News Brief

Five years ago,when Yeshiva College began its work in its new buildings on Amsterdam avenue at 186th street,New York, it opened new vista in Jewish education in this land.The only college of liberal arts and science under Jewish auspices in the country, authorized by the State of New York to offer courses leading to the baccalaureate degrees, it brought to its students the opportunity of attending a liberal arts college in an atmosphere where the age-old verities and the fruits of modern Knowledge may be coordinated and compatibly absorbed.Its student body is already drawn from seventeen states and Canada and tests conducted by experts from other istitutions indicate a high level of attainment and a truly scholarly attitude.The faculty consists of scholars chosen without regard to religion,and includes a number of non-Jews.All qualified may enroll as students,but the motivating spirit of the institution is a belief that in the shifting values and conflicting philosphies of the troubled world,in the harmonization of spirit and culture,of faith and knowledge,that is essential for a proper readjustment of man to the conditions of life, the basic Jewish ideals and moral verities support and strength of those who settled and of those who freed this land-are valid and are needed to day.

“Hebraic morta cemented the foundations of American democracy,” said the historian Lecky; and Calvin Coolidage quoted this remark with approval,emphasizing as the srongest force against the disruptive elements of colonial civilization,”this very influence of the Bible in drawing together the feelings and sympathies of the widely scattered communities.”That this basic and binding influence is still the great need of civilization,is the credo of Yeshiva College.

It is the conviction of Yeshiva College that Jewish studies,in the widest connotation,are an integral phase of the humanistic disciplines and that the cultural resources, traditions and heritage of Judaism,is its millennial history,its interweaving with and influence upon general history,are essential for the full understanding of the unfoldment of mankind and man’s history.Yeshiva College aims at the transformation of these aspects and values of Judaism,its teachings concerning God,. man and nature,fused and harmomiously blent with the knowledge of the ages,with the other cuurents of creative reality for the enrichment of the life of the Jewish communities and the advancement of America.

Since the university first grew to be-what the “Yeshiva” had been for Jewish studies for over a millennium-the home of the inquiring spirit,of unfettered study and research,Jewish youth,whenever and wherever permitted,shared enthusiastically in the study and the intellectual advancement offered at these sanctuaries of the spirit, ever endeavoring to add their contribution to the sum total of the knowledge of the age.Most of these institutions,in this land as well, had their origin in religious foundations.It is the hope of Yeshiva College that through its work this great debt of gratitude will come to be in some small measure repaid.