Yeshivah College Opens First Year Course with Thirty-five Students

Scholastic studies in the Yeshiva’ College, the first college of liberal arts and sciences under Jewish auspices which combines Jewish and secular learning, were begun Tuesday, September 25 with the opening of the freshman year, Dr. Bernard Revel, president of the Yeshiva College faculty, announced.

The Yeshiva College, an integral part of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, authorized recently by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York to offer courses leading to degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Sciences, was opened with an enrollment of thirty-five students. For the present, the college is open only to the students of the Yeshiva. The Yeshiva College is and hopes to remain a small college with a body of select students, Dr. Revel explained.

After the completion of the freshman year, an additional course will be added each successive year until the four year course is completed. Instruction is temporarily given in the building of the Jewish Center, 131 West 86th St., New York City, until the new buildings of hte Yeshiva College, now being erected at a cost of two and a half milion dollars at 186th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, are ready for occupancy some time in November.

The Yeshiva College being a part of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Sominary is governed by the Board of Directors of the institution. In addition, an Advisory Board to be known as the Yeshiva College Council, has been formed and is composed of prominent educators and men of affairs, it was stated.

In a statement issued yesterday, Dr. Revel, outlined the policy of the college.

“The Yeshiva College dedicates its energies to the education of a select number of Jewish young men of promise, introducing them to man’s cultural attainments in the fields of art, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. It aims to educate both liberally and Jewishly young men who have already been imbued with the spirit and the sanetity of Judaism and its teachings, who consider the legacy of the culture and the faith of historic Judaism an essential part of the equipment they wish to acquire during their college years. It seeks to inculcate, in the minds and hearts of its students, an abiding consciousness of the high ideals and the spiritual heritage of the Jewish people, and to develop intellect and character through the pursuit of those humanizing studies by which life as a whole may be elevated and enriched, conducted in an environment that is spiritually sympathetic, where the intellectual and the religious influence interact to produce a mind consistent in its outlook, and capable of seeing the essential harmony of life.

“For the present, the College is open only to students of the Yeshiva, who are taking their Jewish studies in the Yeshiva itself, where the method of intensive and independent study encourages intellectual initiative among the students, where the atmosphere of research and individual endeavor–properly guided and advised–inspires the student to sustained effort and progress. The Yeshiva College is, and hopes to remain, a small college, with a body of select students, so that this approach to the tutorial system will also animate the College work, and close personal contact between faculty and students will encourage thought and strengthen character.

“All around the Yeshiva College are the opportunities of the many voiced metropolis of America; its great museums and libraries, its scientific and scholarly associations, its manifold facilities for education, opening before the student the stors of mankind’s cultural accumulation; and its problems and complexities, bringing to te student the sense of high duty, the task of considered preparation of body, mind, and will for life;s vital concerns.

“The Yeshiva College will emphasize the spiritual valules of Judaism, its ideals of life and education, and the Jewish perspective upon learning and culture. An understand of the backgrounds of Judais, its contribution to human progress, will quicken the student’s insight into its liberal studies. The Yeshiva College aims to foster this harmonious growth, in which the bases of modern knowledge and culture in the fields of art, science and service are blended with the bases of Jewish culture, to train young men in the spirit of intelligent and high-minded enthusiasm, of personal integrity, informed and devoted sons in the spirit and faith of Israel, bringing the contribution of Judaism to the scholarship, the culture and the spirit of mankind,” Dr. Revel concluded.