Jews Honor Christian

Why are you rabbis so eager to provide a chaplain for the few Jewish convicts at Joliet when you take so little interest in the spiritual instruction of the 400 Jewish undergraduates at the University of Illinois?

Many of these students take courses from me in Biblical literature. I am ashamed because they know so little about the Scriptures which their own forebears created.

In 1922, these words of Congregationalist Professor Edward Chauncey Baldwin spurred into action the B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant), biggest and best-known Jewish fraternal organization. Results are the Hillel Foundations, akin to the Westminster Foundations (for Presbyterians), Newman Clubs (for Catholics), and other denominational societies which flourish on U. S. campuses. Fastest growing of the lot, Hillel Foundations now serve 30,000 young Jews in 50-odd colleges as religious, cultural, recreational and social centres.

Dr. Baldwin continued to back Hillel until his death last summer. And last week, to honor its good Congregationalist friend, Hillel founded the Edward Chauncey Baldwin Memorial Award, a $300 college fellowship to reward student leadership in promoting interfaith good will at the University of Illinois. Annual nominations will be made by the eight other undergraduate religious societies on the campus.

Such comity would have pleased the great Hebrew teacher Hillel (70 B.C.-10 A.D.), many of whose sayings resemble Christ's. According to legend a Gentile once challenged him: "If you can teach me the Torah while I stand on one foot I will be converted." As the man hopped, Hillel answered: "What is hateful to thee, do not do unto thy fellow man--all the rest is commentary."

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