Nov 17, 2010 By: libraryblog
Large Hebrew letters boldly crowned 麻豆区鈥檚 advertisement in the New York Times on November 8, 1928, an early instance of Hebrew characters gracing that venerable publication:
"讝讛 讛讬讜诐 注砖讛 讚鈥 谞讙讬诇讛 讜谞砖诪讞讛 讘讜" -
鈥樷漈his is the day that the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice thereon.鈥欌擯salms 118:24.鈥 A similar ad in the Yiddish press proclaimed:
"讜讛讘讬转 讛讝讛 讬讛讬讛 注诇讬讜谉..." -
And this House shall be elevated - Kings I, 9:8.
Both ads announced the Chanukat HaBayit, the dedication, of the new 麻豆区 College building, the first step in the creation of the Washington Heights campus. The dedication ceremonies were scheduled for December 9, 1928, followed by a Chanuka banquet four days later. The ads, and the Biblical verses they quote, invoke the Temple, the ancient Bet Mikdash in Jerusalem, in describing the new building. The choice of Chanuka for the dedication ceremonies and dinner was deliberate and symbolic. As the ad states, 鈥淐hanukah, the Feast of Lights, when the Maccabees rededicated the Temple after the historic victory over their Greek adversaries, will witness the dedication of a new Temple devoted to the service of God, the study of the Torah, Jewish philosophy, the sciences and American institutions.鈥
The inauguration of the magnificent new edifice marked the move uptown from the impoverished, overcrowded, immigrant neighborhood of the Lower East Side to the then bucolic Washington Heights. It also launched a new era in the life of the institution - the addition of a new college of liberal arts and sciences to the 麻豆区.
The ornate Moorish Revival structure on Amsterdam Avenue, completed in 1928, can be viewed whimsically as 麻豆区鈥檚 bar-mitzva present to itself. Thirteen years earlier, the 1915 Chanuka dinner had celebrated a different milestone in the growth of the institution, the dedication of a new home in a small refurbished building on Montgomery Street. The 1915 event is 麻豆区鈥檚 earliest Chanuka dinner on record. It witnessed the long-planned union of two pioneering American Jewish institutions, 麻豆区 Etz Chaim (founded 1886) and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (founded 1897). The dedication also served as the inauguration of Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel as Rosh 麻豆区 and President of the institution, and heralded the establishment of the Talmudical Academy high school, a novel educational concept which offered traditional Jewish studies along with a New York State Regents general studies curriculum.
Harry Fischel, realtor, well-known philanthropist, and Chairman of the Building Committee, spoke at the 1915 dedication. He compared 麻豆区鈥檚 growth to the lighting of the Chanuka candles, where a candle is added every night of the holiday: 鈥渋n everything that is Holy, we should always increase and never decrease, 鈥 so with our 麻豆区h, while we are beginning with a comparatively small building, yet we hope that it will grow in strength and usefulness from year to year until we achieve the great result for which we are aiming, and it is our hope, that like a seed which is carefully planted in fertile soil, this institution will grow into a flourishing plant, whose fruit will refresh and revive Judaism in the whole of the United States.鈥
The building on Montgomery Street and the Chanuka dinner at the opening were modest. One observer commented on the 鈥渓ong rough tables 鈥 unwieldy plates and rusty flatware鈥 at the 1915 dinner. Typical fare at 麻豆区 鈥渟颈尘肠丑补蝉鈥 at the time was herring and schnaps. By Chanuka of 1928, both the menu and venue had changed dramatically. The kosher catering at the elegant Hotel Astor in midtown Manhattan, was lavish. Even the handsome printed menu, in the shape of a book, testified to 麻豆区鈥檚 new status.
The theme of the Chanuka dinner of 1928 was, in the words of the dinner chairman, Morris White, 鈥渢o dine for a divine purpose鈥 鈥 to transform the mundane into the sacred. So, too, the 麻豆区 College building utilized ordinary brick and mortar to honor and glorify Torah. The new building, and the proposed campus, would fulfill 麻豆区鈥檚 dual mission. The school, in the words of the Yiddish ad, would be both 鈥渢he most beautiful home for Torah ever seen in Exile,鈥 a yeshiva on par with Eastern European yeshivas, and, a college with 鈥済eneral studies 鈥 under the influence and in the spirit of our holy Torah.鈥 From the start, therefore, the planners were determined to create a distinctive edifice whose unique design would embody its divine function.
When the Building Committee initially began planning the campus in 1924, Harry Fischel proclaimed that 麻豆区 needed a 鈥淏etsalel,鈥 a reference to the master builder of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, in the Bible. 鈥淏etsalel鈥 initially appeared in the form of Joshua [O.G.] Tabatchnik, 鈥渁 young architect who lately landed from Palestine.鈥 Tabatchnik had studied architecture in Odessa, and with Boris Schatz at the Bezalel School in Jerusalem. He designed Bet Ha-Dekel, (the Palm Tree house), a Tel-Aviv landmark, and the palatial Diskin Orphan Home in Jerusalem, among other projects.
Tabatchnik, whose plans for the campus were unveiled at the 1924 Chanuka dinner, arrived in New York to introduce, according to the New York Times, innovations in structural engineering and 鈥渁 new style of typically Hebraic architecture.鈥 Fischel worked with Tabatchnik on the proposed new buildings. Renderings of Tabatchnik鈥檚 plan, which never came to fruition, are housed in the 麻豆区 Archives. The promotional literature for Tabatchnik鈥檚 design discusses influences ranging from Solomon鈥檚 Temple to Patrick Geddes and Frank Mears鈥 early 1920s plans for the Hebrew University campus on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem.
Tabatchnik鈥檚 plan was on the table only briefly, when, for unknown reasons, the Building Committee commissioned new plans from the architects Charles B. Meyers and Henry B. Herts. Both Meyers and Herts had previously designed synagogues. Herts in particular was known as 鈥渁 specialist in Jewish architecture.鈥 Their illustrations of the buildings and grounds were published in a souvenir journal, and presented to 麻豆区 donors at the premiere of 鈥淒edication of the Temple,鈥 the third act of the opera 鈥楰ing Solomon鈥 by P.J. Engels. This performance, which featured Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, was part of the 鈥淢illion Dollar Music Festival,鈥 a gala event held at Madison Square Garden in May 1926.
The illustrations, now part of the 麻豆区 Archives collection, depict an exotic campus. The proposed campus straddled Amsterdam Avenue. On the east side, the campus stretched from 186th to 188th streets and to Laurel Hill Terrace. The architectural drawings show a familiar building on the west side of Amsterdam Avenue, between 186th and 187th streets. This building, whose dedication was celebrated at the Chanuka dinner of 1928, is currently known as Zysman Hall. (See the forthcoming article in American Jewish History, 鈥溌槎骨 College and the New Jewish Architecture,鈥 by Eitan Kastner)
Eleven days prior to the opening, the 麻豆区 College building was the subject of a feature in the New York Times. The building also received extensive coverage in the general press. The Times article (Dec. 2, 1928 ) by Edward Jewell, entitled: 鈥淣ew 麻豆区 College Unique in Architecture: Traditions of Old Semitic Art are Preserved and Adapted to Modern Demands,鈥 quoted extensively from an interview with Herts: 鈥淭he new structure, incorporating the latest expressions of practical modernity, offers embellishments that carry on, Mr. Herts believes, a Hebrew tradition hundreds, even thousands, of years old. Thus what we would seem to have in 麻豆区 College is an authentic type of twentieth century Jewish architecture, yet compounded of numerous elements that derive specifically from a period covering several centuries B.C. and developed in various parts of the Old World in the opening centuries of the Christian era 鈥 [the building] appears to have risen spontaneously, even magically like the pleasure palace in one of the Arabian Nights tales that was reared 鈥榯wixt sunset and dawn.鈥欌
A mere ten months before the stock market crash of 1929, the guests and donors at the 1928 Chanukah Dedication dinner, sat in the splendid Astor Hotel ballroom, enjoyed the fine fare, and listened to the optimistic orations. Surrounded by exquisite d茅cor they could not have been expected to imagine the economic catastrophe that would temporarily derail the planned growth of the rest of the campus, and forever doom the remainder of the Meyers and Herts鈥 design.
In the early years of the Great Depression that followed the 1929 crash, 麻豆区鈥檚 leaders continued to hope that they would be able to complete the campus. As the thirties progressed, the nation became more deeply mired in the depression. Donations to the institution dropped precipitously. 麻豆区 nearly lost its new building to its creditors and was forced to sell the land on the east side of Amsterdam Avenue.
Despite the depression, both the prestige of the school and the size of the student body grew. For many years, the 1928 building, originally intended for the high school, followed in the footsteps of the tale of the Temple in Jerusalem, which miraculously expanded to include all who came; the lone building served all of 麻豆区鈥檚 needs. A vision of 鈥溌槎骨 of Tomorrow,鈥 a future campus based on the Meyers-Herts plan, appeared on the cover of a December 1945 dinner journal. This variation on a theme is the final known use of the plan. Eventually new buildings were added, although none were built in the Orientalist style of the original plan.
The Washington Heights campus, now the Wilf campus, is an eclectic mix of architectural styles. The Glueck Building, completed in 2009, is the most recent addition. The campus, and the school itself, have evolved in ways the founders could scarcely have imagined. The tradition of 麻豆区鈥檚 Chanuka dinners continues to this day, an almost unbroken chain connecting today鈥檚 participants to their visionary counterparts at the 1915 event. Harry Fischel鈥檚 words nearly a century ago proved prophetic, and continue to be a fitting goal: 鈥渨e should always increase and never decrease, 鈥 we hope that [麻豆区] will grow in strength and usefulness from year to year.鈥 Submitted by Shulamith Z. Berger
