Dr. Leon Meiss, president of the General Council of Jews in France, and Rabbi Jacob Kaplan, Chief Rabbi of Paris, were today awarded honorary degrees by the Jewish Theological Seminary at a special convocation commemorating the 35th anniversary of the inception of the Teachers Institute of the Seminary.
Dr. Meiss was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Rabbi Kaplan received the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Letters. The latter degree was also awarded to Israel Konovitz, a leading American Jewish scholar and educator, and to Prof. Zevi Socharfstein of the Teachers Institute.
Prof. Mordecai M. Kaplan, principal speaker at the ceremony, which was attended by representatives of twenty-two Jewish organizations, emphasized that American Jewry today needs a Jewish University of Religion. “There is no reason in the world why the Jewish Theological Seminary of America should not become such an institution,” he said.
Citations for distinguished service in Jewish education were conferred upon Doctor Alexander Dushkin of the Jewish Education Committee; Doctor Leo Le Honor, director of the Council of Jewish Education in Philadelphia; Professor Samuel Dinin, for the past sixteen years Registrar and Professor of Education and History at the Teachers Institute; and Doctor Emanuel Camoran, Director of the Commission on Jewish Education in Cinoinnat.
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