Dr. Hugo Bergmann, rector of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, declared at a dinner in his honor tonight that the university is a force for better understanding between Jew and Arab and helps to prevent the cultural level of the Jewish community from being lowered through the strain of pioneering work.
The dinner was given by the American Friends of the Hebrew University at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria. Others on the speakers’ list were Chancellor Harry Woodburn Chase of New York University, Dr. Albert Einstein, Edward M.M. Warburg, Roger W. Straus, Arthur M. Lamport, Dr. Nathan Ratnoff, and Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, president of the Friends, who presided.
Dr. Bergmann, who is visiting this country for six weeks in the interest of the university, said that the fact the university teaches Arabic, promotes Arab culture and does scientific work in the fields of agriculture and health “will create new possibilities for future cooperation between Arabs and Jews.”
Declaring that work on the soil is hard and the Jewish pioneers cannot combine hard physical daily work with a high cultural standard, he warned that “there is a great danger of lowering the cultural level” but added that the existence of the university sets a standard “even for those who do not enjoy the privilege of study at the university.”
Dr. Chase called the institution “a modern university in the best sense of the word” and said “it expresses, on the highest cultural level, the aspirations of a forward looking people.” He added that “it deserves the support and encouragement of those in America and everywhere who are interested in the cause of freedom and the advancement of the people whom it serves.”
The New York Times, in an editorial today on Dr. Bergmann’s arrival here, said that the university has “brought substantial benefit to Arab and Jew alike — and not only practical and material benefits” but cultural. “There, of all places, should be envisaged the peace that the whole world seeks,” the editorial concluded.
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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.
