Plans for Establishment of Jewish University Announced in Chicago

Plans for the launching of a Jewish University of America, the first educational institution of its kind west of New York, were announced in Chicago in a joint statement by Dr. Oscar Z. Fasman, president of the Hebrew Theological College and the new university, and Max Bressler, chairman of the Hebrew Theological College Building Fund Campaign.

The new university will be housed in the campus now under construction on a 16-acre tract in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, with the first building ready for occupancy immediately after Passover, Rabbi Fasman said. “The Hebrew Theological College will remain the divinity school of the new university, and will continue the progress it has made in the last 36 years as the outstanding institution of its kind in the United States, “he declared.

Mr. Bressler outlined plans for the new university which will include not only a regular liberal arts college but a Hebrew liberal arts college which will offer degrees in Hebrew Letters and Literature. In addition, he said, there will be the Rose Cohen College for Women, a graduate school in education, a research school in Talmudic law, a teachers’ institute and preparatory academy.

Dr. Fasman, in outlining some of the courses to be taught in the Hebrew section of the liberal arts college, emphasized that “school administration, pedagogy, Hebrew philosophy and literature” would be among the subjects taught. The general liberal arts school will offer standard subjects and degrees in arts, sciences and education. Graduate work in education, leading to Masters’ and Doctors’ degrees, is included in the program of the new university.