A donation of $100,000 to the Hebrew University at Jerusalem was given yesterday by Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, according to an announcement yesterday by Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, president of the American Friends of the Hebrew University. The gift will be known as the Jacob H. and Therese are Schiff Fund and will be used to “strengthen the existing departments of the University by engaging outstanding teachers or assisting worthy needy students.”
The fund can be used to give immediate aid to Jewish professors and students in Germany who will be eager to continue studies at the Hebrew University, Mrs. Warburg announced.
Mrs. Warburg’s gift was made public in a letter to Dr. Rosenbach, which follows:
“It has been in my mind for some time to link my parents’ names with the Hebrew University at Jerusalem and I have decided to set aside $100,000 to create the Jacob H. and Therese Schiff Fund, the capital of which is to be expended over a period of ten years to further the purposes of the University either by strengthening existing departments by engaging outstanding teachers or assisting worthy needy students.
“Owing to the persecutions in Germany, there will doubtless be many professors and students who will be eager to avail themselves of the intellectual life that the University can offer and I shall be glad if this fund will be able to give immediate aid to them in their difficult problem of where to begin their frustrated lives over.”
Commenting on Mrs. Warburg’s gift, Dr. Rosenbach said:
“Your noble gift comes at a most critical time and is therefore doubly welcome. The Hebrew University has received inquiries and proposals from any number of distinguished scholars and scientists, in Germany. This is really the time for the Hebrew University to stand out as a great moral and comforting force. This could be done if we were able to declare to the world that the University is opening its doors to some of the distinguished scholars and scientists of German Jewry. Moreover, the number of students from Germany, Poland and other countries who are applying for admission to the University, increases with every mail, and unless the University can expand in accordance with its well worked-out program, we shall not know what to do. After all, we have assumed all of this burden in order that we might be of help to the Jewish people in just such crises.”
Mr. and Mrs. Warburg have made other gifts to the Hebrew University. In 1925 they made a gift of $500,000 to the institution in memory of Moritz and Charlotte Warburg. This fund, which is administered by the New York Community Trust is used for the institute of Jewish studies at the Hebrew University. The Warburg children have established through a capital fund of $10,000 a public health fellowship in the department of Hygiene and Bacteriology.
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