THE fifth session of the Convention was a luncheon in the Hotel Gibson, attended by the delegates, university students and graduates in Cincinnati, and members of the Faculties of the University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union College. Prof. I. Leo Sharfman, President of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, was the Toastmaster. Chancellor Hurwitz spoke for five minutes upon the purposes and progress of the Menorah movement. President Abraham J. Feldman of the University of Cincinnati Menorah Society expressed gratification at the honor accorded to his Menorah Society by the Convention and appealed to the graduates and prominent members of the community present for support in the work of the Cincinnati Menorah Society. The other speakers were Dean Joseph E. Harry of the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Moses Barron, Representative from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Louis Grossmann of Hebrew Union College, Dr. Samuel Iglauer, graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Walter M. Shohl, graduate of Harvard University, Dr. Kaufman Kohler, President of Hebrew Union College, Prof. Julian Morgenstern of Hebrew Union College, Dr. H. M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. David Philipson of Hebrew Union College. Following are somewhat abridged reports of the speeches:
Dean J. E. Harry
I DID not know that I was going to be called upon today, or I should certainly have tried to fortify myself, as the old darky in Virginia said when his master sent him down to another part of the plantation to see if the rebels were fortifying the place: "Massa, they am not only fortyfying it; they am fiftyfying it!"
I am glad that our Chancellor here to my right said that the speeches were to be brief. I think that an after-dinner speaker who makes a long speech ought to have about the same punishment that the member of parliament mentioned when he introduced a bill, "The only way to stop suicide is to make it a capital offense, punishable by death."
But I have always tried to avoid redundancy of expression. I would never say a "wealthy plumber," nor a "poor poet," nor for that matter a "poor professor."
| "Vessels of wrath, we pedagogues; |
| Better we were dead, |
| Who, by the wrath of Peleus' son, |
| Must earn our daily bread." |
Nor would I say an "interesting Menorah Association meeting." That they are interesting goes without saying, if we can judge from the one we had last night.
I am exceedingly interested in real culture, and being an American, and knowing, as I do, what the Jews in America can do for the advancement of learning, of knowledge and of the humanities, I am interested in the Menorah movement, which will tend to bring this about; and it is when we reflect upon the war in Europe today, with all its sickening horrors and what that means to culture (we can hardly comprehend it yet), what an obstacle to learning, that we may exclaim with that old bibliophile, Richard de Bury:
"O pacis auctor et amator altissime! dissipa gentes bella volentes quæ super omnes pestilentias libris nocent."
And by "libris" he meant culture.