Dr. Abram. Sachar, first provident of Brandeis University, pledged tonight that the now Jewish-sponsored school would follow the ideals of “academic integrity,” and of service established by the late Supreme Court Justice, Louis D. Brandeis, for whom the university is named.
“Brandeis will always strive for the highest standards,” he told a large audience at the Hotel Statler. “Faculty will always be chosen on the basis of capacity and potential creativity. He candidate will ever be judged by his race or his creed or his color. Students will always be chosen by the yardstick of academic record.” The non-sectarian institution, which has a 100-acre hilltop campus in Waltham, will avoid the “bigness” and “vast impersonality of sheer numbers” which Justice Brandeis “dreaded,” Dr. Sachar continued.
George Alpert, president of the University board of trustees, introducing Dr. Sachar, promised that the university trustees and others who have “labored tirelessly and diligently to translate this ideal into reality,” will continue their efforts “to develop a university loyal to the tradition of Brandeis, faithful to his precepts and worthy of his noble ideals.” He quoted Justice Brandeis’ words: “To become great, a university must express the people whom it serves, and must express the people and community at their best. The aim must be high, and the vision broad.
Former Justice Owen J. Roberts, speaking from Philadelphia, declared “It is fitting that Americans of Jewish descent should undertake the foundation and support of a great University whose doors will be open to American youth of whatever ancestry or creed. It is even more fitting that this University should bear the name of Louis Dembitz Brandeis. I know that the work of a University bearing his name would have challenged his interest, not because the University bore his name, but because of what it could do to perpetuate the things which were nearest his heart.”
Dr. Israel Goldstein, spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Jeshurun, New York City, and one of the founders of Brandeis, said that “the need for such an institution of higher learning has grown not less, but more, since Brandeis University was first contemplated. The shortage of college facilities has grown more acute, at the same time that the need of broadening the cultural base of American life has grown more apparent.”
Other speakers included Frank Goldman, national president of B’nai B’rith, who expressed greeting from that organization, and Laurence Curtis, Massachusetts state treasurer, representing Governor Robert F. Bradford and Massachusetts.
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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.
