Jewish Life at Cornell 1865-2005

i Copyright © 2006 Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Carl A. Kroch Library All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior per- mission of the publisher. Direct inquiries to Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-0-935995-06-0 Jewish Life at Cornell 1865–2005 Elaine D. Engst Cornell University Library Ithaca, New York Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Carl A. Kroch Library iii 2005 Masters in Excellence program Preface n early May 2005, Cornell’s Jewish Student To emphasize the importance of this event, dis- Community commemorated a major mile- tinguished visitors from abroad joined with digni- stone in American history: 350 years of a taries in the American public sphere in addressing Jewish presence in the United States and 140 the students, faculty, alumni, administrators, and Iyears at Cornell University. Spiritual leaders from Ithaca residents during the weekend’s proceedings. the legacy Jewish cities (Charleston, Houston, New Cornell’s president, Jeffrey Lehman, cordially wel- York, Newport, Philadelphia, and Savannah) pre- comed the chief rabbi of the State of Israel, a former sented histories of their respective congregations as U.S. ambassador to Israel, a representative of the well as the achievements and contributions of Jews White House, an officer in the U.S. State Depart- in their cities even before our country was formally ment, the chancellor of America’s oldest Jewish or- founded. Additionally, invited representatives of the thodox university, and the chairpersons of Ithaca’s major Jewish historical societies related how their Jewish Federation. organizations are keeping alive the stories of these At the event the Jewish Student Community be- early Jewish communities and making this history stowed its Masters in Excellence award to Dr. Irene relevant for Jews in the United States today. B. Rosenfeld, a Cornell alumna (B.A. ’75, M.S. ’77, Scholars, writers, and Cornell’s university archi- Ph.D. ’80), chair and CEO of Frito-Lay, and a for- vist drew attention to Jewish history at Cornell in mer Cornell trustee. Also honored was Cornell Pro- research papers detailing the revolutionary steps vost Biddy Martin, who received the organization’s taken by the institution’s founders in establishing a Cornell Award. As part of the special event, a group nonsectarian university. Their bold new idea set the of Cornell alumni provided funding for this publi- stage for an open and vibrant culture that attracted cation. Many people assisted in its creation, espe- Jewish students and faculty and, more broadly and cially Sally Atwater, Rhea Garen, Carol Kammen, importantly, established Cornell’s reputation for Laura Linke, Peter Martinez, Susette Newberry, overall academic excellence. Rabbi Ed Rosenthal, Lou Robinson, Steven Siegel, and Norman Turkish. v Andrew Dickson White, ca. 1865 A Nonsectarian University n the nineteenth century, elite private eastern colleges and universities were all church affiliated, providing a traditional Iclassical education almost exclusively to wealthy white male students or to less privileged white men studying for the ministry. Cornell University, founded in 1865, was a radical depar- ture—an educational experiment. Ex- plicitly nonsectarian and committed to equal educational opportunities for men and women, Cornell University Ezra Cornell, ca. 1865 also sought to integrate practical and liberal education, treating both on an equal basis. could not accept his family minister’s statement Its charter specifically stated, “And persons of every that infants who died before they were baptized religious denomination, or of no religious denomi- went to hell, or that his grandmother was doomed nation, shall be equally eligible to all offices and ap- to damnation because she had joined the “wrong” pointments.” The university was to be equally open church. As a result, he refused confirmation, despite to all students, whether rural, economically disad- his parents’ pleas. vantaged, foreign, immigrant, or of color. It was to White’s instinctive disapproval of religious dog- be a university where “any person can find instruc- matism was reinforced by his educational experience. tion in any study.” Although he wanted to attend Yale University, his Cornell’s founders, Andrew Dickson White and father insisted that he go to an Episcopalian school, Ezra Cornell, were remarkable men. White had from Geneva College. After a thoroughly disappoint- his youth been opposed to sectarian orthodoxy. ing first year, he arranged on his own to transfer to Brought up in an Episcopalian family and strongly Yale, where Congregationalists were predominant. influenced by his parents’ ideas, he nevertheless White’s experience convinced him that educational 1 inquiry could not be conducted freely in a religiously tee on Literature. Cornell was the oldest member affiliated institution. In a letter of September 1, 1862, of the Senate and White the youngest, but they dis- to Gerrit Smith, a wealthy reformer and abolition- covered that their ideas about education had much ist from Peterboro, New York, near Syracuse, White in common. On February 7, 1865, White introduced proposed to dedicate his own recent inheritance of into the New York State Senate a bill to establish $300,000 toward the founding of a university and Cornell University as an institution for “the cultiva- encouraged Smith to join him in this endeavor. tion of the arts and sciences and of literature, and Among the goals of White’s “truly great University” the instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts and would be “to afford an asylum for Science—where military tactics, and in all knowledge” and to “ap- truth shall be sought for truth’s sake—where it shall propriate to it the income from the sale of public not be the main purpose of the Faculty to stretch or lands” that had been granted to New York State by cut Science exactly to fit ‘Revealed Religion.’” Smith the Morrill Land Grant College Act, passed by the replied that his health was poor and he could not United States Congress in 1862. think about such a massive project. The new university opened in 1868. Its nonsectar- Ezra Cornell, however, shared White’s feelings. ian stance was so controversial that the governor of Raised as a Quaker, he had been excommunicated New York State, who had been scheduled to speak when he married a non-Quaker. When, in 1864, at the inauguration exercises, withdrew at the last he endowed a library for Ithaca, he appointed to moment to avoid criticism. White scribbled on his its board of trustees the clergy of all seven local program, “But Gov. Fenton was afraid of Method- churches in order to avoid domination by any one. ists & Baptists & other sectarian enemies of the Uni- White later reminisced on reading the bill to incor- versity & levanted the night before leaving the duty porate the library: to Lieut. Gov. Woodford who discharged the duties admirably.” I was struck, not merely by his gift of one hun- The open atmosphere at Cornell would have dred thousand dollars to his townsmen, but even seemed especially hospitable to Jewish students. At more by a certain breadth and largeness in his the laying of the cornerstone of Sage College in 1873, way of making it. The most striking sign of this Ezra Cornell wrote a letter in which he expressed his was his mode of forming a board of trustees; for, wishes for the new university: instead of the usual efforts to tie up the organization forever in some sect, party, or clique, he Ithaca New York had named the best men of his town—his politi- May 15th 1873 cal opponents as well as his friends; and had added to them the pastors of all the principal To the Coming man & woman churches, Catholic and Protestant. This breadth On the occasion of laying the corner stone of of mind, even more than his munificence, drew the Sage College for women of Cornell Univer- him to me. sity, I desire to say that the principal danger, and I say almost the only danger I see in the future to The library bill provided the occasion for the be encountered by the friends of education, and first interaction between Ezra Cornell and Andrew by all lovers of true liberty is that which may arise Dickson White. Both were New York State senators, from sectarian strife. and Cornell’s bill was referred to White’s Commit- From these halls, sectarianism must be for- 2 ever excluded, all students must be left free to our institution, and among them some of our very worship God, as their conscience shall dictate, best students, and I would never sanction any thing and all persons of any creed or all creeds must which would infringe on their privileges, deprive find free and easy access, and a hearty and equal them of their rights, or tend to degrade them in any welcome, to the educational facilities possessed manner.” by the Cornell University. Jewish students at Cornell seem to have been well Coeducation of the sexes and entire free- integrated into the university in the nineteenth cen- dom from sectarian or political preferences is tury. In a diary entry for January 1871, senior Royal the only proper and safe way for providing an Taft wrote, “Had a frat [Phi Kappa Psi] meeting in education that shall meet the wants of the future the evening and initiated Goldsmith, Frankenheimer and carry out the founders idea of an Institu- & [Leopold Gottlieb] Rosenblatt all splendid boys. tion where “any person can find instruction in Each made a few remarks very appropriate for the any study.” I herewith commit this great trust to occasion.” The Board of Trustees Executive Com- your care.

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