Between the Lines

Jewish students in the United States are now proposing that a Jewish university be established in America, as many Jewish students are finding it difficult to enter general universities throughout the country.

This project, dismissed as it may be at first glance by many, deserves serious consideration. There are numerous Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. There are special universities of oher denominations. Why not also a Jewish university?

Many will be surprised to learn that Professor Einstein has long urged the necessity of establishing a Jewish university in America. Such a university need not be limited to Jewish students only. The faculty as well as of Jews. The doors of the Jewish university should be open to all.

A POPULAR IDEA

The idea of establishing a Jewish university in the United States will no doubt find a wide echo not only among nationalistically inclined Jews but also among those who are entirely Americanized. It is those Americanized Jews who feel it most keenly when they are rejected from certain universities in the country.

The recent advice given by the dean of Wesleyan University to Jewish students not to crowd the fields of medicine and law only proves that it is high time for Jews in America to think about establishing a Jewish university. No such advice would be in place if a Jewish university were in existence.

There are plenty of Jewish professors today who would make up a brilliant faculty for a Jewish university. Many famous professors from other countries could also be attracted to its faculty. A Jewish university in the United States would have every opportunity to become one of the most popular institutions of higher learning in the world.

FINANCIAL POSSIBILITIES

Universities in the United States are conducted chiefly on a business basis. Very few of them are maintained by State funds. Almost all of them are obliged to cover their own budget. Under such circumstances, there is no reason to fear that a Jewish university would be more of a financial burden than the average university in America.

The Jews of the world must have at least one university somewhere. The Hebrew University in Palestine is more of a research school than a university in its proper sense. It lacks the colleges of medicine, law and of all those sciences to which Jewish students are chiefly attracted.

A Jewish university in the United States would include these colleges. It would be a real university. It would serve as a challenge to those countries where Jews are barred from universities. It would solve one of the most difficult problems for European Jewry and would be of assistance to those American Jewish youths who under the present circumstances are not at ease in many of our American universities.