A tribute to Dr. George Alexander Kohut, Hebrew scholar who died last December, is paid in the current issue of the Yale University Library Gazette by Professor Andrew Keogh, Yale librarian.
“One of the most scholarly members of the American Rabbinate, he furthered the cause of Jewish learning here and abroad by pen and tongue and purse,” Professor Keogh says. “In 1915 he gave Yale a publication fund by which the Yale University Press has been enabled to issue notable texts and researches; and he gave also most of the books in the library of his father, Dr. Alexander Kohut, who died in 1894 after a distinguished career as rabbi and orientalist.
“In memory of Professor Clay, Dr. Kohut contributed a sonnet to the ‘Gazette’ for October, 1930; it is now reprinted with Dr. Kohut himself in mind.”
Dr. Kohut’s sonnet is as follows:
Thou hast attained thy lifelong wish at last :-
Now art thou free to wander and explore
The Streams of Paradise; to quarry ore
From Ophir; reconstruct the storied past
Out of the undeciphered tablets, torn
From clay-beds whence the Amorites were born;
Now canst thou shed new light upon the Book
And bring fresh proof to reinforce thy claim
Anent the Hebrew Scriptures; learn whence came
And whither went the Hittites; where to look
For long-lost races. Conquerors and Kings
Shall shed their sacred cerements to bring
Out of their tombs their tribute offering
And speak again through thee of wondrous things.
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