The importance of popularizing the work of the research student in the field of Jewish scholarship, keen disappointment over the attitude of the German men of science in that country’s year of trial, severe criticism of The Atlantic Monthly for an article in a recent issue where unwarranted accusations are levelled against the Jewish people and a plea for support of higher Jewish learning were the outstanding features of the Founder’s Day Address delivered last night at Dropsie College by Dr. Cyrus Adler, president. Three graduates received the degree of philosophy. Of equal importance with research, Dr. Adler declared, is “the diffusion of knowledge, the propagation of the results of this research among the people in such form as to be readily understood by them.” Scholars, more particularly Jewish scholars, he pointed out, were unprepared for the “new alignment.”
Touching on the subject of racial purity Dr. Adler Said: “The idea that any people has remained homogeneous to an original stock is untrue. Certainly it cannot be claimed of the Jewish people.”
Dr. Adler mentioned his keen disappointment at the attitude of the German scholars to the changes that have come over that country. “Any scientific man in any country,” he declared, “must feel a blush of shame when he considers that in all this madness of the last year, no University in Germany, no faculty in any German University, has had the decency or the courage to speak up for the truth. It has been left to the church which scientific men sometimes look down upon with condescension,” The Atlantic Monthly was severely criticized for the article on “The Stavisky Scandal.” “Ordinarily,” he said, “when the editors of a magazine publish an article over the name of the author they are not responsible for the contents of the article, except possibly in a legal sense, but in this particular case, by reason of the anonymity, they can be held fully responsibility for the contents of the article.”
Dropsie College, Dr. Adler reported, is not as sound as it should be financially. Though originally adequately endowed, the income from these endowments has shrunk about forty per cent., making it extremely difficult to carry on. It may become necessary, he said, to appeal for funds. “I believe,” he said, “that the Dropsie College has served science and has served the Jewish people; it has served this community.”
The following received the degree of doctor of philosophy:
MORTIMER J. COHEN, B.A., (C.C.N.Y.). Rabbi (Jewish Theological Seminary of America), whose thesis was “The Emden-Eibeschutz Controversy.”
ISAAC M. FEIN. University of Vienna, whose thesis was “The Life and Teachings of Levi Zizhak of Berdychev.”
SIDNEY B. HOENIG. B.S. (C.C.N.Y.), Rabbi (Yeshiva), whose thesis was “The Sanhedrin–Its Origin, Development and Composition.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
