General Dwight D. Eisenhower was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters today by Dr. Louis Finkelstein, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, at a special convocation which marked the opening of the Seminary’s 62nd academic year.
Former Governor Herbert H. Lehman, chairman of the Seminary’s Board of Overseers, read the citation on behalf of “an institution representing in this latter day the ancient tradition of Israel, her prophets and her sages,” and characterized General Eisenhower as “the personification of many of the virtues which they taught and inculcated .”
The principal address at the convocation was delivered by General David Sarnoff, who declared; “No man could have entered the educational world with a greater knowledge of so many minds, so many peoples, so many arts as has General Eisenhower. To obtain effective cooperation in war, among millions of men and women of diverse training and background, was an achievement unparalleled in history. General Eisenhower’s deeds emphasize, what this Seminary teaches, the virtues which are common to all good men. Let us, therefore, join with him in unifying these social forces, ratter than to dwell upon the minor differences which cause misunderstandings and divide people.”
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