After the ceremony had been opened by a chant of praise, Dr. Weizmann laid the first foundation-stone of the University on behalf of the Zionist Organization. He was followed by the two Chief Rabbis of Jerusalem and the heads of the United Council, who laid a stone on behalf of the Jerusalem Community. The Mufti then laid a stone, and was followed by the Anglican Bishop. Stones were also laid on behalf of the following: The Zionist Organization, the Jewish Regiment, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the town of Jaffa, the Colonies, Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Teachers, Hebrew Science, Jewish Artisans and Labourers, Isaac Goldberg (whose generosity it was that provided so largely for the purchase of the site), and the Future Generations.
Dr. Weizmann then added his signature to a parchment scroll inscribed with the blessing:[¹]
ברוך אתה יי אלהינו מלך העולם שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה׃
[¹] “Blessed art Thou O! Lord our God, King of the Universe who hast preserved us alive, and sustained us and brought us to (enjoy) this season.”
“Wednesday, the fifteenth day of the fifth month, the month of Menachem-Ab, being in the year Five Thousand six hundred and seventy-eight from the creation of the World, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine from the destruction of our second Temple, and the twenty-first year after the first Zionist Congress called by Dr. Benjamin Zeeb ben Jacob Herzl, the first year of the Declaration of the British Government issued through the Rt. Hon. Arthur James Balfour promising to grant a National Home to the Jewish People in the land of Israel,—the day on which was laid the first stone of the building which shall become the first Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In testimony of which we add our signatures.” The signatures included that of the Sephardi Chief Rabbi Nissim Elyashar, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Zerach Epstein, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Bishop MacInnes, Chief Rabbi Uziel of Jaffa in the name of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, M. Libowitz, one of the last of the heroic band of Bilu, Dr. Thon, Mr. D. Levontin, and some boys and girls in the name of the future generation.
The signed scroll was buried under the first stone.
Dr. Weizmann then delivered an address. He said:—
“We have to-day laid the foundation-stone of the first Jewish University, which is to be erected on this hill, overlooking the city of Jerusalem. Many of us will have had their thoughts cast back to the great historic scenes associated with Jerusalem, scenes that have become part of the heritage of mankind. It is not too fanciful to picture the souls of those who have made our history here with us to-day inspiring us, urging us onwards, to greater and ever greater tasks. Many again will have had their attention riveted on the apparent contrast between to-day’s ceremony and the scenes of warfare within a few miles of us. For only a brief moment we are allowing ourselves to indulge in a mental armistice, and in laying aside all thoughts of strife we try to pierce the veil of war and glance into the future. A week ago we were keeping the Fast of Ab, reminding us that the Temple had been utterly destroyed and the Jewish national political existence extinguished apparently for ever. But throughout the long centuries we, the stiff-necked people, have refused to acknowledge defeat, and ‘Judæa Capta’ is once more on the eve of triumph. Here, out of the misery and the desolation of war, is being created the first germ of a new life. Hitherto we have been content to speak of Reconstruction and Restoration. We know that ravished Belgium, devastated France, Poland and Russia must and will be restored. In this University, however, we have gone beyond Restoration and Reconstruction, we are creating during the period of war something which is to serve as a symbol of a better future. It is fitting that Great Britain, aided by her great Allies, in the midst of tribulation and sorrow, should stand sponsor to this University. Great Britain has understood that it is just because these are times of stress, just because men tend to become lost in the events of the day, that there is a need to overlay these details by this bold appeal to the world’s imagination. Here what seemed but a dream a few years ago is now becoming a reality.
“What is the significance of a Hebrew University—what are going to be its functions, whence will it draw its students, and what languages will it speak? It seems at first sight paradoxical that in a land with so sparse a population, in a land where everything still remains to be done, in a land crying out for such simple things as ploughs, roads, and harbours, we should begin by creating a centre of spiritual and intellectual development. But it is no paradox for those who know the soul of the Jew. It is true that great social and political problems still face us and will demand their solution from us. We Jews know that when the mind is given fullest play, when we have a centre for the development of Jewish consciousness, then coincidently we shall attain the fulfilment of our material needs. In the darkest ages of our existence we found protection and shelter within the walls of our schools and colleges, and in devoted study of Jewish science the tormented Jew found relief and consolation. Amid all the sordid squalor of the Ghetto there stood schools of learning where numbers of young Jews sat at the feet of our Rabbis and teachers. Those schools and colleges served as large reservoirs where there was stored up during the long ages of persecution an intellectual and spiritual energy which on the one hand helped to maintain our national existence, and on the other hand blossomed forth for the benefit of mankind when once the walls of the Ghetto fell. The sages of Babylon and Jerusalem, Maimonides and the Gaon of Wilna, the lens polisher of Amsterdam and Karl Marx, Heinrich Heine and Paul Ehrlich are some of the links in the long, unbroken chain of intellectual development.
“The University, as its name implies, is to teach everything the mind of man embraces. No teaching can be fruitful nowadays unless it is strengthened by a spirit of enquiry and research; and a modern University must not only produce highly trained professional men, but give ample opportunity to those capable and ready to devote themselves to scientific research to do so unhindered and undisturbed. Our University will thus become the home of those hundreds of talented young Jews in whom the thirst for learning and critical enquiry has been engrained by heredity throughout ages, and who in the great multitude of cases are at present compelled to satisfy this their burning need amid un-Jewish, very often unfriendly surroundings.