_Substance of Address before the Yale Menorah Society, October 27,
1915_
MR. Stokes spoke of three reasons why Jewish students of the right
type were welcome to Yale University:
1. _They showed themselves capable of the highest scholarship_; the
large number of prize awards won by Jewish students was evidence of
this. The speaker expressed the hope that some of the Jewish students
would go in for scholarly life careers. With so many Jewish students
of high scholarship it seemed strange that relatively few pursued
graduate studies outside of the various professions.
2. _They made their contribution to the life and thought of a
democratic American university._ A university like Yale is, he said, a
melting pot of democracy. One of its main advantages is that it brings
together Orient and Occident, North and South, Catholic and
Protestant, Christian and Jew, and makes each understand the point of
view of the other.
3. _The presence of Jewish students at the University tends to attract
to Yale gifts in the interest of Semitic studies._ The contribution of
Judaism to religious and ethical ideals was so important that no
university could afford to fail in supplying adequate courses of
Semitic instruction. Several recent gifts to the University in the
interest of Jewish scholarship from prominent Jewish citizens
indicates that they had been impressed with the fair treatment of
Jewish boys at Yale. He spoke with appreciation of a recent gift of a
rabbinic library of several thousand volumes of large value.
Mr. Stokes spoke with much appreciation of the Menorah Society because
of what it was doing in bringing together Jewish students in the
interest of high intellectual and ethical ideals, and hoped that it
would not forget that its mission was not only to interest Jewish
students but also Christian students in Jewish culture.