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A Glimpse of Columbia History 2 C olumbia U niversity RECORD February 24, 2003 A Glimpse of Columbia History . PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND COLUMBIANA LIBRARY Excerpt from the President's Report, 1968-1969: "This year, working in cooperation with a committee of the Manhattan Central Medical Society, a branch of the National Medical Association composed of black doctors, the school made diligent efforts to recruit black students for the premedical program. The project called “Two Steps to Medicine,”sought young black men and women who had graduated from college but had not taken a premedical program. Aided by grants from the Urban Center and the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia and the Esso Foundation, a group of nine black students will be included in the premedical program.” Jewish Historian Yosef Yerushalmi Receives Honor at Sorbonne Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Salo on the history of Spanish and Por- historical scholarship began in Baron believed that courses in Wittmayer Baron Professor of tuguese Jewry, modern German Europe in the early 19th century, Jewish studies should be taught Jewish History, Culture, and Soci- Jewry, the history of psychoanalysis it could find no place in the uni- within their respective disciplines, (UPS 090-710 ISSN 0747-4504) ety, recently returned from Paris and Jewish historiography. versities. Except for the Hebrew rather than gathered together in a Vol. 28 No. 09, February 24, 2003 University in Jerusalem, created separate department. He insisted where, on Jan. 14, he received an He returned to Columbia in 1980, Published by the honorary doctorate at the Sor- when he was invited to assume the in 1925, Judaic scholars that the only way to understand the Office of Public Affairs bonne from the Ecole Pratique new chair in history named for his remained outside the academy, Jewish experience was to study it June Massell des Hautes Etudes. Honored at the mentor, Baron, and take over direc- often teaching at Jewish theolog- in context with cognate subjects. Vice President for Communications same ceremony were the Japanese torship of Columbia’s Center for ical seminaries. This tradition has been maintained. and External Affairs marine biologist Kiyoshi Yamaza- Today at Columbia Jewish studies Eileen Murphy to and Chinese historian Guangda are based in four departments, each Executive Director of Communications Zhang. Among Yerushalmi’s with its undergraduate majors and Ph.D programs: Jewish history in remarks to the audience, he Jason Hollander......Managing Editor reflected on his career. the Department of History, “In the long years when I was Judaism in the Department of Reli- Michelle Oh..............Calendar Editor studying for my doctorate in Jew- gion, Hebrew language and litera- Call: 212-854-3283 FAX: 212-678-4817 ish history, I did not know if there ture in the Deparment of Middle E-mail: [email protected] would be an academic position East Languages and Cultures, and For Calendar, call: 212-854-6546 available when I finished,” Yiddish language and literature in or E-mail: [email protected] Columbia University RECORD is published Yerushalmi said. “I certainly did The Department of Germanic Lan- biweekly during the academic year, except not dream that I would have the guages. for holiday and vacation periods, by the privilege of teaching at the two Yerushalmi’s books have been Office of Public Affairs. Permission is given institutions that were the first secu- translated into seven languages and to use RECORD material in other media. lar universities in the Western include From Spanish Court to Public Affairs Press Office: 212-854-5573 world to integrate post-biblical Italian Ghetto; Haggadah and His- Lydia Gardner, Joseph Kennedy, Jewish studies as part of the patri- tory; The Lisbon Massacre of Caroline Ladhani, Katie Moore, Colin Morris, Kristin Sterling. mony of world civilization—Har- 1506; Zakhor: Jewish History and Webmaster: Jiangcheng Bao vard, with its chair in Jewish litera- Jewish Memory; and Freud’s ture and philosophy in 1925, and Moses: Judaism Terminable and Columbia Photographic Services: 212-854-6527; Eileen Barroso Columbia, with its chair in Jewish Yerushalmi, Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, Interminable. He is a Fellow of the Digital Video Production: history in 1930. Nor could I imag- and Society, receiving an honorary doctorate at the Sorbonne. American Academy of Arts and 212-854-2375; David Marks ine that one day I would be stand- Sciences and an honorary member Visitors Center: ing here.” Israel and Jewish Studies. The Cen- Salo Baron’s appointment to the of the Portuguese Academy of His- 212-854-4902; Angela Hoyte Born in New York, Yerushalmi ter acts as an umbrella to coordinate Miller chair at Columbia in 1930 tory in Lisbon. From 1987 to 1991 Correspondence / Subscriptions received his Ph.D from Columbia research, publications, symposia was an act of vision. It was made he was president of the Leo Baeck Anyone may subscribe to the RECORD for $27 in 1966, studying under Salo Baron. and conferences, and to foster rela- before the Holocaust, before the Institute in New York, the major per year. The amount is payable in advance establishment of the State of Israel research center for the study of the to Columbia University, at the address below. For the next fourteen years he tions with other major centers of Allow 6 to 8 weeks for address changes. taught at Harvard where he rose to Jewish learning. and before the heightened interest history of the Jews in the German become Safra Professor of Jewish Yerushalmi stresses the impor- in area or ethnic studies. And speaking lands. He has also taught Postmaster / Address Changes History and Sephardic Civilization tance of Columbia’s pioneering because of Baron’s own prodi- an annual seminar at the Ecole des Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. role in establishing the field of gious accomplishments and inter- Hautes Etudes en Sciences and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: and chair of the Department of Near Send address changes to Columbia Univer- Eastern Languages and Civiliza- Jewish history, as well as other national reputation, it opened the Sociales in Paris. In 1998 his for- sity RECORD, 535 W. 116th St., 304 Low tions. His scholarly interests have fields of Jewish studies, both door to the tremendous expansion mer students, now teaching at uni- Library, Mail Code 4321, New York, N.Y. ranged through medieval and mod- nationally and internationally. of Jewish studies at universities versities on three continents, pub- 10027. ern times—with special emphasis Though modern critical Jewish both in the U.S. and abroad. lished a Festschrift in his honor. Please Recycle.
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