The Jews Are Hosts

For 50 years prominent American Jews had talked about the idea, but it was not until after World War II that seven Bostonians finally decided to make it a reality. The seven were all immigrants or the sons of immigrants. All had been successful, and all wanted to find a way to show their gratitude to the nation in which they had prospered. In 1946 they launched their campaign to establish Brandeis University --the first Jewish-founded nonsectarian university in the U.S.

This week, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis' birth, scores of notables from the academic and legal worlds gathered at the Brandeis campus in Waltham, Mass, to pay him tribute. Chief Justice Warren unveiled a statue of him, and three of his former law clerks were on hand for the ceremony. But the most meaningful tribute to Brandeis was the university itself. In only eight years, it has taken its place as one of the most promising of U.S. liberal-arts campuses.

Mexican Ivanhoe. When the university opened its doors in 1948. it had 107 freshmen and a faculty of 13. Its plant consisted of a Normanesque" castle" (which Architect Eero Saarinen once described as "Mexican Ivanhoe") and a few other buildings that had belonged to the defunct Middlesex University Medical School. At first the founders hoped that Albert Einstein would consent to take over the presidency. But when Einstein declined, they hit upon the happy choice of Historian Abram Sachar, chairman of the National Hillel Commission.

A genial, rotund man of 57, Sachar has been able to attract both brains and money to his campus. Though the university had no alumni until 1952, groups of "foster alumni" sprang up in dozens of cities across the U.S., gave to the new university as generously as if it had been their own alma mater. Gradually the faculty grew to 160, the student body to 1,070, the annual budget to nearly $3,000,000. Around the great castle ultramodern buildings arose, including three separate chapels for Jews, Roman Catholics and Protestants.

True Cross Section. Novelist Ludwig Lewisohn taught at Brandeis until his death in January. Columnist Max Lerner and Critic Louis Kronenberger commute from Manhattan to give courses. E. E. Cummings, Archibald MacLeish and W. H. Auden have lectured on modern poetry, and such theater celebrities as Marc Con nelly and Arthur Miller have taught contemporary drama. "A school," says Sachar, "is not a curricular philosophy. It is the people you bring to it."

Today Brandeis has coeducational undergraduate schools in the humanities, social and natural sciences and the creative arts. In its graduate school 132 students are working for advanced degrees in everything from microbiology to Judaic studies. "We will add professional schools.'' says Sachar, "when we can be sure of making them measure up to the highest standards." But however much Brandeis grows, Sachar wants its students to be a true cross section of the U.S. population. "Diversification," says he, "is necessary if we are to fulfill the purpose for which the school was founded--to be a university where, at last, the Jews are hosts, and not guests as we have always been before.''

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