=Yale University=
AT a meeting held soon after the college opening, the Yale Menorah
Society inaugurated what bids fair to be a most successful year.
President Arthur T. Hadley addressed the meeting (for the address of
President Hadley see above, page 45), as did also Professor Charles F.
Kent of the Yale School of Religion.
Professor Kent said:--"It is a great pleasure for me to face the work
of the new year with you, and it is a source of congratulation that
the Menorah is no longer an innovation but an established institution
at Yale. It seems a pity that Jews do not inherit Hebrew as a
birthright, but fortunately the study of Hebrew history and ideals
can proceed without this knowledge.
"Men must appropriate old ideas and interpret them into the terms of
modern life and thought, for in the old we find the germ of the new.
It is in Jewish history that we must look for the first true
commonwealth or democracy, where the king was chosen by the people and
where his authority was derived solely from and rested in the people.
This has no ancient parallel, not even in Greece. International peace
was also one of the great fundamental teachings of the prophets of
Israel.
"Religious education is to be traced directly to the Jews,--and this
is one of the great needs of America to-day. Not to the Greeks but to
the prophets do we turn for religious education. Hebrew sages were the
forerunners of the modern religious education movement, for they
devoted their time to developing the moral and spiritual ideals and
character of the individual. And then the great teacher of Nazareth
was a Rabbi, a Jew. The social motif is exceedingly strong throughout
Jewish history and literature. Social justice, social service, and the
universal brotherhood of man are the dominant ideas in the Old
Testament, and they constitute a heritage of priceless value to the
world and to our country to-day.
"All success and joy to you in your work, for the Menorah fills a
large gap in the life of the University."
We hold lecture meetings fortnightly. Among the speakers thus far have
been Professor Richard Gottheil of Columbia University and Mr. Samuel
Strauss of New York. In addition to these regular meetings study
groups have been planned under the direction of Rabbi Louis L. Mann of
the Temple Mishkan Israel of New Haven.
Mr. Norman Winestine who was last spring elected President for this
year has been awarded a fellowship at the Dropsie College of
Philadelphia and has therefore left the University. Mr. Charles Cohen
has been chosen President to take Mr. Winestine's place. R. HORCHOW