Toward a ‘new Heart’in Jewish Education

Closely linked with the call for a “new deal” the bais, indeed ,of its permanence,is teh urge that recently has been gathring strength,toward a re-emphasis on things of the spirit,toward a “new heart.” It has long been evident, even ot the most friendly crities of American civilization,that the material aspect of our living was often stressed at the expense of the Cultural :that Americans by and large have not found (as they may soon further need) fit uses for their leisure; that the very seats of learning, the sources of cultural enlightenment,have tended to grow into professional and “pre -professionsal”training grounds, preparing our youth to “make a living,”not to live.

The recognition of this miplaced emphasis has of late years given rise to a new assertion of our need for the small liberal arts college, where the things of the spirit will not be lost sight of in the rush to prepare for the struggles of life, and where a background of culture may be provided, so that, whatever his field of later endeavor, the graduate may be equipped with those more general traits of charater,broad human sympathies and understanding, that more than finalcial success determine tha true quality of our citizenry. In the drive of this spiritual need, all the forces, all the creeds, of the land,are united. Its impulsion,undeed, has brought into being the first separate institution that marks the entry of American Jewry into the stream of American Jewry into the stream of American higher education and the flow of culture through our college youth.