of expressing oneself, is as multifornied and prone to invention as life itself. The last, but probably the most significant, problem of the artist, is the one con- cerning his qualifications. It is a popular American belief that writing is as easy as playing the harmonica. Witness, as a result, the legions of worthless handsomely- covered books that, like the troops emerging from the wooden horse, stream trendlessly from the American printing press. Writing, if it is to come under the category of literature, cannot be ' easy. The composition one writes in college about an expe- rience, though heaven knows it is not easy, is not literature. It is an attempt, a very enervating one, and quite inconsequential. If Dryden proclaims that the poet must have quickness of imagination, fertility in fancy, and accuracy in expression, he has only given a vague clue of what the novelist must have. The literary artist artlessly wo nders sometimes of the connection between the quantity and the quality of our books. He believes, naively enough, that if we would have less but better artists, we would also have less but better books. And he is a hundred percent right. Spring I feel the pain of Spring ' s sharp thrust, I feel the shame of Godless lust, I crave for sin with beastly thirst, Oh Love be damned, and Cupid cursed! The cloudless skies and sunny days, Torment me in a thousand ways; The trees aspire in budded bloom. To shade the light, and tempt my doom. The fragrant path and verdant field. Are Satan ' s gift to those who yield; The cushioned grass, the bedded flow ' rs, Are Hell ' s death vaults adorned as bow ' rs. Martin Louis Applbaum 80 Ycshiva College Basketball A SlaliMlicul Survey c:()f7i|)il(;fl l)y Israel Polcycff, ' 49 fincmher viirsily. 1916-19) lluii.iri Vrll-|i-il] ( l ' li -ir;il lOlii.-.ilicpii l)r|,l.. ' ic liiv.i n.) Varsity basketball hail il- iiirr|,iiiiri al Ycsliiva in ) ' J.J8-39 ami «a Ir-ii by playr-roach Irving Koslowsky to a succo ful III mimI 6 season. Compclilion then was minor li-a(juc, but ihrouifh the y -urs il nicvv slningir iiiilil lln- m lirdulc included Fnrdliam, Urooklyn anrl Si. Fran(.i« a- re iular (ipiioiicnis. Oilier nuijiii Ii-.imi- mhIi us L.I.IJ., .St. Jobn ' s. and Kliode Mand Stale were mel at dillcienl limes iluriiif; llie lliirlecri year span since 1938. Most speetaeular player for Yenbiva wa« Stanley Doppelt who during each of bis four years led Ycshiva ' s team in scoring. It was under his captaincy in 191 ' 1-4.S that Yesbiva bad its most successful year, considering the calibre of its oppo- sition, listing as one of its victims Fordham U. Doppelt was followed by another star performer, Marvin iMcdnian, who holds Ycshiva ' s career scoring record with 920 points. Arthur Sicin wa Yeshiva s nixt loiirl star folliiuid by Marvin Ibr-bknwit , who «ill still lie playing next year. Combined Yearly Records: points won lost for against high scorer pis. 1938-39 10 6 578 463 Irving Koslovsky 140 1939-40 11 a 604 668 Abraham Avrech 110 1940-41 9 10 725 794 jSamuel Rosenblum j 1 Irving Jaret ( 141 1941-42 8 13 845 946 Stanley Doppelt 152 1942-43 10 5 589 595 Stanley Doppelt 155 1943-44 9 6 753 661 Stanley Doppelt 151 1944-45 12 8 1110 1018 Stanley Doppelt 220 1945-46 5 14 848 956 Marvin Fredman 244 1946-47 6 13 905 1014 Marvin Fredman 331 1947-48 3 8 546 629 Abrahatii Green 110 1948-49 4 11 763 892 Arthur Stein 242 1949-50 8 9 1058 1042 Arthur Stein 290 1950-51 6 10 933 962 Marvin Hershkowilz 280 13 years 101 121 10.257 10.640 ches: Irving Koslovsky. 1 year. 1938-39 Hyman ettstein, 2 years. 1939-40 and 1940-41 Ai Goldstein. 1 year. 1941-42 Bernard Sarachek. 7 years. 1942-43 and 1945-46 to 1950-51 jNIike Pincus. 1 year. 1943-44 Nat Kraditor. 1 vear. 1944-45 indicates approximate figures 81 Indivi dual Scoring Records: most points, game: 33. Arthur Stein, vs. Cooper Union, 1949-50 most points against, game: 46. Julie Kasner. Brooklyn Col., 1940-41 most points, season: 331, Marvin Fredman. 1946-47 most field goals, season: 119, Marvin Hershkowitz. 1949-.50 most fouls, season: 113. Marvin Fredman, 1946-47 highest average per game, season: 17.5. Marvin Hershkowitz. 1950-51 most points, career: 920. Marvin Fredman Team Scoring Records: most points, game: 92, vs. Cooper Union, 1949-50 most points, season: 1110, in 1944-45 most field goals, season: 455, in 1944-45 most fouls, season: 233, in 1946-47 highest average per game: 62.2, in 1949-50 most points again, game: 130, Rhode Island State, 1944-45 most points against, season: 1042, in 1949-50 highest average against per game: 61.3, in 1949-50 least points, game: 14, vs. Paterson, 1938-39 least points, season : 546, in 1947-48 lowest average per game: 31.8, in 1939-40 least points against, game: 11, Brooklyn College Evening, 1939-40 least points against, season: 463, in 1938-39 lowest average against per game: 28.8, in 1938-39 most wins, season : 12, in 1944-45 most losses, season: 14, in 1945-46 consecutive wins: 9, six at end 1938-39, three at start 1939-40 consecutive losses: 9, three at end 1946-47, six at start 1947-48 105 points were scored against the Alumni in the same year. ■Two national intercollegiate scoring records were set in this game, that of most points by one team in a game (130), and most points by two teams combined (2041. Both records have since been broken. 82 Records Against Major Opponcnls: jKlilllS II nil InsI jm rifitiiiril (lrl|,l,i 1 1 122 134 lilnonillrld 2 (1 }5.S 70 I ' .rnnkK,! 1) I 2f{6 131 (killii ' dral 7 ' ) fW2 893 (!(H]|ii ' i- 1 riidii 2 .5 385 419 Drru 2 2 221 239 l ' ' ;iirli ' i li-l)r(l iri - )ri 1 2 Ui!! 182 Forclhain 1 3 ] ' , ' ,[ 210 Hofslia 2 4 267 304 Icina 4 186 246 Long Island University 3 116 214 N. Y. S. Maritime 1 1 84 98 Pace 1 1 100 104 Panzer 7 347 454 Paterson 2 2 145 167 Pratt 2 1 193 141 Queens 4 6 415 494 Rhode Island Slate 1 74 130 St. Francis 1 59 82 St. John ' s University 1 36 61 Upsala 3 180 237 Wagner 1 40 61 Webb 3 1 138 116 Score? of any game against ALL opponents can be secured from Israel Poleyeff. 83 ARTHUR SCHNEIER Vice-President AARON LANDES President GEORGE MARCUS Sec ' y-Treas. Student Council Before reviewing student events of the past year, I would like to digress and discuss a point that we should all consider. Once out of school, our alumni have tended to relegate Yeshiva to an obscure position in their conscious thoughts and substituted other interests in its stead. The good that Yeshiva did for the students is very often faded by the recollection of four years of strain and stress, when a bit of relaxation meant falling behind the demands of a double program. In addition, we all have some petty gripes against this or that member of the administration, or might, in ignorance of the facts, feel at times that the school has dealt with us unjustly. Still, looking at Yeshiva from a broader point of view, taking into consideration its hand-to- mouth existence and the many pressures plaguing those responsible for the institution ' s continued life and progress, we can well disregard our insignificant complaints. This does not mean that nothing needs correction or improvement. On the contrary, there is much to be done and we as alumni can a nd should make it our duty to call attention to and help clear up those points of friction. Let us always keep in mind that Yeshiva depends upon us for its future existence and we. as orthodox Jews, depend upon it for ours. The year began with a presidential edict from the previous year limiting student open affairs to a Dean ' s reception and the President ' s reception for the Senior Class. The Faculty Committee on Student Affairs, chaired by Dr. Lisman, was delegated to keep the students at peace despite the restrictive backdrop. 86 Olll- (lisl ncj.M.li;illnii Mlli llii ' rniiiiiJllhi ' rr.rK i-i Jii-.l ill.- sliiilrnl ).liiii-)iirill M-rvicC, iri;i(lc wrak idiliini ' l i llir unidi l, ailiii iiil -I i ,il i i- i jii ii r -ions. A (lion: or hmn (■i|inlalilc .i Mcciiiciil ua iraihcd Imi all i Miirrn,, ,|. SliKJcni (;.)iiii(il MOW iiilroihic rii iIm i Mrjrjiilir ' Id sIikIi-iiI (all-Ill iiiid aliilily to sliif c MicccMHful iiirairs. ISill Soloinon iimI lii- ( olioii- ill (IrairiaticH Muni-A ihi-ir wrond aiiiiiial Kircsidr l ' ' anla.sia uln(li did iiM|.ic vr.| -indi ' iilx and roiniiiilli-c mcnil)irrn alike. A coiicrs.sioii «as iiiadr. .■ imm- h, {..-I Um, Dcau ' h rrcrpliofio. (Thal ' « a cniiccs.siony I Council olcd In {Mili i|ialr in llir (irsi Id n cni:i- all the nki pticH and criliis nl shidiail alJilili(■ willi ( ' iii| iMcal |H ..d. •.jacoliV Dn ain ' and Manny F- ' orman Iradin; Ills cllorai f rollll were Miriiciclil cudfiicc. SIikIcmI (louiicii liii ' ii iiskfd |iiriiii- ioii lo |mi ' mmI il- .iiiiiual Vlusir for V.l . Iiut was loll! il rnirld ha c omK aiKjllicr Dean- r ' tr|,| i,,ri . . , in llic (iyin. V(r decided to eoopcralc, Iml mi f iv inj;-. A Dean- i((c|ili.in ua- |ireferal(le lo no affair; (■specially sinee at this one llic luinliii ol cMlcilairnncnl would lie borne l y the faculty. (All right Mr. Sjiear? ) .So niiirh lor open alTaii ' -. lOli yea. the nramaties Soeiety is secretly rehearsing Home of the Hravi ' . ' ) Student clubs started o(T with a fi . built u to a wliisprr and rclurned lo their inactive origin.s at the close of the year. Those societies heard from were Eranos, International Relations (Dr. Litman said that? I, Cercle Francais. Deutscher Verein (Mein hut er hot drei eeken I . Fireside Chats (Mond. who ' s next). Orchestra. Dra- matics, Choral, Debating (we should ' a won, de judge was unfair!). Chess. Math (B.Z.), Co-op and Commie (subversive literature). Masmid speak.s for itself. The intra-University Student Council (Hu Ha for short) functioned for its second year. Under its guidance dormitory, placement and U.J. A. were taken care of. Additions to school: 11 Two new clothes washing-drying machines (basic): 2 New Student Council bulletin board (zes). Aaron Landes Pres. S. C. Seated 1 to r: R. Bierman, J. Weiss. M. Brener. R. Rozen. Standing ! to r: D. Mostofsky, D. Hadas, I. Shapiro. Seated 1 to r: H. Eichelberg, S. Jaffe, D. Scheinfeld, J. Heimowitz, N. Gordon. Standing 1 to i: S. Seigel, W. Weal- catch, S. Bahn, V. Solomon, Z. Charlop, M. Salman. Economics Club The Economics Society was founded a year ago willi the specific aim to disseminate among leshiva students a knowledge of economics with especial emphasis on Israeli Economics. To achieve this end the group sponsored lectures In leading authorities and society members. Among the prominent lecturers was Dr. Eduard Heiman. professor at the New School of Social Research, who spoke to a receptive audience on Religion and Economics. Dr. Ludwig Mieses, recognized leader of the Austrian School, addressed an enthusiastic throng on the subject of The Consumer and Free Trade. ' Dr. Robert Nathan attracted the largest crowd when he spoke on Israeli Economics. ' ' Student lectures were given by President David Scheinfeld ' 51 on Business Cycles and Vice-President Harry Rashbaum ' 51 on Keynesian Economics. Through Dr. Alexander Brody, its faculty adviser, the society received from the Sissleman Foundation of Newark, New Jersey an award which will be given annually to the student sub- mitting the best essay on any subject concerning Israeli Economics. Other officers of the society were Stephen Jaffe ' 52, secretary; and Benjamin Migdal ' 51, treasurer. At the beginning of the fall semester the following officers were elected to the Society. Norman Twersky, former Vice-president, was chosen President. Aaron Weitz Vice-president, and Stanley Seigel Secretary. This was really a banner year for the Society. Several trips were made to various colleges during the course of the season, beginning with a visit to the University of Montreal the weekend of Decem- ber 28-.30. The final sojourn, to Beaver College in Jenkinstown, Pa., is scheduled to take place early in April. The Society was fortunate in having several interesting speakers address the members. Dr. A. Margalith delivered an inspiring lecture on The Positive Approach to the World Situation. Dr. A. Litman attracted a large crowd to his address on Prophets and Profits. Dr. E. Rackman, as the third in the series of guest lecturers, spoke on the Israeli Constitution. As a special feature, the Society plans to conclude the season with Norman Thomas, the prominent Socialist candidate for President of the United States, speaking sometime in May. Thanks are due to Dr. A. Margalith. advisor to the I.R.S. and professor of Political Science at the college. International Relations Society Seated ! to r: H. Eichelberg, A. Weitz, Professor Margalith, N. Twersky, M. Ganz. Standing 1 to r: J. Mandelbaum, M. Salman, S. Jaffe, N. Gordon, N. Lamm. ' I ' llis y(;ar llic DciiImIht riiiij cniiiiili-lcd him ' (jf ils irioHl Huciii ' ssliil sciiMiii sine r il- i III r ■ ii I ml idii lis . ' I sIikKmiI function nl .1 . I mlri iIh -| mi slli|. of ihr Vrrrill, ll Sri ic ol lc( llIM-- U.l- pir-ililnl llial U. ' IS llol onl) ol ' illlrll ' l lo lllr (.rtlll.lll l)r|i;irl nicnl lull III till ' I ' liliir vhidiiil lioiU. 1)1. ;illi.in Susskind, of IN.Y.U.. ilrli riril ,i ci inloi maliM- iMlk on lion .iMiNii ' o.Crnii.ili I ' .rr.inir ' l i, 1,1 i l, ' : I ' ml. Iinillo Kisril S|lokr lirloir ;i 1, ' lr ' r rlnuil nil (locllii ' MS il Si ' imlisl : Mini l)i. ' lc ;iii(lri l.iliii.iii Mildrrsscd an allriilivr -al liri iii;i of l!ir Ncirlii ,,ii ' I ' hr DIalcilir of Diaiiialir (iiiill. ' ' Willi IIk ' laiiaiilr oiiidaiH ' i ' of i ' mf. Kalpli Hosiailirig, llic Vcrciii also s|ioii (irrd si lliirl Iticili ' sls. Pretzels, soda and laiidics uni- usnl as cliiiscrs. And al onr allalr. Iicsidrs llir iisiial Mciii . cr lull ihvi llrkni. ' Dr. KommiImm- lliiilird the few sober sUnlnils with a solo of ■■(;iilrii Abend, gut Nachl. mil KOSKiNHKKG bedaciil accompanied li Xamii Ivolhinan and his hand (a (ive-iJiece drum!. Il was really schon wie die Levoiie. The odicers for 1951 were Norman Lohel 51, Pres. : David Mermelstein 52. Vice-pres. ; and Julius Kreitnian 53. Sec y. Le Cercle Francais Seated 1 to r: S. Dayon, M. Goldzweig, G. Rosenthaf. J. Erushalmi, J. Ehrman, E. Jafjubuwitz, H. Gottesman. J. Adelman. Standing I to r: O. Sclionttial, H. Dobrinslcy. M. Heller, N. Dashell, S. Birnbaum. Seated I to r: I. Lubin, J. Kreitman, A. Wcitz. Professor Rosenberg, S. Jaffe. B. Lobel, M. Ganz. Second Row I to r: I. Shannon, A. Jacobowitz. J. Weiss, D. Hadas. D. Bonchik, M. Gordon. J. Holstein. Third Row I to r: R. Gross. K. Bender. J. Krumbien, S. Agress, S. Tannin, P. Finkelstcin. N. Gordon. Deutscher Verein The olTicers of the Cercle for the .school year were Joseph Erushalmy. President: Gil Rosenthal. Vice-president: and Jack Adelman. .Secretary. I nder the leadership of its officers and the overall supervision of Prof. Sidney Braun. the club in- augurated a program of varied cultural activities. As part of its commemoration of the KJOth anniversary of the death of the French novelist Honore de Balzac, the Cercle presented the dis- tinguished French scholar Prof. Jean .Albert Bede of Columbia University who lectured on Balzac in America: Monster or Hero? In order to foster the use of the French vernacular among its members, the club initiated a conversational group, which met once a week, and also held several showings of French films. This year also saw the preparation of the 10th anniversary issue of Le Flambeau. ' the annual French publication, under the editorship of Jules Ehrman. The guest lecturers this year included: Prof. Konrad Bieber of ale on Les . nnes Invisibles dealing with die French Resistance movement and its literature: Prof. Vi illiam Milwitzky on Judaeo- Provencal and Judaeo-French : Prof. Jacques Giucharnaud of ale: and Dr. Vi alter ISallin of the .L . Fine .Arts Dept. on French Music of the 17th-19th Centuries. Le Cercle Francais wishes to express its thanks to Prof. Braun for his invaluable aid and inspira- tion to the club. 89 Eranos. the classical societx of eshiva College, ranged far and wide this year and came up with an interesting and diverse program. The fall semester featured a lecture-demonstration by Prof. Chernowitz on Modern Art and a talk by Philip Finkelstein. Pres. of Eranos. on Classical Music. Prof. Chernowitz. with the use of slides, showed the classical elements in modern painting, architecture and sculptu re. Mr. Finkelstein defined the term classical music and found it to be used with four distinct meanings. Of these the most acceptable were a particular musical epoch, namely the age of Mozart ' and ' a certain spirit of finality and order which characterizes the classical spirit. During the spring term Eranos sponsored a lecture by Prof. Hadas of Columbia on Religious Aspects of Greek Drama. With the cooperation of the entire language department and the phi- losophy classes the lecture was enjoyed by more than half of the student body. Other events in the spring included a comparison of Indo-European and Hebrew Semantology by Dr. Alexander Freed and a talk on Development of Greek Religious Thought. given bv Perrv London. Seated 1 to r: J. Lipshitz, S. Singer, P. Finkelstein, S. April, D. Newman. Standing 1 to r: R. Gross, W. Solomon. Eranos Math Club Seated I to r: S. Tennenb erg, M. Forman, A. Lieberman, Mr. Block, Professor Ginsburg, Dr. Lisman, G. Solomon, S. Levy, J. Hertzberg. Second Row 1 to r: B. Bramson, A. Greenberg, B. Ginsburg, B. Mond, G. Marcus, M. Mostofsky, N. Katz. Third Row I to r: W. Wealcatch, J. Krumbien, N. Mayerfeld, L. Cooper. The Yeshiva College Math Club, otherwise known as Mu Alpha Theta, was founded early in 1948 by members of the class of ' 50 under the guidance of Dr. Jekuthiel Ginsburg. head of the Math Department. With the departure of half of last year ' s club for points west the prospects looked black. However under the presidency of Gustave Solomon ' 51 and the surviving members of the former nucleus, the Math Club again became the most active extra-curricular function in Yeshiva. In addition to weekly presentations by the students themselves on topics in mathematics, the Cheshbonoim also invited guest lecturers from amon g the alumni. The lectures this year covered a wide variety of topics designed to give the students an insight into phases of mathematics not offered now in the college curriculum. The general topic of this school year was Modern Algebra with interspersed lecturing on topology, vector analysis, probability. cryptology, and cybernetics. Mu Alpha Theta participated in many basic functions and sponsored four highly successful socials. This year witnessed the long-awaited publication of the Math Club Journal, edited by Wm. Frank, Seymour Haber, and Azriel Rosenfeld ' 50, and containing several articles by members of this year ' s club. The edition was graciously received and elicited letters of praise from numerous colleges. Gus Solomon ' 51 was jjresident during the fall term and was succeeded by Irwin Wenger ' 51. Aaron Lieberman ' 51 was Vice-president and Simon Hellerstein ' 52 was Secretary. 90 Seated I to r: M. Kranzler, S. Auster, Dr. M. Atlas, A. Mann, J. Adler. Standing I to r: A. Schneir, R. Starlshevsky, A. Nissenbaum, J. Miller. Biology Club A« a r rHiilt of lh( ' cxpannion of pn;-m«li :al fai ililictt at Ycttliiva thi? nuinl T of itlmlrriU join- ing ' lh(! rarikw of ihr i o tii;ly iurn-antui -oniii«J ;raMy. Ill ' - primary furulion of thrr xor ' n-ty wan lo ar- i|Uiiinl Kluili-iilh luU-ntnliul in the fiirl l of mi- lirin ttilli the rc(|uircriii iilH of adtninxirtn to the ajiprovcd iiirilirtal Hclioolx u:n: in thir I .S. and aliroarl. Sufi- gifKlioiis wfTc ina(l - a« lo what courwtt should U takr n. Wi- had  ' V Tal fiucst j-pi-akfrx during; lh«! yar imhidinfr, ainon); olhrTf . I) ran l aacH and }r. rharlcH Fri(rdf!ood. I)«;an Ihaacs «rmpha(iiz ! J the proldcnm facinfj a pr ;-in«;d ntudcnt and he gave irrjii- , ' ilual)lc iiifortnalion as lo how thr-n .- could III- nilijicd. Dr. (Jharlcs Vrii-Afiinx]. hi-ad of Can«; ;r lic-M.-ar h at Mairnonidcs lloHpital. Iwrturcd on ■|,ale.st Devfdopincnt. ' in Cancer Hew rrh. He stressed the importance of chemif;al agents in the comhat of cancer. The lecture was attended hy a lar e number of non-pre-med students and it proved (•(|ually interesting to them. The ofTicers of the Pre-Med Society were: Arthur .Schneier President, and Dave Rosenhan Secretar . During this, the second year of its reorgani- zation, the Biology Club continued with the work it had begun last year and expanded its field even further. Over the summer, the depleted stock of ham- sters was replenished and the colony built up to a body of one hundred animals. Work was con- tinued on the project of artificial insemination, begun last year, and several attempts were actually carried out. but the odd hours demanded by this type of experiment soon forced it to be tempo- rarily shelved. Attempts were made to culture ova in vitro, but the small size of t he eggs (about the size of a pinpoint) made it difficult. Several other projects are now under consideration and a search is being made in the literature for informa- tion on tiiese topics. Resides expanding its animal stock to include rabbits as well as hamsters, the club branched out into another field: general interest lectures. The first of these was sponsored by the Biology Club and Pre-Medical Society at which Dr. Charles Friedgood spoke about his recent work on cancer and how it is affected by ACTH. the adrenocortical hormone. It was through the kindness of Dr. Fried- good that the rabbits were added to our colony. Officers of the club were Simon Auster. presi- dent. Moses Kranzler. vice-president, and Aaron Mann, secretary. Pre-Med Society Seated I to r: A. Mann, M. Kranzler, A. Schnier. J. Adler. S. Bahn. Standing 1 to r: S. Miller, R. Starishevsky. S. Auster, B. Sohn. 91 Head rdham Oeod LUC On Finals a he (I ommcntator Olli.ial I ...l.-.-.a.l.Ktu- .« l.a|Mr .,1 .• liiva (.. ll.i: - L CoiifereiK S£ NCV. ' YORK . Arfa Discusses , isli Itlea of Time II liVir M i i J Of Jrtrish.  ettrrn, II y|Mu -=nl At Second Firfs ' ulf ' .h ' ot h nuk op v •ni W«lrcn p uJ« ophtf« thedral Five Bows] inberg Rated ' All I N • .. ' ' •an. . ,„||| ,,,,„ s,-,, ,. J- I ,. ■ .M ; luled Bv eshi ,:ir„- ; s i VSff .UMtu Sti.tr A KM.tW-n o( CcU ' «« hold oi. I AvtomrJui , |R!-,i ' i(imi •iti ip««iMlt- ' ntMl wet iTprewntHl m A(n -nr t ' ' •■ ■! nnd SUnlcy Prifl ' !!■ thr Sr.-,.nrt ' ' ' C jj _ [ears ' T ' Tlu Eauo.- ' itmai ■ - ' T ITJIi ' • ...V i.. v « ' ■ ' ' t ' 1 !,Tv,tT5l Ml. ' . ! ' .rtToi l « l - ' ■ ' ' ; ' rf -commlf. I ,=f ;:;Tali ioil] ti Yr W .1 V. ( Y.w,,.lv An,,l,r.nwrr..i:n.m .|«.u.- A L « 1 i ' ji U N. Dclega roi. Weiss Nam J e Qiven By Dean Editor Of Hor lJjJIJHHi ' ' ' ' ' --- ' ' ' ' ' SrIwIarUi T. I. A Riets Se .nthVolumeOI- , , ' oniaiii Arttch- •« ' ■ : Radio Program Inuitd ic Make A Basic CIt d School Charte inted to Yeshivc ' ' ' ' ' ' ■ ' ■ ' .; „ Srhnol l„ Igs2 Z Asst. Secretar Em isatConventioi I O Jcrun Fur Diiiio ril Ptmtrt:  , louw lAimnr Addreaet (iathrrii To List Of Correctio Of AiiicnlliHcnl-- ' Earli.r K.J..1,. 1„ Sliiilenl Affairs Ml ' - ' Uud Dean i{,. „„K.s Isaa-s ' In Affair Official Under VOLUME XXXIII (Eommentator gradual IN wspap(T of Yc shiva ( ollc j r NEW YORK CITY, TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1951 HAPPY GRADUATION No. 6 Under llic cMlil(Mslii|) of Lciiri S. Levy, tlio ( ' oiiiiiiciilalcii-. (illicial iiiidriffiadualc newspaper of ( ' sliixa (i(ill(-i;( ' . Intnc l in anollier year of lliurou li news coverage al eshiva and weathered what was possibly the worst crisis in its history. Ill addition to the student news the newspaper followed all University affairs in close detail. Shortly after school began in October Com- mentator found itself in a desperate manpower crisis. The limited staff available could not carry the full burden of work required for the continued publication of the paper. An appeal issued shortly thereafter to the student body and a reorganization of the existing staffs temporarily staved off the closing of the paper. With the expansion of the University, Com- mentator gradually enlarged its field of coverage to include news of the various activities of the University. Articles were devoted to Talpioth, Scripta Mathematica. Horeb, Audio-visual Service Publications, ieshiva University Day. Medical School Charter and countless other non-student activities. At the same time new ' s of student activities was not neglected and. in most cases, given top priority. The editorial column of the Commentator dcvoled itself almost exclusively this year to the expression of student gripes and the discussion of many controversial issues within and without the school. Such matters as, for example, registration, dormitorv conditions, placement services, the Dean s Reception, and Intra-Yeshiva-Student Council were thoroughly dealt with in this column. Among feature articles, which this year were extremely varied, were several in a humorous vein and various Meet the Faculty and ' From the Faculty writeups. including an evaluation of the works of G. B. Shaw and a review of Dr. David Fleisher s recently published book on Godwin by Or. Irving Linn. Both book and drama reviews were frequently presented on the feature page. inrludln;. ' Dr. Brody ' s review of The Jewish WelfuHf IJoarii Survey. The Meet ihe Scnir r ' section presented writeups of every senior, and the I.eltcrs to the Editor column, reflecting glud fnt npiniiiM. was used to good advantage by the student body. Every member of the sports stafi did yeoman ' s erv ice this year by putting out an admirable sports ])a ' c without a regular sports editor. The sports column regularly handled by the sports editor was this year written by various meml ers of the staff. Full coverage was given to all branches of sports activity, with basketball as usual taking the lime- light. The reorganization of the newspaper staff rrcali l the new position of associate editor, which was filled by David Mogilner. and in addition to the regular news, feature, and sports staff, an editorial staff was formed. The remaining positions of the governing board were handled by Pynchas Brener, managing editor. Alfred Solomon, news editor, and Isaac Moseson. business manaser. Seated I to r: I. Lubin. I. Witty. J. Krumbein. D. Rosenhan. S. Bahn. D. Miller. J. Mann. Standing I to i: M. Heller. N. Toporowsky. H. Gottesman. S. Rudoff. H. Shapiro. W. Wealcatch. 9.3 Debating Society In a few years the Debating Society has grown from a group of tongue-happy individuals participating in local debates, to an organized body of varsity debaters who represent Yeshiva as far Soiitli as Hallimore and Washington, and as far North as Albany and Syracuse. Three tours — to upper i ew York State, to the Washington area, and to the New England States — are sent out annually. Tlie itinerary of these tours includes Johns Hopkins. Annapolis, West Point, Harvard, Syracuse U.. Colgate, Tufts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boston University, Smith College. Howard University, and others. In the metropolitan area eshiva debates all of the major teams: Colundsia, A. .L.. Brooklyn, etc. This year Yeshiva has taken the initiative among N.Y.C. colleges in instituting the Oregon style debate. This more lively style of debating includes a cross- examination of each speaker by his opponent. City College of New York is following suit and supporting Yeshiva in its efforts to popularize this style of debating among the other local colleges and universities. The success of Yeshiva Debating is largely due to the expert guidance of Dr. Fleisher. associate professor of English and adviser to the team. This year ' s governing board includes five members: Nisson Shulman, President; Abraham Eckstein, Secretary; Stanley Siegel and Joseph Erushalmi, managers; Gilbert Rosenthal, coordinating secretary. Other members of the team besides the governing board are Joseph Schultz. Bob Rothman, Perry London. David Rosenhan, Aaron Landes, Bob Rosen, I rwin Shapiro, Jack Schechter. Jack Adleman. R if P H Hr ' ' f M R . JKI B I mg ' ' Hf i l fi Km lf M ■ KLl p] Seated I to r: I. Shapiro, N. Shulman, A. Landes, M. Brener. Standing I to r: J. Schecter, R. Rozen. 94 Tllc lOr.O.f)! CIlcSHlnni (■(Mll|.li ' lr,| one nf llicir iiHisI siid ' cssliil sc;i Miris in m Imcil lii-lnr wilh vi( ' lipri( s over Manliiillaii, ' rcrri|)li-. .inil I ' iliicr lull ill llic INiilioiuil liilcr-dollcgijilc !lic s Toiini.i- iiii ' iil. I)a i(l Sriiciiilrlil T) I anil I ' lariicN kominslMTH ' 51, V(;l( ' raii ulais nl ' llir cliaiiiiiiiiii liili liain nf ' 4}!- ' 49, se!rv(!(l as co-caiilaiiis. ' lofjiiliii uilh l)a c Sleiiil)C ' ig ' 51 and Uol) Ko .iii 5. ' ) lli( (.iin|insccl a Uuiin wliicli al lull sliciif lli was iiiiliciilalili- in si ' vcn (U)ll( ' f;;ialr iiialclics. csliiva sorrU inisscil llic regular play nf I ' IikI (iainr Srlirinfcld ami Maslcr (if llir Iviiy Kocnigslicrf; during a grcal pnri (il llic srasiiii, lull I ' lrwiii liirnhaum TV. ' t and Moll Millcii TVA were ninsl aide sulislilulcs. (Jiaiil Killer Sleiniierf; fiilli)uing in llie footsleps of sueh ex-Ycshiva greats as pri-scnl United States Chess Champion Samuel Reshevsky, and former collegiate king Marry Yanofsky ' ■¥). was placed on the Nalional Inlercollcgiale All Tournament first team in recognilion of his liril- liant play in that tourney. Sealed I to r: B. Rosen, D. Schienfcld, B. KoenigKberg. A. Silver. Standinn I to r: B. Mond. A. Teicher, S. Birnbaum. Chess Team During this past year, tlie Y eshiva University Choral Group under the capable direction of Emanuel Forman has taken great strides in achiev- ing a prominent position among the extra-curricular activities of the school. Ever since its debut at the Fall Dean ' s Reception it has performed at numer- ous official school functions at the request of the administration. The group also responded to several invitations from outside organizations and were very well received by them. The Choral Group has attempted to include in its repertoire a combination of liturgical music, Israeli folk songs and English classics. The group has amazed all audiences with its ability in singing with an almost professional style when in reality the Inn s have had little or no previous musical training. All their music is taught and sung by ear without the aid of any formal musical know- ledge. With these facts in vie v. the phenomenal success of the group takes on even greater signif- icance. Choral Group Seated I to r: J. Goldman. E. Jackobowitz. M. Green, E. Forman, D. Miller, S. Bahn, I. Kline. Standing 1 to r: D. Pasternak. Y. Naiman. J. Reiner. I. Witty. A. Rosenberg. H. Bernat. 95 ISADORE TENNENBERG MOSES KRANZLER ALFRED ROTH Co-ManaE:ers CO-OP Seated 1 to i: S. Auster, M. Kranzler, G. Marcus, S. Jaffe. Standing 1 to i: S. Tennen- berg, S. Bahn. 96 ' I ' hr policy i)f i-x iannii ti, inaugurated lis th ; Yf Hhiva C.iiWvfst; C(io(M;ralivc Slonrn during; th ; latit year with the merger (if il twn itloriMt, wan con- tinued thix year. A drug counter, halHirdanhery, and a completely new line of jewelry, including all famous make watchcH and watch liarirln. added luster to the «tudent« ' own enterpriw. run und ' -r the supervision of the Student C iuncil. Another feature was the Service to Israel dcparliiicnl which enahled studentj) to exp ' irt all types of goods and commodities directly to Israel. Television and radio sales played a major part in making this past year the most succ  sful in the Co-op ' s short hut illustrious history. The liook store for the first time was ahle to expand its excellent discount to all types of scforim. A great selection of pocket hooks made this division of the Co-op a favorite haunt for students between |)eriods. Both the graduate school STORES and Psychology Clinic were able to make purchases directly through Simon Auster. the Co-op repre- sentative to these two departments. The concert bureau continued its policy of supplying tickets to various Broadway show ' s, radio and television programs, and concerts without any extra charge, to students of all departments of Yeshiva University. The running of the diversified enterprises was headed by Al Roth. Moishe Kranzler and Isa- dore Tennenberg for the first semester. Mr. Roth s graduation in January left the running of the stores in the capable hands of the latter two. The members of the staff were: Heshy Goodman. Calvin Soled. Chenina Kleinman. Morris Stadt- mauer, Sidney Tennenberg. Heshy Shidlovsky. David Mostofsky. Bob Rothman. Gil Rosenthal. Simon Auster. Saul Bahn. Harry Coder. Steve Jaffe, Ruben Starishevsky. 97 Seated I to r: J. Heimowitz, R. Gross, M. Kula. Standing 1 to r : S. April. J. Naimer. Cheering Squad After a lapse of a few years the eshiva College Cheering Squad has again come into existence. This year marked the second year since its reorganization. With their spotless white pants and their blue and white emblems the members of the squad have added color and enthusiasm to the basketball games of Yeshiva. A Hebrew cheer as well as other new cheers were introduced, and the squad ' s repertoire and formations were steadily increased and ex- panded. Lower classmen were encouraged to join tiie squad in order to insure its continuation. Mimeographed sheets containing the various cheers were distributed among the audience at all home games. The squad, led by its co-captains Joe Heim- owitz ' 51 and Reuben Gross ' 51, also included Milton Kula, Joseph Naimer, and Sambo April. The Yeshiva University Physical Education Department offers a well-rounded variety of courses. The aim of these courses is not only to equip students to be better able to meet the demands of the society or community in which they shall live, but also that they may be better prepared as leaders in their community to make definite contributions to the life of that community. The Physical Education Department is dis- tinctive as being one of the few University Depart- ments able to offer a corrective course. Students who for various reasons cannot share or partici- pate in a normal Physical Education program are not disregarded but are registered in this course with the permission or request of the Medical Director. These students are given a carefully developed program of graded activity commen- surate with their disability. The student is carefully observed and supervised at all times during his exercise period. A special check on all severe cases is made with the Medical Director. Rounding out the Physical Education program, and an instrinsic part of it, is our Intramural Program. The aim of this program is to provide activities for all and everyone during their leisure time. Special emphasis is given to activities that can be carried on after graduation from college. Some of the other courses included are Fencing f classes and teams), Swimming (Senior Life Saving, Instructors ' license!. First Aid (Standard and Advanced), and Recreational Leadership, a course which prepares students for club, camp and synagogue center activity. Physical Education Department Seated I to r: Arthur D. Tauber, Fencing Coach; Profes3or Abraham Hurwitz, Director of Physical Education; Hyman S. Wettstein, Athletic Director. Standing I to r: R. P. Jacobs, Weight Lifting Instructor ; B. Ginsburg, First Aid Instructor. 98 Kneeling I to r: N. Toporovsky, M. Epstein, W. Millen, M. Rock, S. Feder, N. Shulman, W. Helmreich, Captain. Standing I to r: A. Tauber, Coach; O. Schontal, F. Klein, J. Reiner, H. Panitch, A. Wales, M. Korn, I. Klein, S. April, S. Seigel. R. Hammer, Mgr. Fencing Team Last year, iy49-50. Prof. Abraham Hurwitz announced the opening season of intercollegiate competition for the Yeshiva University team. The inexperienced duellers successfully defeated Hunter College Veterans and Cooper Union 19-8 and 14-13, respectively, thus ending the season undefeated. Completing its second year 1950-51 in varsity competition the team ' s record was as follows: Brooklyn College 19 Cooper Union 11 Fordham U 11 Farleigh Dickinson N. Y. State Teachers 14 St. Peters College 13 Lost - 2 1. Y.U 8 2. Y.U 16 3. Y.U. . .- 16 4. Y.U. 27 5. Y.U. 13 6. Y.U. . - - 14 Won 4 The three weapon fencing team was captained by Wolf Helmreich. an outstanding and victorious foilsman. who led the team to victory. olf is the only graduating mendier of the squad. The members of the varsity include: Foil — N. Shulman oil. W. Millen 53: Epee— D. Mostofsky 53. S. Feder 53. U. Rock 52: Saber— N. Toporovsky ' 53, M. Epstein 51. E. Tokayer 53. Robert Hammer 53 was varsit manager and he was assisted by D. Levey 53. The fencing team has been coached by Arthur D. Tauber. member of the Health and Phys. Ed. Dept. Mr. Tauber was undefeated National Intercollegiate Fencing Champion four consecutive years, member of the Ail-American team. and a member of the Olympic Squad. ARTHUR TAUBER Coach 99 BASKET The not so mighty Mites suffered thru one of the poorest seasons of past campaigns. Finishing with a mediocre 6 won and 10 lost record the Heighters were generally unimpressive. Most dis- heartening was the fact that Coach Bernie (Red) Sarachek was expected to field a fine, winning club but was unable to do so. This most certainly was not his fault. Even before the first practice BERNARD RED SARACHEK Coach Y.U. 86-Alumni 28 59-St. Francis 82 47-Brooklyn College 64 50-Pace College 61-Panzer (overtime) 63-Upsala 67-Cathedral _ 62-Adelphi 48 64 77 59 54-Bloomfield Teachers College - - 49 46-Fordhani University 64 67-Farleigh-Dickinson 68 56-Cooper Union 62 50-Patterson Teacher ' s College 59 47-N. Y. State Maritime College 41 60-Panzer .— 65 57-Cathedral ____ 55 932-TOTALS 962 STEVE KATZ Athletic Mgr. ARTHUR STEIN Captain of the year serious handicaps were inflicted upon the casaba-men of Y. U. The most influential of these were Hartman ' s decision not to return and the inability of Mayer to reenter. Although the season was a poor and frustrat- ing one, it was at times also a most enjoyable one. Yeshiva rooters have a legitimate complaint when they say that they do not relish seeing their team 100 BALL l()8( ' , Iiul llicy truly ciiniiol .suy llial tlic jiiiiiiy llirills witnessed al ihc. ril)l)(;(l court will not linger in memory long after tli(! defeats are forgott ' ii. Who can forget that spurt exhibited by the- Miles when, trailing hy 20 |)oiiits and five ininiilcs lefl lo play at Farleigh-Dickiiison. llic spnad was narrowed to on( ))oinl as time ran oul uhllr Artie Stein attem|)ted that last futile lap. Or at Fordham when; the score stood 17 lo before the first Yeshiva point and the Miles went on from there lo outjjlay the strong Fordham Ram. A win over Cathedral is always appreciated hy any YU fan Averaging close lo 20 point pi f i .nl ft. ihin strong hoy from the Uronx has been able lo w:or«: almost al will. Often he was guarded by three opposing players but he never failed to give Win all. Arlie and Marv were the big guntt; around iliciri I 111- icam was molded. Iiuiien Davidman was another whow value to the team cannot lie underestimated. Averaging 10 points per game Hube was outstanding as be re|)catedly recovered the ball from the backboards after failing shots. .Nate Krieger, another stalwart, was most noticeable with his new setshot and fine Standing I to r: Bernie Red Saracheck. Coach; C. Edelstein, Ass ' t. Coacti: H. Dry- spiel, M. Narrowe, L. Staiman, N. Krieger, A. Stein, H. Kramer. R. Davidman. M. Hershkowitz, E. Levine, I. Forman, S. Katz, Athletic Mgr. Crouching: E. Jaku- buwitz, Mgr. and these were not lacking. For three long years Yeshi a had more or less a one-man team, big six foot six Arthur Stein. Artie was still around this year dropping points thru the hoop at an appreciable rate but he has been eclipsed by one of the best ever to put on the blue and white, husky six foot one Marvin Hershkowitz. Marx was an All-City star at DeWitt Clinton High School and a star on the CCNY Freshman team before transferring to Yeshiva. He was always expected to become the star of the team but he has outdone even the fondest hopes. defensive work. The fifth starting position was usually occupied by neophite Elihu Levine. The kid is still a hit inexperienced but much is to be expected in the future. Hillel Drvspiel. a senior, finally reached his peak toward the end of the season and was one of the sparkplugs of the club. Another standout Freshman was Morton Narrow who scored over 60 points in his first season. He is and will be one of the most spirited dribblers. Larry Staiman and Abraham Kramer. t wo fresh- men, rounded out the squad. Larry was especially impressive witli rebounding worL 101 THE YESHIVA COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EXTENDS ITS HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 20+h Graduating Class OF Yeshiva College Elihu Kasten, President Louis Bernstein, Vice President A. Irving Schnipper, Corr. Sec ' y Irving Weisel, Recording Secretary Joshua Matz, Treasurer EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Serson Appel Sam Kenner Hyman Aranoff Gilbert Klaperman Abrahann Avrech Milton Kramer Aaron Baer Bernard Lander Menachem Bloch A. Leo Levin Aaron Chomsky Martin Lilker Joseph Ellenberg Hy Muss Moses Feurstein Stanley Rudoff Abe Friedman A. I. Schwartzman Sershon Gelgon Morris Silverman Jacob Goldman Israel Slochowsky Murray Gross Abraham Walker Jacob hiartstein Jack Walker Sam Hartstein Jerome Wllllg Joe Karaslck hierman Zwillenberg 1 I CONGRATULATIONS TO ! AARON ARKY LANDES MOTHER and DAD Uncle CHAIM and Aunt SARAH Morris and Naomi Kit+y Nina Anna Sharon Tillie Leo and Nehama Aun+ SYLVIA Marilyn and Amazia Aunt TILLIE Leora Ralph AUNT IDA Miriam Lenny Lillian Eddie Gettel UNCLE HARRY and AUNT NEHIE | Mildrc ;d, Sandra, Larry Marilyn and Dave Yeshlva University Women ' s Organization Bronx and Washington Heights Division MRS. LILLIE KADEN President Torah V ' Avodah Greetings to C H A V E R YITZCHAK (ARTHUR) SPEAR FROM HIS Chaverim OF THE Hapoel Hannizrachi CONGRATULATIONS TO IRA FROM HIS PARENTS AND SISTER Bressler ' s Kosher Delicatessen 1446 ST. NICHOLAS AVENUE MR. MRS. JEROME FAIT FAMILY C. NELSON MINTZ WORCESTER, MASS. LO. 8-3032 Stern ' s Strictly Kosher Caterers Under Supervision of Rabbi J. Weiss 526 WEST 178th STREET New York 33 SE. 6-2999 KERNE-DERGE EXCLUSIVE FURS 4621 — I6th AVENUE , Brooklyn 4. N. Y. COMPLIMENTS OF JACK VALT Manager, John Hancock Insurance, Inc. 30 MACON STREET Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. Mrs. Herman E. Wealcatch Family CONGRATULATIONS TO DAVE STAVSKY MILLER ' S KOSHER CHEESE COMPLIMENTS OF LEON O H L COMPLIMENTS OF MR. MRS. LOUIS MUSS FAMILY COMPLIMENTS OF S. DAVIDOWITZ SONS 88 DELANCEY STREET COMPLIMENTS MR. MRS. ISAAC MUSS Yeshiva University Women ' s Organization Manhattan Division MRS. ABRAHAM WOUK President i ! Promenade Dairy Restaurant 846 SEVENTH AVENUE Between 54th 55th Streets COMPLIMENTS OF Dr. Mrs. W. Herzig Family COMPLIMENTS OF Mr. Mrs. Harry Gray BALTIMORE. ML. ZEITLIN ' S PHARMACY 4200 BROADWAY WA. 3-6193 Cor. 178th Street COMPLIMENTS OF MR. MRS. W. REISS DAVID JILL STUHMER BAKING COMPANY COMPLIMENTS OF Mr. Mrs. Louis Wealcatch Sons COMPLIMENTS OF MR. MRS. JOSEPH COOPER FAMILY CONGRATULATIONS TO SAUL WISCHNITZER FROM HIS FRIENDS SPEAR FURS i5 EAST 52ra STREET RABBI MRS. JAMES 1. GORDON AND BEZALEL PORTLAND, OREGON COMPL ' MEN S MR. MRS. ISAAC BURACK WORCESTER. MASS. 1 1 1 COMPLIMENTS COMPLIMENTS MR. MRS. FREDMAN BROTHERS DAVID MUSS Joshua and Helene PEORIA, ILLINOIS SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS NEvins 8-3576-3577 STANDARD SUPPLY COMPLIMENTS TIRE CORP. Wholesale Distributors Tires, Tubes, Batteries, Motor Oils, RABBI MRS. Radios, Television, Accessories H. M. HERTZBERG 1224-6-34 BEDFORD AVENUE BALTIMORE, MARYLAND Brooklyn, N. Y. 1 COMPLIMENTS 1 1 MR. MRS. CHARLES J. MUSS JERRY AND ADELE Yeshiva University Women ' s Organization A. COHEN SONS CORP. Brooklyn Division 27 WEST 23rd STREET New York 10. N. Y. MRS. JOSEPH S. GREENBERG President i 1 LUCAS L LORENZ, Inc. MACHINERY FOR PROVISIONS Grinding - Repairing - Parts Supplies James Smith, Sales Manager 80 GERRY STREET Brooklyn 6, N. Y. COMPLIMENTS MR. MRS. SIMON STADTMAUER COMPLIMENTS OF A FRIEND COMPLIMENTS OF M. LEO STORCH BALTIMORE, MD. COMPLIMENTS OF Harry Braunstein Specialty Pants Co. 1140 BROADWAY, N. Y. C. Joe ' s Kosher Meat, Poultry Delicatessen 229 W. lOOth STREET, N. Y. COMPLIMENTS OF RABBI SIMON NOVECK M. BRAVERMAN SONS COMFORT IN SMART FOOTWEAR 1380 Third Avenue, N. Y. Bet. 78th 79th Sts. THE FINEST WESTERNS REGENT THEATER 1215 FULTON ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y. Mr. Mrs. Sol Horowitz and Family WORCESTER, MASS. RABBI MRS. HYMAN MUSS AND FAMILY COMPLIMENTS OF Max Braunstein Specialty Pants Co. 1140 BROADWAY, N. Y. C. COMPLIMENTS OF MRS. ROSE ROSENSTADT BALTIMORE, MD. COMPLIMENTS OF Mr. Mrs. Jacob H. Rashbaum and Fannily BALTIMORE, MD. KOSHER WINE PRODUCED AND QOHIED BT MONAfiCM WINt CO, INC. BROOKLYN 32. H t, - TU : SI-tinB 6.3340 COMPLIMENTS OF SCRIPTA MATHEMATICA RABBI MRS. MEYER HELLER SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. COMPUMENTS OF MR. MRS. DAVID FELDMAN Boro Park Tinsmiths Roofers 941 McDonald avenue, Brooklyn Elchler Bros. Electrical Appliances b7 ELLiPILit.E SIHEET, N. Y. B. MANISCHEWITZ COMPANY FARMFOOD RESTAURANTS 142 W. 49th ST.. EAST OF 7th AVENUE 104 W. 40th ST., EAST OF BROADWAY COMPLlrvlENT ' ; OF i ISRAEL KATZ j WORCESTER. MASS. j 1 SAUL WISCHNITZER UPON HIS GRADUATION CONGRATULATIONS TO Reuben Gross on His Graduation COMPLIMENTS Best Wishes fo Your CO-OP STORE MANAGERS Moses Kranzler Isadora Tennenberg STACY, Inc. PATERSON, N. J. MUrray Hill 2-9094 RAPPOPORT STUDIOS OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS CLASS OF 1951 485 FIFTH AVENUE New York, N. Y. COMPLIMENTS MR. MRS. ALEXANDER MUSS AND FAMILY COMPLIMENTS OF BARTON ' S BONBONNIERE FAMOUS FOR CONTINENTAL CHOCOLATES 40 Stores Conveniently Located Throughout Greater New York and Newark, N. J. CLOSED ON THE SABBATH AND ALL JEWISH HOLIDAYS CONGRATULATIONS TO IRWIN WENGER Uncle Meyer Uncle Harry Aunt Rose LISMORE HOSIERY COMPANY WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS 334 GRAND STREET New York City BOB PASTERNAK, Inc. PLUMBING AND HEATING 1524— 39th STREET Brooklyn, N. Y. COMPLIMENTS OF DEIGES AND CLUST JOSEPH ZELLER WOOLENS 1 133 BROADWAY New York City SCHREIBER ' S RESTAURANT STRICTLY KOSHER 242 WEST 76th STREET CARL GLASER MEN ' S CLOTHING NON-SHATNES 186 FIFTH AVENUE New York City COMPLIMENTS OF MR. MRS. HARRY TURKISH FAMILY COMPLIMENTS OF ADLER ' S PHARMACY COMPLIMENTS OF MR. AND MRS. ABRAHAM LIGHTER MR. MRS. JACOB TEICHER BERNIE SARACHECK LOU EISENSTEIN CIRCLE ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT 865 FRANKLIN AVENUE NEvins 8-2548 Brooklyn, N. Y. COMPLIMENTS OF MR. MRS. LOUIS BOBROW FAMILY IN HONOR OF MYSELF COMPLIMENTS OF MORRIS BURACK FAMILY WORCESTER. MASS. Dickens 6-5542 Since 1921 REIFMAN ' S ZION BAKERY A Complete Line of STRICTLY KOSHER BAKING 428 SARATOGA AVE. Brooklyn, N. Y. COMPLIMENTS OF MR. MRS. H. MARKOFSKY CONGRATULATIONS [O NORMAN TWERSKY Mrs. Zelda Twersky Grand Rabbi D. M. Twersky MR. MRS. MORRIS GABAY FAMILY MR. BERNARD MOHILL WATERBURY, CONN. ISRAEL MANSION CATERERS ic ' 3 UN -: 6506— I7th AVENUE GE. 6-9332 Brooklyn, N. Y. CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR SON AND BROTHER DAVID MR. MRS. H. STAVSKY RABBI MRS. A. ATKIN CANTOR MRS. S. WAHRSAGER MR. MRS. M. STAVSKY MR. MRS. E. STAVSKY BEST WISHES TO AARON J. MANN BRIDGEPORT CITY BEEF CO.— CONti. SUNRISE MERRICK TRADING CO. HOME APPLIANCES MODERN FURNITURE WHERE THE SUNRISE MEETS THE MERRICK Rockville Center. N. Y. J. SHINE ROSENBAUM CO. BRIDGEPOPT CO ' . ' . IN HONOR OF AARON J. MANN ON HIS GRADUATION CONGRATULATIONS TO AARON J. MANN RABITZ BROTHERS POULTRY BRIDGEPORT, CONN. CONGRATULATIONS TO AARON WEITZ FROM HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS HARRY BOORKY WORCESTER, MASS. MAZEL TOV TO AARON J. MAN.xJ MR. MRS. 1. J. SHEIMAN BRIDGEPORT, CONN. CONGRATULATIONS TO REUBEN GROSS UPON HIS GRADUATION COMPLIMENTS OF BEST FORM FOUNDATIONS, Inc. Printed by The Comet Press, Inc., 200 Varick St., New York 14, N. Y.