What They Were Really Saying at YU in '48

This essay has been written in dedication to my colleagues, David Lasher and Mattan Erder, and their incalculable efforts in reviving Kol Hamevaser; their product far surpassed my initial plans for the publication.  May they continue to write, inspire, and write some more.

On the front-page of The Commentator’s special edition issue commemorating Israel’s 50th anniversary, Yehuda Burns published an article entitled, “YU, The Commentator and Israel: Through the Years.”  As the longest running student publication within the University, Burns correctly theorized that by “look[ing] back at [The Commentator’s] coverage of Israeli affairs throughout the years,” he would be able to gauge the student body’s Zionistic fervor since the newspaper started in the mid-‘30s. 

While culling from select issues when one might expect to find reports of Israel related news and editorials, Burns also points to growing relations between Yeshiva University and Israel toward the ‘60s and ‘70s.  Indeed, in his attempt to cover over a half-century of news coverage of Israel in a single article, the writer swept through The Commentator’s history, pointing out key articles, among other events, visits to Yeshiva’s Main Center campus by Israeli Prime Ministers and chief rabbis; the development of AIPAC; and Dr. Belkin’s plan to encourage Teacher’s Institute students to study at Machon Gold’s Jerusalem campus.

What we wish to take issue with is Burns’s primary thesis, namely that “if there is an overriding trend to point out, it is how the news coverage increased as the years went by.”  After reviewing Commentator editions from 1935-1948, it is clear that the above claim is untenable.  Further, the author’s charge that Commentator editors were guilty of “sparse reporting” of Israel pre-1948 is simply unfounded.  Finally, before presenting the facts, we hope readers will understand our delay in formulating a proper response to this thesis as the present writer was still struggling with the sixth grade when The Commentator published the article.

Contrary to what is stated toward the opening of the 1998 Commentator piece, Yeshiva College journalists discussed the situation in Palestine long before the editorial entitled “Palestine – A Temporary Haven and Permanent Home” was published on page-two of the March 4, 1943 edition.  In fact, one need look no further than the very first published issue of The Commentator published on March 1, 1935 to find student opinion about Palestine in the undergraduate newspaper.  The inaugural Governing Board ran an editorial entitled “How Long Will Orthodoxy Slumber” blasting Orthodox organizations for being less involved in fundraising for the Histadrut than their Conservative and Reform counterparts.  “It is a fact,” the piece claimed, “that there are in Palestine today organized groups which, while insisting on the establishment of an enlightened social order on which our friends in the Reform and Conservative Camps place so much emphasis, draw their inspiration from and remain steadfast to the principles of Orthodox Judaism.” 

In fact, before graduating, that inaugural Governing Board dedicated space to news on Palestine or Zionist groups on five front-pages and dedicated another five editorials to similar topics regarding Zionism.  Moreover, as a final exclamation point for the 1935 Governing Board, the newspaper polled seniors on various issues.  In that article, it was reported that all but five members of the senior class, at the time, planned to one day move to Palestine.

All in all, by March 4, 1943, coverage of Palestine appeared on the front-page of 21 editions and in 15 editorials.  Further, aside from the annual Dean’s Reception and “Charter Day” – a March 27 event sponsored regularly by alumni commemorating the day Yeshiva College received accreditation – the only yearly event covered consistently by The Commentator was Balfour Day held every year on November 2.