From the Pages of Yedies

by ROBERTA NEWMAN

The July 1935 edition of Yedies reports on a controversy involving Hebrew University and graduates of Yiddish secondary schools in Vilna. The university in Jerusalem was refusing to accept graduates from two of these schools, the Sofia M. Gurevitch Gymnasium and the Vilna Real-Gymnasium (Mathematics-Natural Sciences Gymnasium), for matriculation.

YIVO’s Executive Committee took up the cause of the graduates by writing to Hebrew University Chancellor Judah L. Magnes on their behalf. But he replied that the university would only be willing to accept diplomas accredited by the Polish government or from Jewish schools in which the language of instruction was Hebrew.

YIVO tried again, explaining that while Polish universities did not accept students from the  two Yiddish high schools, their graduates had had no trouble gaining admission to universities in France, Germany, and Belgium:

“We find it hard to believe that Hebrew University would take a more stringent position on honoring these certificates than the universities in Berlin, Paris, Strasbourg, Brussels, Liège, and so forth.”

YIVO Executive Board member Ya‘akov Ze’ev Wolf Latzky-Bertholdi, a journalist and Zionist activist who was on the point of emigrating to Palestine (where he later became a member of the Mapai Party), wrote separately to Zionist leader Berl Katznelson (then editor of the daily newspaper Davar, but also a member of Hebrew University’s Curatorium), asking him to intercede in the matter.

But to no avail. A second reply from Hebrew University stated that they had no intention of altering their existing admission policy.

The Yedies article closes on this subdued note:

“The Executive Committee has decided to make the contents of this correspondence available to the public.”

Explore the finding aid to the Records of the Sofia Gurevitch Gymnasium in the YIVO Archives.