by A. BRONFMAN
Preoccupation with the war effort characterized the fourth year of the war at the Hebrew University: The University continued to hold first place in Palestine's scientific eon-tribution to the war effort, with the Sciefttiflc Advisory Committee to the War Supplj' Board making its headquarters on the campus.. Calls came from all branches of the Services, from the civil authorities, from farmers, industrialists, and others for advice and help in the fields of medicine, nutrition, physics, biology, and chemistry.
Some of the University's scientific services to the war effort may be described at this time, but a veil must be drawn over the rest for the time being on the plea of military secrecy.
University scientists were asked' to repair transmitter valves and rectifiers for the Royal Navy and some of the Middle East wh-eless stations. The repairs were especially m-gent because there is a wartime shortage of such parts in the Middle East; but it must have been a ticklish Job because the Department of Phyisics took several months to experiment before it could take it on. Finally, quantities of the apparatus were repaired to the complete satisfaction of the authorities.
Then, G.H.Q. in Cairo needed a large supply of quartz plates for radio transmitters, and needed them in a hurry. The University laboratories, which had been making plates right along, doubled their monthly output in 1942-43. We cannot tell just how this has helped to keep the wireless services up to the mark diu*ing the vital Middle East campaigns.
Another way the University helps the war effort is by giving courses for army medical officers in malaria, typhus, and tropical diseases. These courses, which are given Jointly by medical scientists of the University and the clinical specialists of the Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital, include lectures, demonstrations, and laboratory work, and are repeated from year to year at the request of the army medical authorities.
With tens of thousands of doses of an anti-typhus vaccine developed and prepared by its bacteriologists for Polish, Russian, and Czech troops, the University brings its services right up to the war front.
^7 ii?'^A in haxi& "^^0^1^^ XJM^^^ay auaiorities, the Heorew University Graduates' Organization Is still arranging Hebrew and English lectures for troops stationed in
Palesttae under the auspices ot the , Army Education Comma^d which, by the way, is very appreciative. In 1942-43, over 200 lectures were given in army camps.
In the wartime agricultural and industrial research work done at the University, it is almost impossible to draw a dividing line between the benefits that accrue to the civilian'population and to the war effort,
In time of war, as in peace (though rather more intensively, perhaps), Jewish settlement areas are explored by University geologists for underground water supplies. The recent successful borings ,on sites indicated by the University in different parts of Palestine mean that larger crops can be grown just when Palestine is cut off from moist of its large pre-war imports and when the presence of troops in the country is a heavy additional drain upon local food resources. Caccines for immunization of cattle and poultry have been prepared in the University laboratories for years; but in wartime, keeping livestock healthy helps to maintain the :^n-ty supply of eggs, milk and meat.
Wartime industrial research at the University also serves both civilian and military n^eds, as a few quotations from' the University's latest annual report will, show:' "Thermometers, aerometers, mer-cxxry switches, quartz lamps, and other apparatus were constructed and repaired for hospitals, industrial laboratories and military uses." Or: "Important researches are being conducted on behalf of some of the larger industrial concerns of Palestine."v It Is a fairly safe guess that those particular Industrial concerns are timiing out products the Services could not well, do without.
Chemicals figure rather prominently among the last year's achievements. University geologists investigated several districts for chemical and luineral deposits with particular reference to war needs. Many chemicals which were imported before the war are now being produced in commercial quan-. ties according to methods worked out in the University's laboratories. Research on drugs, which were also Imported in great quantities before the war, is reported in a terse sentence: Work is proceeding on methods of producing pharmaceutics from available local raw materials, and biological tests of medicinal substances manufactiired '. in Palestine are being continued.
Let us take a glance or two at ' ''.t is going on in the Hiunani-In the Institute of Jewish Studies, which is often referred to as the very heart of the University, the whole range of Jewish history
......WALTER J. FISCHEL
is now encompassed, where previously courses were given only on the mediaeval and modem periods. The new courses cover the periods of the First Temple and post-Second Temple up to the close of the Talmud.
In the midst of the war stresses came a calm annoimcement last smnmer that the Hebrew University Press would prepare and publish its own edition of the Hebrew Bible with scrupulous adherence to the textual tradition.
Some of the graduates of the School of Oriental Studies are making themselves very useful in wartime as interpreters, translators, and officials. Most of the others are teaching Arabic language and literature in the Jewish secondary schools.
lliere notable expansion In the foreign language departments. The Sir Moses Montefiore Chair of English Literature and Institutions, which was endowed last year by the, English Friends of the Hebrew University and the British Council, Is occupied by Professor Jacob Isaacs, late of the uiaiversity of London. The Department of French Civilization was enlarged with the aid of the French Fighting Committee, which continues the support given before the war by the French Government.
Assembly halls all over Palestine are often crowded when University teachers and scientists come to give public lectures on their widely varied subjects. Last year some 1200 lectures were given singly, in series, and in intensive courses. Requests are constantly coming In for more and more.extensive coiu"ses for auditors who are eager to enroll for systematic study.
financial anxieties do not prevent the university authorities rrora making plans now for post-war expansion. Two new schools, In particular, are envisaged with reference to lu-gent postrwar needs. One is to
be. a.schobl ^,^^^^0^^-' sciences for trammg quauned cxvn servants for responsible posts in the Government, Jewish national insti-. tutions, municipalities, and the like.
ALLAN BRONFMAN
Some of the requisite courses—international relations, economics of the contemporaiy Near East, social philosophy—are already being given at the University, and a Ruppin memorial lectureship In the sociology of the Jews was recently endowed for the future school. As for the riest, plans are already being discussed In detail.
The University's most ambitious project so far. Is an imdergraduate medical school In addition to the present school for post-graduate study and research. There will be many students coming from Occupied Europe after the war who have been barred for years from medical schools. Local students of medicine should not have to go abroad to study when medical science and clinical practice have reached so high a level in Palestine itself. There is the still wider consideration that imnumbered thousands of Jewish physicians were murdered in recent years, and that their places in the ranks cannot be filled up again at this time because most European medical schools do not admit Jewish students! It Is also probable that Palestine itself will go short of Jewish physicians in another generation imless something is done about it soon. The imdergraduia,te school will preclude the blighting of the careers of gffted young people who will have no other opportunity, and will help to safeguard the traditlqixai eminence of the Jew in medicine, now so gravely threatened. The University sees the^ need as urgent, and detailed plans are being drawn up for the early post-war period.
NOTE
D. A. Chertkow
Law Offices Moved To
PAcific 5852
8
Jewish Western Bulletin