Thursday ,September 22, 1919
DETROIT JEWISH- CHRONICLE
Page 27
Hebrew Was the Vogue
in Colonial America
figured more largely than Hebrew ments of the language in Ai
After the Revolutionary War
From the first, in 1636, the date I hours.
education generally was shifted
of its founding, to the Revolu-
Harvard students spend one from a religious to a political
tionary War, the Puritans were
a week for three years on • basis. Yet at the time of the
able to indulge a repressed de- day
Hebrew and allied . tongues. The
sire for more and better Hebrew,
Revolution there were some who
principle text used was the Bible
By TINA LEVITAN
after founding a college of their
in its original form. About 12 advocated that the country aban-
own.
EBREW IS thousands of years old, yet it is 'very much alive
It was the desire to understand copi0s, with students' inscrip- don English and adopt Hebrew as
today. The language of the Bible is being spoken today not only
tions upon the lit from the years the vehicle of speech.
by students learning the language, but by thousand
the Scriptures that drove the stu-
1651 to 1746, are extant.
s of f people in
Israel.
-
•
• • •
Throughout lb e
night of trates "ba'ale nefresh", (men of
REQUIRED
AT
YALE
Jewish wanderings, Hebrew al-
ROSH HASHONAH
FROM THE VERY DAYS of its
ways reinined alive even if not spirit), and the ministers "hasi-
dim
harishonim",
(first
pious
founding
Yale
University
in-
spoken.
GREETINGS
men), while John Winthrop, who
cluded Hebrew as one of the re-
Jews wrote commentaries with- was governor of the Massachu-
quired subects. To this day the
out number on the Bible and Tal- setts colony was called "Nehe-
Hebraic influence can be seen on
mud in Hebrew.
mias Americanus." the American
the seal of the University which
Problems of philosophy, phy- Nehemiah after Nehemiah who
carries the Hebrew words "Urim
sics, mathematics, algebra, ge- adminstered - the Hebrews in
Vethumim" which was the in-
ometry, medicine, astronomy, Palestine when they returned
Flowers — Gifts
scription on the priestly breast-
i zoology, biology, as well as from exile in Babylonia.
plate and means light and truth.
• Hotel - CA. 1992
Rook
Cadillac.
•
• •
problems on all subjects to fall
Interest in Jewish studies in
within the scholar', realm, can S('IIOLARS CITED
Yale College was intensified by Statlei Hotel - WO. 5-4570
' be found recorded in a mastered
Ezra Stiles, who became presi -
THE STUDY of the Hebrew,
• perfection of the Hebrew lang-
dent of the college in 1778. When t
or
uage. It is a mistaken notion to language occupied a prominent
CI
ot-
elected president of Yale and pro- s
•: assume that only of recent times position among the New England,
lessor
of
ecclesiastical
history,
•
Rash
clergy,
the
main
profession
for
OSCAR
REGEN
is
president
of
Hashanah
Greetings
°
is Hebrew again regaining some-
Stiles voluntarily took upon him-
thing of the importance it held which our earliest institutions of the Israel Music Foundation, an self the teaching of Semitics.
higher education were founded. important cultural link between
many years back, when it was
It is intertsting to note that
New England could boast of a Israel and the rest of the world.
the language of the prophets.
11724 DEXTER
number of outstanding Hebrew The master recordings of the Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn-!
• • •
scholars among whom were John IMF are made in Israel, while sylvania, Brown, Princeton and
TO. 9-9711
ORIGINAL INTACT
Eliot, Increase and Cotton Mather, the remainder of the records Johns Hopkins are among the
United States collbges that have ! 0
Also
TO BE SURE Eliezar ben Ye- William Bradford, John Dunster•
are pressed in the U.S.
huda and his followers coined Ezra Stiles, Isaac Addington,
been teaching Hebrew without!
---
Dexter
Bakery
Branch
many new word-forms and Id- Ethan Allan, Joseph Green and dent to the pursuif first of the interruption since their inception,
18279 Livernois - UN, 4-9828
ioms, but the organic structureof Charles Chauncey, and several language and later of the phil- although like Latin and Greek
the language remains intact. • others. Increase Mather delivered osophy. It was this heritage that the study of Hebrew fell off as! O MRS, MARY LESIIMAN
Anyone with a sense of history discourses in Hebrew. His son the middle ages had bequeathed the years went by in American
AND SONS, Props.
and language cannot but be Cotton wrote a relatively schol- to posterity. At Harvard, Hebrew education,
thrilled to hear the majestic any dissertation on Hebrew was regarded as the key to the !ZINN AllitAggrak
07.11x.•>, -;•;-
-38%
sounds and syllables of the tang- grammar.
mother of all languages. Fresh-
uage spoken some 35 centuries
ROSH
HASHONAH
GREETINGS
.
.
.
men
at
Harvard
began
with
He-
The prominent Puritan and
ago, today both spontaneously Hebrew scholar, John Udall, brew.
The first text book was Wil-
and majestically roll of the translated Peter Marinius' He-
, tongues of little Israeli children. brew grammar, and compiled a helm Schikard's "Ilorologium He-
Norman & Reuben Cottler. Props.
Hebrew never was a "thing Hebrew die
breum," "The Hebrew Sun Dial,"
13310 Dexter Blvd.
dictionary
TO. 7-9399, TU. 3-2588
of the past", shut up in old books
which professed to teach the ele ;.•
of
.•.•>:
Willi am B ladford
•
s "
'History
.ac,::>socesedW
and manuscripts, and to trace its of In
-.
Plymouth Plantation," he ex-
■1=11.••■ ••••■ •1411M%•■■••■•■
•••••11.011..111N..1• ■•■•••,•■•• ■••••• ■••■ 11
■110• ■•■• 11•111.1 ■■■••11.1
•
•
history, and in pat ticular in Co- presses his deep love for the He-
GREETiNGS
lonial America, is an interesting.
brew language and reveals his
Happy New Year
study. In early colonial America
knowledge of the Bible: The
Hebrew was a
a d
favorite subject of work lists 25 Biblical passages in
study and created quite a vogue' the Hebrew original together
atICHAF:L GALSKY, Prop,
To the early Americans the with the English translations, and
• 52 C'adillac Square, WO. 4-9449
13215 Harper, LA. 8-9465
Hebrew language was something
...................—......•..........—..................—............................................
very living. It was an indispens- includes a Hebrew-English vo-
cabulary of several hundred
able tool to the trained ministers words.
of the time, but it was also a part
• • •
Best Wishes on the New Year .. .
of the equipment of all who read
2 175 W. Grand Blvd.
HEBREW
TAUGHT
- the Bible in its original tongue—
DURING THE FIRST few dec-
the ambition of almost all the
TY. 4-5701
early settlers as so eloquently ex- ades after the foundation of Har-
5505 Second Blvd.
pressed by Cotton Mother in vard College no course of study
TR. 3-3430
speaking of Gov, Bradford:
"But the Hebrew he most of all
Greetings of the Season
studied because he said he would
see with his own eves the an-
Rosh Dashonah Greetings
Compliments of
Best Wishes To All for a
cient oracles of God in their nat-
And Best Wishes to All
ural beauty."
happy and Joyous New Year
• • •
H
Music Sponsor
, 7)
[gay ( anzer
Dexter Bakery
DEXTER - DAVISON MARKET
-
American Army
n
Navy Stores 1
MOTOR SALES
DAVID NURSING HOME
FAMILIAR VOLUME
THE BIBLE WAS the one
H. Jacobson Coal
familiar book being read morn-
ing, noun, and night and every-
where its words kindled a spark-
ling enthusiasm. These early
colonists found in it a strong
analogy between themselves and
the Israelites- seeking freedom in
the Promised Land.
America was called "The
Promised Land," the Pilgrims
were referred to as "our happy
Israel in America". William
Bradford, the second governor of
Pylmouth, as "Moses".
Mather called the early magic-
Company
Greetings
•
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INC.
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IZE-IL.:0
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Happy New Year
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z
CHARLES ABRAMSON •
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New Year's Greetings
g
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Si ncore
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New Year's Greetings
A Very Happy New Year
and Best 11 ishcs to
And Best Wishes to All
"Lechaim Kinderlech"
Manischewitz Kosher Wines
and Kosher Champagnes
Jewish European
Welfare Organization
BEVERAGE DISTRIBUTION CO.
North Woodward Branch
Harold and Isadore Podolsky
Wyandotte, Michigan
MRS. ALBERT KURZMAN, President