American Committee Reports on Work for Hebrew University

The South African Young Israel Federation will establish one or more scholarships at the Hebrew University, and is now engaged in raising the sum of £300 for this purpose. The Women’s League for Jewish Education, in Milwaukee, Wis., has also established a scholarship for the purpose of assisting students who may want to go to the Hebrew University for further study, states an announcement by the American Advisory Committee of the Hebrew University, of which Felix M. Warburg is chairman.

The Students Organization at the University has requested admission to the Council of the World Federation of Jewish Students as one of its constituent members. The Students Organization has been active in arranging for evening lectures in English and an Esperanto circle has been organized. A. Z. Melamed, one of the students, will give lessons in Esperanto once a week during the next two months.

As part of the extension work planned by the Hebrew University, six lectures, starting Dec. 8, will be given in Haifa in the Hall of the Technicum, Prof. Fodor, Head of the Department of Biochemistry, gave the first lecture, entitled “Old and New in the Milieu of Life.” Professor Julian J. Obermann, now on Sabbatical leave from the Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, will deliver a series of lectures at the Hebrew University on “Religious and Historical Development of Judaism.”

Among the recent contributions received by the Hebrew University Library is a shipment of books containing the bequest of the late Rabbi Louis Grossman. During his lifetime Dr. Goldman collected one of the finest private libraries in America in pedagogy, sociology and ethics. The collection which Dr. Grossman bequeathed to the University library comprises about 5000 books on pedagogy and related subjects. The collection contains almost the entire pedagogical literature in German published during the past thirty years. Through this bequest the pedagogical department of the library is now one of the best equipped.

Emanuel Hertz of New York City has supplemented his former gifts to the Library by a donation of a collection including a set of Greek and Roman Classics in about 200 volumes, files of important English periodicals, and a collection of books on coins. Among the many old books in this collection are included Bacon’s Opera omnia (1665). Raderi, Cchronicon Alexandrium (1625). Tacitus, Opera (1668), Juvenal Satyrae (1658). Included also is the “Historie Universelle Paris,” 1780-91, in 125 volumes.

In connection with the collection of books and periodicals for the English section of the Library, which are to be donated by the English Society of Friends of the Hebrew University, a number of English publishing firms have offered to present copies of new publications bearing on subjects of study and research at the University. The Society of Friends of the Hebrew University in Warsaw has also collected books for the Library. Among its gifts are the manuscripts of unpublished Hebrew poems written in his youth by I. L. Peretz.

Details of the recent finds of the Hebrew University field expedition at Beth Alpha were made public by the American Committee. The southern portion of the synagogue at Beth Alpha was cleared entirely.

A new portion of the mosaic was cleared south of the Zodiac. It revealed the picture of an Ark, flanked by seven-branched candlesticks, lulabhim, ethrogim, lions. On the edge of the roof of the Ark a suspended lamp is to be seen. Near the steps leading up to the Ark are depicted, within a frame of geometric ornaments, clusters of grapes with vine-leaves and branches, quail, chicken, a fish. Two more genii, symbolizing seasons of the year, were discovered. They were characterized by inscriptions. “The Season of Tebeth” (Winter) and “The Season of Tamuz” (Summer). All the pictures are in good state of preservation.