RAPID GROWTH

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 104, 4 May 1935, Page 6

RAPID GROWTH

UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

TENTH ANNIVERSARY

The Hebrew University of' Jerusalem has been at work ten years. It celebrated the tenth anniversary of its opening on April 1. Like every other aspect of life in Palestine, the University has shown a remarkable expansion during the last years, states the "Manchester Guardian." The Nazi persecution which has driven out some six hundred academic scholars and scientists from Germany, and nearly five thousand men and women engaged in the liberal professions, has brought to Palestine a remarkable number of doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc., most of whom are turning to simpler ways of living, and a few outstanding men of science and learning. The University has absorbed fifteen of these displaced scholars andi strengthened both its teaching and, its ■ research institutes. And it is | hoped that they will be permanently absorbed.

Yet the most remarkable expansion in these last years has been in the number of students. At its inception i the Hebrew University was designed, rather for research and post-graduate I study than for undergraduate teaching; but the appeal of Palestine to all concerned with. Jewish and Oriental studies, on the one hand, and the pressure of the Jewish population for university teaching on the other, soon led to the introduction of regular courses. The number of students, however, until 1933 had scarcely risen above two hundred. In the present academic year the • number of students registered is over five .hundred; the majority are from Europe. There are more from Poland than from Germany. Already, moreover, the University has received some brilliant students from among those German Jews whose studies were cut short last year in the German universities.

Until a few years ago, until the economic crisis in "America cut- down the American-Jewish contribution to the University, the teaching at Jerusa-; lem, was given without fee. Financial necessity led to the introduction .of a modest payment by each student of £P. 5 a year, with some addition for those using the laboratories. That payment has now become a substantial source of income for a university whose budget is still within'£P.so,ooo a year. NEW BUILDING. The University has not visibly grown during the last few years, but it is now to start on a fresh period of building expansion. American Jewry provides most of the sinews of growth. /An. American benefactress is giving £20;000, which will be used for the housing of the Institute o,f Jewish Studies and for tpe administrative offices. The American Jewish Physicians, who for' years have been collecting money for the purpose of establishing a university hospital arid' a post-graduate • medical school, have been able to take the 'first steps to build on a site which they acquired on Mount Scopus. The principal Jewish hospital of Jerusalem is to"' be moved to that site and will form also the university hospital. The Cancer 'Research Institute, which another generous donor endowed last year,'will probably be attached to it. A students' : hostel, to which English-Jewish students made the! original contribution, is to be built.

A botanical garden in .which the trees and plants of the Middle East will be Cultivated is in course of plantation, and if the funds are available there will be also on the hillside above 'the Holy City a "Garden of the Prophets," where all the flowers and plants mentioned in the Bible will be gathered. The library, which is at once the University and the national collection of books, is worthily housed on Mount Scopus, and grows at the rate of some 30,000 volumes a year. MUSIC.

Another striking development of the last years, which owes its inspiration to the newcomers, is the musical extension work- The generosity of a few friends of music enabled the. University some years ago to start that activity and to organise lectures in the history and understanding of music in the -principal Jewish centres, urban and rural. Today a director of instrumental music and a director of choral music and dramatic *arE cultivate the enthusiasm for artistic expression which is a feature of the renaissance in the Jewish National Home. A conservatoire in Jerusalem, a chamber orchestra, and" a chamber opera are part of the Outcome o£ their work.

Another extension activity of the University is more closely connected with the regular' teaching in the humanities arid the sciences. TelAviv, which has a larger population than Jerusalem and the largest Jewish population in Palestine, has organised a kind pf popular university, and the professors and lecturers come down from Jerusalem and hold courses for five evenings m the week in "the sciences, philosophy, Hebrew literature, Jewish history, and international' relations. They have a big and at-1 tentive audience comprised largely of, teachers; for the love of knowledge is strong in the people.