Dr. Abram L. Sachar, president of Brandeis University since its foundation 20 years ago, has asked the university’s board of trustees to select his successor as president, “hopefully within two years.” He told a special meeting of the trustees that “new eras, especially in education” required that the university “should now have the reappraisal that new leadership can provide.”
Lawrence A. Wein of New York, chairman of the board of trustees, announced the board’s “profound regret” over Dr. Sachar’s decision and announced that the board had voted unanimously to elect Dr. Sachar chancellor of the university, when a successor to the presidency is appointed and installed.
In the 20 years since Dr. Sachar was called out of retirement to head the newly-established Jewish-sponsored non-sectarian university, Brandeis has grown from a small college with an original freshman class of 107 students and one main building in the shape of a medieval castle, to a university with an international student body of 2,500 studying on a campus with more than 70 modern buildings valued at more than $50 million.
When Dr. Sachar accepted the presidency of Brandeis, he was described by one writer as “a scholarly dynamo who was more interested in writing books than in administration.” He had already gained recognition as a historian with the appearance of his principal work. “A History of the Jews.” written in 1930 and revised since to take in contemporary developments. In addition, he has written “Factors in Jewish History.” “Sufferance Is The Badge.” and “Religion of a Modern Liberal.” besides numerous magazine articles.
Another principal interest in Dr. Sachar’s life has been his association with the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation. He was director of the Foundation chapter of the University of Illinois from 1929 to 1933 and then served as national director from 1933 to 1948, when he assumed the presidency of Brandeis. In 1923-1929, after earning the first doctorate degree awarded at Cambridge University, Dr. Sachar taught history at the University of Illinois. Among his students were James Reston, associate editor of The New York Times, and Irving Dillard, former head of the editorial page of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
