University of Missouri
OUR Menorah Society this year has done at least two things. First, it has definitely held to a program of work; secondly, it has become accredited as representative of the Jewish students to the Jewish students themselves, and even more to the non-Jews. The opposition that some of the students manifested in other years has not been so active, and the Society drew a large proportion of them, sometimes all of them, to its meetings. The non-Jews, especially among the Faculty, have exhibited an actively interested and helpful attitude. In this connection, our thanks are due Prof. J. E. Wrench, of the History department, whose presence at all of our meetings greatly stimulated profitable discussion.
Of the Jewish faculty men, Dr. Henry M. Sheffer, of the Philosophy department, one of the founders of the Harvard Menorah Society, took a particularly active interest in the work, especially in the preparation of our programs. The program for the second semester was on "Typical Hebraic Ideals", as follows:
This program was devised with the idea of creating a definite reaction to Hebraism. So, the papers on Hellenism and Emancipation tried by the contrast of transitional periods to make Hebraic ideals as a whole stand out. The meeting on Reform and Orthodoxy was devoted to an historical analysis of the forces underlying the present situation in Judaism. The papers on Zionism and Assimilation, again, summed up from another angle the characteristics of Hebraic aspiration. And at the two last meetings, present Jewish life and ideals were discussed in terms of their literary and philosophical expression.
Along with these meetings we had several lectures by Dr. H. M. Sheffer, Rabbi A. A. Neuman of the Dropsie College, and Dr. H. M. Kallen of Wisconsin. These meetings were in every case productive of great enthusiasm. Prof. J. E. Wrench addressed a meeting composed in numbers equally of Jews and non-Jews on "The Jew and Christian in the Middle Ages", and we also had an address by Dr. A. T. Olmstead, Professor of Ancient History, on the "Book of Kings".
John Sholtz
University of North Carolina
THE Menorah Society at our University is in a unique position. The number of Jews in North Carolina is the smallest of any in the Southern States. Only in a few places is there any organized Jewish life. The Jewish students come chiefly from such places where the number of Jews is very small. Under these circumstances, it can readily be seen how difficult it was at first to implant the idea of a Jewish society for the purpose of the study of Jewish subjects of which the majority of the students were greatly ignorant. The Society, however, has now passed far beyond the experimental stage. All the Jewish students at North Carolina now show a great deal of interest and enthusiasm in the Menorah work.
From the fact that our Society can look to very little in the way of help from any Jewish community in the State, and that it is far from any Jewish cultural center in the South, it can be perceived how hard it was at first to carry on our work in comparison with our sister Societies located in more favorable localities. A review of our work of the last term will show, however, gratifying results. Our method was similar to that of the class room. A text book on Jewish history was taken as the basis for study, supplemented by additional information from the Jewish Encyclopedia and other books on Judaica from the University Library and the Menorah Library. The value of our study of Jewish history may be educed from the fact that most of us had but the faintest knowledge of our glorious past. When a thorough knowledge of the text was acquired, discussions and studies of different phases and movements in Judaism were taken up. In this work the Menorah Library proved an especially valuable aid.