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Jewish Reform College Students in Cincinnati Mourn Achad Ha’am’s Death

January 20, 1927
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(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The student body of the Hebrew Union College, preparing to enter the Reform rabbinate, adopted a resolution on the death of Achad Ha’am, the late Hebrew philosopher and father of spiritual Zionism, who died recently in Tel Aviv.

The resolution read:

“We stand disconsolate at the parting of the ways to lament the death of the teacher of our generation, Achad Ha’am. Like gleaming torches his thoughts beamed through the beclouded issues of his day enlightening the confused and illuminating the paths of the perplexed. With a spirit too sharp for its clay scabbard he strove to lay the foundations of the culture which was to house the Jewish Soul and enthrone Hebraic ideals among the loyalties of all mankind.

“Urged by the divinity of his ideal he restored the light in the hearts of the distraught sons of his time, united the scattered and recalled those lost through doubt. He revived the dormant spirit of Jewish life in all the farflung corners of the Diaspora. His trenchant intellect kindled the admiration even of those who follow other paths.

“As a faithful guardian he stood at his post three score years and ten. With the sword of spiritual truth he championed his cause against the hostility of assimilationist and nationalist and freed his people from the thralldom of body and soul.

“And now we are his orphans but not bereft of inheritance. The children of his dreams and his visions are our lot. They have found sanctuary in the depths of our being. We the students of the Hebrew Union College are determined that his aspirations shall be woven into the texture of the better world for which we strive. May his memory consecrate our efforts with holiness and nobility.”

Samuel Wohl is president of the student body.

Thirty thousand invitations have been issued to the eleventh annual meeting of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, at Temple Emanu-El, New York, next Sunday afternoon, January 23, at four o’clock.

George W. Wickersham, former attorney general of the United States, will be the principal speaker. Reports will be submitted by Sol M. Stroock, president of the Federation, and Col. H. A. Guinzburg, treasurer. An account will be presented of the support which the Federation gave during 1926 to the ninety-one affiliated institutions. The institutions spent almost $9,000,000 of which about half came directly from the Federation.

Trustees whose terms are about to expire include David A. Ansbacher, Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, Judge William N. Cohen, Dr. Harry G. Friedman, Percy S. Straus, Manny Strauss, Sol M. Stroock and Ludwig Vogelstein.

Dr. Chaim Weizmann will inaugurate the $50,000 drive for the United Palestine Appeal for Western Massachusetts at the Springfild, Mass., Auditorium next Sunday. A reception and banquet will be tendered in his honor. A check for $25,000 will be presented to Dr. Weizmann as the amount already subscribed. Springfield’s drive for $20,000 is under way. Mendel N. Fisher is in charge of the Western Massachusetts headquarters. Nathan Goldstein is Western Massachusetts Chairman. Harry M. Ehrlich heads the Springfield drive.

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