Hebrew U. Plans Student Exchange with U.S. Schools, Schocken Reveals

Salmann Schocken, chairman of the executive council of the Hebrew University, who arrived here Saturday on the Conte di Savoia for his first visit, declared today that he intended to confer with officers of the American Friends of the Hebrew University on plans for the institution, including a system of exchange scholarships with American colleges.

Mr. Schocken said that with many European students prevented by the war from coming to Palestine it was hoped to work out an arrangement with the Hebrew Union College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Jewish Institute of Religion and perhaps also with general universities whereby 75 American students could go to Palestine and the Hebrew University would send its students here.

He emphasized the determination of Hebrew University officials to carry on their work despite the war. The student body has grown to nearly 1,000, he said, and two new faculties medicine and agriculture have been added. Three new buildings are under construction the Rosenbloom Building Housing the Institute of Jewish Studies, the Museum of Jewish Antiquities and a sports arena.

Some 450 of the students are from Poland, Mr. Schocken said. “We accepted the responsibility that Jewish destiny placed upon us. At the time when important centers of Jewish science and culture were being destroyed one by one, the university felt it a duty to open wide its doors to persecuted Jewish men of science and thus turn the young university into one of the largest and most important Jewish scientific institutions in existence.”

Because many Polish and other students have lost their sources of financial support, the university has been obliged to provide housing, food and tuition for them. A special fund has been set up for this purpose.