Old School Academia Talks Hebrew
Imagine for a moment, walking the halls of your school or university, you cant help but overhear a conversation between two students but the language being spoken is not English — its Hebrew.
Well if this conversation were to take place in, say, 1776 in a university such as Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Yale or Brown, you would not find it peculiar at all.That is, because at that time, Hebrew was often a mandatory course requirement. That means students such as, a young Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were most definitely well versed in the Hebrew Language. So how big of a deal was Hebrew in the old realm of academia? Well, keep reading…
During the period leading up to the American Revolution, the colonies saw the establishment of some of the World’s most elite universities. At the time, it was common for educational institutions to have been established under religious auspices and administered on core Judeo Christian values.
Many of these universities incorporated select Hebrew words or phrases into their official seal, crest or emblem. Some examples include:
Columbia University: The seal incorporates the Hebrew name for God radiating from the top as well as the Hebrew name of one of the angels on the banner located at the inner right.
Yale University: The seal shows an opened book with the Hebrew words, Urim V’tumim, the very words which appeared on the breastplate of the High Priest, worn in the days of the Temple.
Dartmouth College: The seal includes the uses the Hebrew words which translate into, “God Almighty” located in a radiating triangle at the top.
For more information on this topic including sources on the prevalence of Hebrew as part of a core curriculum, I recommend reading Ken Spiro’s: America and Jewish Values: The Bible’s major role in the creation of the United States and its democracy.
