Jews -- Periodicals; Jews -- United States -- Periodicals
Yet the work of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association has only
begun. Its field is almost unlimited; and with constantly growing
membership, both of undergraduates and of graduates, with the
increasing encouragement and support from men and women in all parts
of the country, the Association is gathering strength for enterprises
that must prove beneficial not to universities alone, but to the
community in general. Thus, the Menorah Journal is launched this year
in response to a desire not only on the part of the students, but of
men and women throughout the country who have been wanting such a
Review of Jewish life and literature in America. Other literary
enterprises are contemplated for the future. Besides syllabi for the
study groups, pamphlet essays, and similar facilities designed
especially for students, one large scheme in mind may appropriately
be mentioned here as of interest to all the readers of the Journal,
namely, the plan for the Menorah Classics. These are to be the
selected treasures of the literature of the Jewish people, from the
Bible to Bialik, printed in attractively handy form, with translations
and notes designed for the general reader as well as for students. In
this way, it is hoped to place the gems of the great store of Jewish
literature within the reach of all.
V
THE work of the Menorah Societies is not designed to make Jewish
scholars of the members. It is meant to gratify their desire to
understand their heritage, to stimulate them still further to study
that heritage, to help them realize the honor and the responsibility
they share as the heirs and trustees of Jewish tradition. And though
the earnest work of Menorah Societies partakes largely of the spirit
of the class-room and the lecture-hall, the pursuit of Menorah aims
expresses itself incidentally in sociable ways as well. Smokers,
dinners, pageants, literary and dramatic evenings, testify to the
pleasure which the members find in their association together for
Menorah purposes.
Menorah Societies, however, do not assume the character of social
organizations. Menorah Societies are all-inclusive, not exclusive;
they promote democracy, mutual respect, and understanding between
different types of Jewish students who have often in the past retained
toward one another the prejudices of their elders. The Menorah
fellowship expresses and promotes the common sentiment of all students
who have come to appreciate Jewish knowledge and ideals, who accept
their common Jewish heritage and Jewish hopes. In other words, where
in the past snobbery and spinelessness were not lacking among Jewish
students at our universities, there has grown up now a spirit of
democracy and of manly frankness, which has not escaped the
observation of older men, both within and without the universities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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