Jewish Educators Optimistic on Creative Future of American Jewry

Optimism about a creative future for the American Jewish community was shared by two of the nation’s outstanding Jewish educational leaders at the 36th annual graduation of the Hebrew Teachers College yesterday.

Delivering the featured commencement address on the topic of “Change, Choice and Challenge,” Dr. Abram L. Sachar, president of Brandeis University, declared that the accomplishments of our writers, teachers, schools, community organizations, and statesmen, “match some of the most significant contributions of the Old World.”

Noting the interdependence of American and Israel in assuring a viable and creative future for Jewry, Dr. Sachar urged the graduates to devote their skills and energies to strengthening both nations. “America and Israel must nourish and sustain each other. Then the historic Jewish community takes on wholeness and it can face the future with confidence,” he concluded.

Presiding over the commencement exercises, Philip W. Lown, president of the Hebrw Teachers College and immediate past president of the American Association for Jewish Education, declared that a golden era of Jewish life in America could rise from the labors of the graduates of HTC and other such institutions of high standards and commitment. “We have the resources and the tools at hand,” Mr. Lown noted. “It is the measure in which we will use them boldly, creatively, within a strong climate of commitment and pride in our Jewishness that will determine whether or not we or our children shall live to see that golden age.”

A total of 25 degrees and diplomas were conferred upon members of the graduating class by Dr. Eisig Silberschlag, dean of HTC. Included among the graduates were 15 students who received the Bachelor of Jewish Education degree, seven senior class members who received the Teachers Diploma, and three graduate students who received the Master of Hebrew Literature degree.