STUDENT'S ACHIEVEMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14300, 21 February 1910, Page 5

STUDENT'S ACHIEVEMENTS.

RUSSIAN JEW'S SUCCESS. By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright London, February 18. ; Seliq Brodetsky, the Russian Jew and London board school 'boy, who tied for senior wrangler at Cambridge in - 1908, has won the Isaac Newton scholarship at Cambridge. SELia BRODETSKY'S CAREER. The success of Mr. Brodetsky furnishes a remarkable example of the - possibilities open to the poorest boy in English elementary schools, as here, for his father landed ; in London from Russia , practically '. penniless sixteen or seventeen years ago. The story of how Selig Brodetsky has climbed the educational ladder from the bottom to the topmost rung was told in the London Daily > Mail ; when ■■ he tied for the senior wranglership, the highest honour which the v University of Cambridge offers. ■.' - \" My son Seligj" said Mr. Brodetsky, senior, to the reporter, " was bora \at Olviopol, near Odessa, twenty years ago. I came to this ■ country sixteen years ago. I - realised' that, ' being a Jew, there were no , possibilities open to me in Russia. A year afterwards— ■ 18931 sent for my wife and children. 1 , Selig undoubtedly inherits his remarkable faculties for mathematics from me, for as a boy I was dubbed 'the thinker,' 'the philosopher.' " There can be no doubt that if the Aliens Act had been in ■ force when ' I came; to this country I should not have been allowed , in, . for, although I had my passport and was not a refugee from justice, I had not the necessary £5> I cannot help "thinking that a ' good many. little Seligs have probably been shut out by the operation of that Act. However; here I •■; am. I; have become naturalised, and;l have succeeded in bringing up my family. I am an itinerant haberdasher. Seng's native tongue was Yiddish,/but ho picked' up. English very quickly 'when: he ; went to, the Jews' ' Free School ■■■; in Bell Lane 'y; in ;. 1895. Here 'he ■. remained until .1900, : ; when, : by winning the Hick-■ sort, landr Starling -Scholar ship, he. entered Cowper-'street school,"leaving it six- years later, captain of the school, to. go to Trinity College. Cambridge. '■ During \th period* he, received, ~\ in addition- to his . education, sums varying from'» 9 to, £25 per .annum towards* his maintenance. . He was always a'; very studious boy. ( He gave up .play too 'much for 'his books, _and his friends would say that he would break down : but, beyond a f little exhaustion following.':? upon an examination, ;he has never had any illness. '■,'■ \ ■'■: ' . ' "'''';.'- . "As an instance of, his ,;aptitude for grasping \a.subject,' •■', J should like to say that ;at my "earnest ..request he took 'up ■■ the.-',; study of ■'■ astronomya -■ pet ;.- subject Of/mme-during one of his ■ vacations, and after' two months' study he sat for a scholarship examination. . Ha was not successful, but he .was highly commended by the examiners. My eon has received ail his early instruction in mathematics from me, but he soon left me far behind, and he- quickly: became the tutor and I the '; pupil. , . He' is now in . possession of four ! scholarships at Cambridge, producing £250 a year, including; the Marmaduke Levitt (£4O), the ;V Anthony Death ; (£6O), and the Fishmongers' (£SO). These have four years to run. ! % " I want to say „ this," continued Mr. Brodetsky, " that my; wife and -myself and all my family feel the greatest and deepest gratitude to ; this liberal country in providing, the means for my son's education. In Russia such, a career would have been impossible for; him. My -son's education has cost me nothing beyond his maintenance in his early years.