Henry Morgenthau, Jr., general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, and Prof. Selman A. Waksman, discoverer of streptomycin, today received honorary degrees of Doctor of Humane Letters and Doctor of Laws, respectively, at the annual commencement exercises of yeshiva University. At the same time, 82graduates were awarded degrees and diplomas by Dr. Samuel Belkin, president of Yeshiva.
Mr. Morgenthau told the several hundred guests: “While Hitler was in power, there were many Jews in American who realized, perhaps for the first time, the meaning of their Jewishness and their link to other Jews. But I do not speak here of Jewishness as a negative reaction, but as a positive force. In my view, the Jew who is true to his faith and to his people will be true to American. The Jew who feels secure in his faith has pains and self-respect and dignity as an American. The Jew who hastens to disavow his follow-Jews, by direction or indirection, cannot be a full American in the sense that we expect American to be forthright, upstanding and honorable.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
