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American Colleges Existed
Through Jewish Help

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

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JEWELERS

n the present critical
economic period for many
universities, it is inter-
esting to share the exciting
years when universities
were enabled to function and
to survive. The experiences
of more than two centuries
ago are revealed in an arti-
cle that appeared in the
Detroit Free Press Nov. 20,
1936, under the headline:

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1992

Five Colleges Saved by
Jews Given Financial
Help at Critical Periods
Let it be indicated at the
outset that this item became
available to me now because
it was resurrected from my
archives, now being made
available to the community.

New York — Five of
America's first colleges —
Harvard, Yale, Columbia,
Brown and the University
of Virginia — whose
founders and benefactors
are usually believed to
have sprung from solid
English stock, have been
disclosed as recipients of
substantial financial help
from Jewish lovers of lear-
ning early in their ex-
istence .. .
In all the early American
colleges, Hebrew, like
Latin, was studied by near-
ly every student. Dr. Ezra
Stiles, Yale's president from
1778 and for many years
afterward, was a deep stu-
dent of the Hebrew
language and counted
many Jews among his
friends .. .
Jewish financial help
also was forthcoming
when King's College, now
Columbia, was in money
difficulties in 1762. The
backwash of the French
and Indian Wars had a
disastrous effect upon the
college's finances.
The Rev. Dr. Johnson, its
president, turned to
England where a commit-
tee was formed which in-
cluded Moses Frank, a
former native of New York.
Chiefly through Frank's
activity money was found.
Brown University, too, six
years after its founding
went in search of funds
and the record shows a
group of affluent South
Carolina Jews who rallied
to its support.
Among these were Israel
Joseph with a gift of three
pounds, Michael Lazarus

who contributed one
pound 10 shillings, Ben-
jamin Hart with 16 pounds
nine shillings fourpence,
and Moses Lindo with 20
pounds.
These sums, which ap-
pear small today, were con-
sidered handsome. So
grateful were the college
authorities for the Lindo
gift that a special resolu-
tion, passed by the unvier-
sity, contained the stipula-
tion that the children of
Jews might be admitted to
this institution and entire-
ly enjoy the freedom of
their own religion without
any restraint or
imposition.
Although the group of
Jewish benefactors who
helped out Brown were
from Charleston, the first
Jews to aid financially a
Southern institution of
learning were James Hays
and the firm of Cohen and
Isaacs.
These were among the
donors to the Virginia
University project started
by the Chevalier Quesnay
de Beaurepaire after the
American Revolution
under the name of the
United States Academy at
Richmond.
Although a building was
completed, the French
Revolution brought the
endeavor to an abrupt
close.
The importance of these
facts at this time is the
realization that the era re-
ferred to had fewer than
3,000 Jews as citizens in this
country. Nevertheless, these
few were important in uni-
versity protection. It also is
valuable to note from the
reconstructed facts that as in
the instance of Yale presi-
dent Ezra Stiles, Hebrew
was an important subject for
study, on par with Latin.
Such are among the in-
spired history lessons never
to be forgotten. I am ac-
complishing something by
urging our youth to make
knowledge of them a major
commitment in their
studies.

U.S. Hebraist
Ezra Stiles

One of the recently
published encyclopedias has
an item which deals with
Hebraist Ezra Stiles. There
is a fascinating revelation in
that this Congregational
church leader (1727-1795),

upon becoming president of
Yale University in 1778,
made the study of Hebrew a
compulsory language for
freshmen.
There is something ex-
citing about this fact.
Through the ages, in what is
now called ecumenism, there
were Christians — regret-
tably not too many —who
were enamored of Jews and
Judaism. Among them were
Christian scholars who plac-
ed Hebrew on a par with
Latin in their studies and
teachings.
In this country, Ezra Stiles
was the leader among them.
It will be enlightening for
our youth to learn about
Ezra Stiles and Christians
like him who became

For the Yale
University
president, Hebrew
was an important
subject for study,
on par with Latin.

Hebraists. An interesting
account was written for the

Universal Jewish En-
cyclopedia by Rabbi David
Max Eichhorn, and I rec-
ommend the following por-
tion:

In his youth, Stiles
regarded the Jews with
typical mistrust and in-
tolerance, but after assum-
ing the Newport pastorate
he came into close contact
with the small Jewish com-
munity of that city and
gradually his anti-Jewish
prejudices disappeared
and were succeeded by a
relationship of mutual
friendship and respect.
As early as 1759 he sent
a Latin letter to a Greek
priest in the Near East by
means of a Palestinian
Jew, making inquiry regar-
ding the present
whereabouts of the lost
Ten Tribes. Throughout
the remainder of his life he
sent letters all over the
world concerning the same
subject. Unlike many of his
American contemporaries,
Stiles did not believe that
the American Indians were
descendants of the lost
Israelites.
In his unpublished
papers and in his Literary
Diary, which he kept
diligently from 1769 to the
end of his life, there are in-
numerable indications of