AS an incentive to original investigation on the part of the students,
several Menorah Societies have been enabled to offer prizes to their
universities for the best essays on Jewish subjects. Thus, at Harvard,
since 1907, through the generosity of Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, of New
York, the Menorah Society has offered an annual prize of $100 for the
best essay written by any undergraduate on some approved Jewish
subject; and similarly, at the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan,
through the generosity of Mr. Julius Rosenwald, of Chicago, the
Menorah Societies are enabled to offer prizes of $100 each to their
Universities upon the same terms. (Menorah Prize Essays will be
printed from time to time in this Journal.) One or two other Societies
have been enabled to offer smaller prizes. All of the Societies are
anxious to be of similar service to their universities, and it is
hoped that the Intercollegiate Menorah Association may be enabled next
year to offer prizes open to the undergraduates of all American
colleges and universities. This should help materially to stimulate
Jewish study among students throughout the country.
Perhaps the most essential requirement for carrying on Jewish study is
an adequate supply of books. Except at the larger institutions, there
has been a notable lack of Jewish books at American colleges and
universities, mainly, no doubt, because Jewish studies as a whole have
been neglected. The Intercollegiate Menorah Association has
fortunately been able to remedy these conditions to some extent at the
institutions where Menorah Societies exist. With the assistance of the
Jewish Publication Society and a number of individuals, the
Association has sent Menorah Libraries of Jewish books to the various
Menorah Societies. These books are for the use not only of Menorah
Societies, but of all the students in their universities. That the
Menorah Libraries have helped the work of the Societies, and have
added appreciably to the library facilities at the various
institutions, is abundantly shown by the gratitude expressed both by
students and authorities.
Yet the work of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association has only
begun. Its field is almost unlimited; and with constantly growing
membership, both of undergraduates and of graduates, with the
increasing encouragement and support from men and women in all parts
of the country, the Association is gathering strength for enterprises
that must prove beneficial not to universities alone, but to the
community in general. Thus, the Menorah Journal is launched this year
in response to a desire not only on the part of the students, but of
men and women throughout the country who have been wanting such a
Review of Jewish life and literature in America. Other literary
enterprises are contemplated for the future. Besides syllabi for the
study groups, pamphlet essays, and similar facilities designed
especially for students, one large scheme in mind may appropriately
be mentioned here as of interest to all the readers of the Journal,
namely, the plan for the Menorah Classics. These are to be the
selected treasures of the literature of the Jewish people, from the
Bible to Bialik, printed in attractively handy form, with translations
and notes designed for the general reader as well as for students. In
this way, it is hoped to place the gems of the great store of Jewish
literature within the reach of all.
V
THE work of the Menorah Societies is not designed to make Jewish
scholars of the members. It is meant to gratify their desire to
understand their heritage, to stimulate them still further to study
that heritage, to help them realize the honor and the responsibility
they share as the heirs and trustees of Jewish tradition. And though
the earnest work of Menorah Societies partakes largely of the spirit
of the class-room and the lecture-hall, the pursuit of Menorah aims
expresses itself incidentally in sociable ways as well. Smokers,
dinners, pageants, literary and dramatic evenings, testify to the
pleasure which the members find in their association together for
Menorah purposes.
Menorah Societies, however, do not assume the character of social
organizations. Menorah Societies are all-inclusive, not exclusive;
they promote democracy, mutual respect, and understanding between
different types of Jewish students who have often in the past retained
toward one another the prejudices of their elders. The Menorah
fellowship expresses and promotes the common sentiment of all students
who have come to appreciate Jewish knowledge and ideals, who accept
their common Jewish heritage and Jewish hopes. In other words, where
in the past snobbery and spinelessness were not lacking among Jewish
students at our universities, there has grown up now a spirit of
democracy and of manly frankness, which has not escaped the
observation of older men, both within and without the universities.
But these qualities in the Jewish students of to-day have merely been
revealed by the Menorah movement. The movement has definite moral
purposes of its own. The Menorah idea embraces not merely the study
but the enhancement of the Jewish heritage. And this requires not
moral enthusiasm alone, but vision and action. To accomplish their
full purposes, the Menorah Societies endeavor to inspire their members
with the will to throw themselves into the heart of Jewish life, to
join hands with other men in the active effort to advance its
interests and solve its problems.
While this participation in Jewish life must be the personal outcome
of Menorah enthusiasm and activity--as indeed has been proven already
among students and graduates--the Menorah organization, as such,
maintains its non-partisan character. A Menorah Society is neither
orthodox nor reform, neither Zionist nor anti-Zionist, but rather an
open forum for presenting and discussing every point of view, a forum
hospitable in true academic spirit to the open-minded pursuit of
truth.