Page Title

Rebecca Emmeric
Ramaz Middle School
New York, NY

            The Founding of the Hebrew University;
                         a Unification of Many Jews

           This is an illustration of the first buildings of the Hebrew University which were built in 1925,
                                             in the very barren, at the time, city of Jerusalem.

    Twenty-three years before the establishment of the State of Israel, The Hebrew
University was opened on April 1, 1925, on Mount Scopus, overlooking the old city of
Jerusalem to the south and, further in the distance, the Dead Sea to the west. The
sight of the university was extraordinarily meaningful because Mount Scopus is the
same place where the Roman emperor who destroyed the second temple, Titus,
camped when he surrounded Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. The opening ceremony
was attended by thousands of people (“Balfour Dedicates Hebrew University” 1). Not
only did the founding of the Hebrew University help change Zionism from a dream to a
practical reality, but it also brought many different types of Zionists and Jews together
with one common goal (Emmerich).
    There were many different types of Zionist movements, with different views on the
best way to go about establishing a Jewish homeland. One of the earliest forms was
religious Zionism. Rabbi Yehudah Alkalai and Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Kalischer were two of
the most important early religious Zionists. They believed that the resettlement of the
land of Israel by Jews was an important part of Jewish law, and that before the
Messiah could come, Jews would have to move to Israel themselves (Laqueur 54-55;
Hertzberg 106). Practical Zionism developed in Russia as a reaction to the pogroms
and took the form of two groups, both of which supported Jewish settlement in
Palestine. One of these was a secular and socialist group known as Bilu. The other,
which was called Hovevei Tzion, held a conference in Kattowitz in 1884 to promote the
importance of returning to Palestine to work the land (Gilbert 5). Another kind of
Zionism was known as political Zionism. Theodore Herzl was a leading political Zionist.
Herzl and other political Zionists were shocked by anti-Semitism in Western Europe
and believed that the Jews needed a land of their own in order for them to survive.
Herzl founded the World Zionist Organization to help achieve this goal. He thought that
the best way to achieve a Jewish state would be by mass immigration of Jews,
preferably to historic Palestine (Gilbert 10). A group of Zionists, known as cultural
Zionists, disagreed with Herzl’s approach. Asher Ginsberg, otherwise known as Ahad
Ha’am, was one of the leading cultural Zionists and believed that Jews were not yet
ready to get up and move to Palestine. Rather, the cultural Zionists believed that a
selected group of Jews should first move to Palestine to establish the spirit for a
Jewish state, and only then would Jews be ready to begin moving back to Palestine.
They believed there had to be some culture in a Jewish state that would satisfy the
needs of Judaism; it should not just be “a state of Jews” but rather it should be “a
Jewish state” (Laqueur 164).
    Despite the philosophical disagreements among the different Zionist groups on the
nature of the Jewish state, they agreed on the importance of the establishment of a
Jewish university in Palestine. This idea was first raised in 1882, by Herman Schapira ,
who was a member of the Hovevei Tzion (Brainin 287). Schapira was motivated
largely by the discrimination that Russian Jews were suffering through their exclusion
from full educational rights (Gilbert 19). At the Kattowitz conference the idea of
establishing a university was proposed as well (“Opening Ceremony of the Hebrew
University” 1). Theodore Herzl supported this idea in a letter he wrote to the Turkish
sultan, on May 3, 1902, requesting a Jewish university in Palestine. Schapira’s idea
was also supported by Chaim Weitzman, who, along with Martin Buber, a German
philosopher, raised the idea of a Jewish university in Palestine at a Zionist conference
held in Vienna in October, 1902 (Gilbert 20). Weitzman became a huge supporter of
the idea of the university and worked hard to obtain support for it among Jews
everywhere (Brainin 289-291). Ahad Ha’m also became a supporter of the idea of a
Jewish university and at the first conference of Russian Zionists, he had stated, as the
historian Walter Laqueur puts it, that “one university was as important as one hundred
settlements” (Laqueur 152). When the cornerstone for the University was laid on
Mount Scopus in 1918, Ahad Ha’am wrote a congratulatory letter to Chaim Weitzman
saying that:
                    [T]his we do know: that the brighter the prospects for the re-establishment of our
national home in Palestine, the more urgent is the need for laying the spiritual foundations of that
home, on a corresponding scale, which can only be conceived in the form of a Hebrew University.
(Gilbert 39-40)

    The opening of The Hebrew University in 1925 was celebrated by Jews from all
over the world and from all walks of life. Among those attending the ceremony along
with Chaim Weitzman were many rabbis, including the chief Ashkenazi and Sephardi
Rabbis of Palestine, and the chief Rabbis of England and France (“Balfour Dedicates
Hebrew University” 2). Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha Kohen Kook, the Ashkenazi chief
Rabbi of Palestine and a leader of religious Zionism, spoke at the inauguration.
Although Rav Kook did not want the university to replace yeshivas, he realized that it
was an important step for Israel. After quoting Isaiah’s prophecy about the gathering of
Jews from exile, he stated:

    The great event occurring this day, the opening of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, on the
Mount of Olives, at such a magnificent ceremony, at such a celebration filled with light, with the
gathering of thousands and tens of thousands of our sons and daughters from all ends of the land of
Israel and from the lands of the exile, places before us the holy vision of this prophecy as though it
has come to life in miniature. (Kook 1)

Chaim Nachman Bialik, a great Hebrew writer, was also present at the opening
ceremony. He believed that the Hebrew University could be a home for all of the
different facets of Judaism (Hertzberg 280). In Bialik’s address at the inauguration, he
said that at Mount Scopus the Jewish people must “light here the first lamp of learning
and science and of every sort of intellectual activity in Israel, ere the last lamp grows
dark for us in foreign lands” (Hertzberg 285).
    Several days before the opening ceremonies, the second edition of the journal, The
New Palestine, was published. It was entirely devoted to the Hebrew University, and it
included contributions from many different politicians, rabbis, and scholars. Among
these people was the great scientist, Albert Einstein. Einstein was an important
supporter of the Hebrew University, and in 1922 he delivered a lecture there (Einstein
294). In his article in The New Palestine, he stated that the university should
“demonstrate with the greatest clearness the achievements of which the Jewish spirit
is capable” (Einstein 294). In addition, Albert Einstein served on the Hebrew University’
s first Board of Governors, which also included the world famous psychologist Sigmund
Freud, and the philosopher, Martin Buber (“Opening Ceremony of The Hebrew
University” 1).
    The idea of establishing a Jewish University in Palestine was thought of during the
days of early Zionism and support for it grew along with support for the Jewish
homeland generally. It was important to the Jews studying in the universities of Europe,
because it was extremely difficult for them to be accepted into good universities
because of their Jewish identity. The founding of a Jewish university in Palestine was
a solution to that problem (Brainin 289). The university provided a physical home for
Jewish students, which satisfied the political Zionists. It also provided a source for
Jewish study and learning, which satisfied the cultural Zionists. The religious Zionists
recognized the importance of the university in bringing Jewish values to the outside
world (Kook 2). The founding of the Hebrew University was a positive development in
the history of Zionism and Israel. Its establishment was a unifying factor among Jews,
and, by producing positive reactions from the entire world, with world leaders offering
their congratulations and good wishes (“Balfour Dedicates Hebrew University” 2), it
also provided a source of pride for Jews everywhere.

Works Cited

“Balfour Dedicates Hebrew University.” The New York Times 2 Apr. 1925. Select.
nytimes.com 17Dec. 2008 <http://select.nytimes.com///?
res=F2061EFD385B12738DDDAB0894DC405B858EF1D3>
Brainin, Reuben. “The History of the University Idea.” The New Palestine , Vol. VIII, No.
13 (1925): 287-291.
Einstein, Albert. “The Mission of Our University.” The New Palestine , Vol. VIII, No. 13
(1925): 194.
Emmerich, Pamela. Personal interview. December 11, 2008.
Gilbert, Martin. Israel, a History. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.
Hertzberg, Arthur. The Zionist Idea. New York: Jewish Publication Society of America,
1959.
Kook, Avraham Yitzchak. “Speech at the Inauguration of Hebrew University.” Trans.
Yaacov Dovid Shulman. Ravkook.net. 17 Dec. 2008 <http://ravkook.net/secular.html>.
Laqueur, Walter. A History of Zionism. New York: Schocken, 1976.
“Opening Ceremony of The Hebrew University.” IsraCast.com. 1 Apr. 2008. 17 Dec.
2008 <http://www.isracast.com/.aspx?ID=887>.