Rutgers University honored three Jewish scholars last night during the inauguration of the school’s new Hebraic Studies Department.
Dr. Salo W. Baron, director of the Center of Israeli and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. Rabbi Julius J. Funk, director of B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation at Rutgers for 20 years, and Rabbi Louis M. Levitsky of Oheb Shalom Congregation of South Orange, an instructor in the humanities at the Newark Colleges, were given Rutgers Awards for outstanding service to the Jewish people and to the State University.
Dr. Baron said that the growth of Hebraic studies in the United States in a few decades had been “startling.” He said that in 1940 a total of 124 American schools of higher learning included Hebrew in their curricula of which 47 were theological seminaries. Ten years later the total number increased to 206 institutions, rising again to 245 in 1957, the last year for which figures are available. These 245 institutions include 61 undergraduate colleges, 72 universities and 112 seminaries, Dr. Baron said.
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