The Denver Jewish news., 1919-08-06

secret society is fast heeomlng one OF
radical reconstruction or of complete
abolition. Smith College has only two
sororities and they are more like
large democratic clubs than like exclu-
sive sisterhoods; Wellesley has reor-
sanized its six fraternitics SO that
membership is by application vassar.
barnard and Bryn Mawr report no
secret societies of any kind.
The social position Of the Jewish girl
ut college, then, is practically no bet
Ter and no worse than that of her
Gentle sister. Her academic standing
needs only a word in passing. At
Smith during the past college year,
where the Jewish girls comprised only
s per cent. of the student body, they
comprised 0 per cent. of the number
receiving Phi Beta Kappa keys; at
Eryn Mawr in June 1916, where only
4 per cent. of the Senior class were
Jewish girls, they formed Q per cent.
Of the number 1eceiving cum laude."
The registrar of woman's college Of
PIG students in the state Of New York
who writes that her college has only
three Jewish students, but that they
are all doing work above the aver
age. and the President of the college
in Colorado who says of the Jewish
girls he has had that they were good
students, very loyal and painstaking.
are but voIcing the esteem in which
the Jewish girl student is held gener-
ally by college officials.
Jewish girls go to boarding school
in much larger numbers proportion
ately than they do to college. In
boarding school, where tuition and
board cost almost twice as much as
they did at my college and where "A
little prejudice" was supposed to cx-
list among the students, there were 25
.Icwesses out of total enrolment of
40; at my Alma Mater there were
only 20 out of total enrolment Of
1.4OO.
questionable sent to boarding
schools simultaneously with the qucs-
tionaire sent to the college revealed
the fact that the Jewish girls com
prise o per cent. of the total attend
nnce ut five of the most representa-
tive boarding schools In different
parts Of the country.
OF course. 1t must he said in all
justice to the Jewish parent that when
ever colleges are conveniently lccat-
cd in the city Of his residence, he
sends his daughters to these colleges
in fairly commendable number the
attendance Of Jewish girls at Barnard
and Hunter Colleges In New York, at
GOucher In Baltimore, at the University
OF Chicago In the City Of Chicago
serve to illustrate this. But
the majority Of Jewish faith
ers and mothers are loath to
permit their daughters to attend col
leges at distance when for approxi-
mately four years these daughters are
divorced from family AMI friends. &
The Jewish graduate Is showing
quite the same eagerness as her Geu-
tile sister to put her college training
to practical use. During tile year
1014-15, 5ls per cs.i,t. Of the women reg
istered at the intercollegiate Bureau
of Occupations were Jewesscs, very
favorable number In view Of the fact
that the Jewish graduates comprised
much less than 51a per cent. Of the
total number of women college grad
,intes.
Looking back thru the centuries one
finds the Jewish wOman everywhere n
potent influence in the life of her peO
pie. In ancient days, when, as Olive
Schreiner points out. the ideal was
one of physical labor. the Jewish
woman bore the major weight Of agri-i
cultural and domestic toll, FROM
Rachel whom Jacob met and loved us
she watered her fathers flocks. to
Ruth the ancestress OF line of kings
and heroes whom her BOaz noted
iabOring in the harvest fields; from
Sarah. kneading and baking cakes Tor
Abraham's prophetic visitors, to Mir
lam. prophecies and singer, and De-
boruh, who judged Israel from beneath
her palm tree
Miriam and Deborah, however. seem
to foreshadow the Jewish woman Of
the twentieth century. the Jewess who
serves her ruce aud her age not thru
physical labor perhaps but thru that
mental industry" which is taking its
place.
That equipment is ut hand in the