Jewish Institute of Religion Graduates Eight in Third Class

The third annual commencement exercises of the Jewish Institute of Religion took place on Tuesday evening at the Institute. Eight students were graduated with the title of Rabbi. Judge Julian W. Mack, chairman of the Board of Trustees, presided and the address to the graduating class was made by Mr. Jacob Billikopf, Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Philadelphia.

The degree of Doctor of Hebrew Letters, honoris causa, was conferred upon George Alexander Kohut. In conferring the degree, Dr. Wise said: “George Alexander Kohut, the fineness of whose filial piety and the unwearyableness of whose devotion to Jewish causes have enhanced the memory and name of his eminent father, Alexander Kohut, bibliographer and historiographer of distinction, seeker of rare discernment and aptness along the little known byways of Hebraic lore; builder and sustainer of institutions of learning sacred and secular, enricher of Jewish values out of the inexhaustible store of a lifetime dedicated to the loftiest tradition of Jewish life and letters, generous in the furtherance of Jewish scholarship and more than generous and brotherly in the giving of strength and substance to all true disciples and servants, from the greatest to the least, of Juedische Wissenshaft–I hereby admit you to the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Letters.”

Gifts to the institute on the occasion of commencement included $25,000 from Leon Falk of Pittsburgh, $5,000 from I. W. Frank, $5,000 from Maurice Falk, $2,500 from Albert C. Lehman and $1,500 from Sol Rosenbloom for the J. Leonard Levy Professorship Fund.

The first of a series of scholarships established in memory of their son, Robert Popper, was made possible by a gift of $5,000 from Mr. and Mrs. Emil Popper.

Among the members of the graduating class, the following have been invited to serve as Rabbis of congregations: Isadore Breslau of Albany, Atereth Israel, New York; Abraham Albert Martin of Pittsburgh, Pa., Park Avenue Temple, Bridgeport, Conn.; Jacob Philip Rudin of Boston, Free Synagogue, New York; Ephraim Fischoff of New York. Congregation BethIsrael, Hazleton,Pa.; Max Schenk of New York, Woodbine, N. J. The other members of the graduating class will continue their studies abroad: Herbert Bloom in Holland; Abraham Goodman in Palestine; Lawrence Schwartz in Berlin and Palestine.

Judge Mack announced the award of the following prizes, including the Guggenheimer Fellowship, $1250, which went to John Tepfer, Class of 1927, for research and study in Palestine.

Mr. Billikopf in his address declared: “What sort of a Jew will be the Jew of the next generation ? Will he be a fit torch bearer for the generation to follow him? Will he be a worthy citizen of the Republic? The decadence so evident in this generation, due, if you like, to the general jazz spirit following the war, causes many to have misgivings, and, in the words of a distinguished correspondent, that even as that rabbi who, when Jerusalem fell, made secure the future of Israel by establishing a school at Jabna, so must we, who have witnessed the degradation of Jewish values and the contamination of Jewish character, save the next generation and the generations to come, by stimulating those movements and institutions which will give a stronger grip on Jewish values, on Jewish traditions and which will help to make us finer, better Jews.’

“Perhaps in that way will be finally found a way of lessening anti-Semitism because the world cannot continue to hate men and women whose lives are shot through with idealism and an eagerness for service to the cardinal aims of Judaism. A people like the Jews, allied with the liberalizing movements of the world, standing for a juster economic order, opposed to violence in every form, cannot continue to be hated, though it may be misunderstood for a long time to come,” he stated.

“In recent years, serious-minded men have begun to ponder the idea. ‘Americanization’. Is the cultural status of the ordinary boy born in America of Jewish immigrant family really higher than that of his parents? The father has the sagacious wit of the Talmud: the son replies in the cheap repartee of musical comedy. The father calls to memory hundred of proverbs from Bible and Talmud: the son knows the batting average to a T. The father knows Hebrew: the son knows slang. The father has been moved by the profound ideals of Jewish life, by the pathos and romance of Jewish history; the son is a devoted gogetter. Americanization methods have been too negative, they have unconsciously stressed the severing of connections, the breaking of traditions. They have also been too external: they have stressed new clothes, new manners, new languages, rather than character ideals and spirit. Particularly have they failed to take into the reckoning that institution which still holds the keystone position in social life, namely the family. By failing to reckon positively with the family background and ideals, our so-called Americanization efforts have no doubt helped to weaken the Jewish Home.” Mr. Billikopf said.