Jewish students also faced discrimination. In 1908 Illinois reportedly was one of only a few universities in the country to have considerable numbers of Jewish students, the others being Harvard, Yale, Chicago, and Minnesota. Winton Solberg estimates that there were almost 150 Jewish students at the University in the early-1910s.[14]<\/a>\u00a0Barred from most fraternities and sororities, Jewish students formed their own groups. In 1907 twenty-nine students (including at least eight women) were charter members of Ivrim\u2014the first Jewish student group on the U of I campus. (Ivrim was later absorbed by the Menorah Society.) Jewish fraternities and sororities followed: Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Alpha Mu chapters were established in 1912 and 1918, respectively, and the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority appeared in 1920.[15]<\/a>\u00a0In 1907 certain students attempted to form a group\u2014the Ilus Club\u2014that explicitly excluded Jews and Catholics from its membership.[16]<\/a>\u00a0But anti-Semitism was not limited to the student body. Writing to President James in the spring of 1915, Karl Epstein expressed unhappiness at the treatment of Jewish students in campus publications.\u00a0James referred Epstein’s \u201cjustifiable grievance\u201d to Dean of Men Thomas Arkle Clark<\/a>. The dean responded bluntly. \u201cThis office has done more in the past two or three years to protect the Jews than it has done with reference to any other nationalities or individuals all combined,\u201d Clark wrote. \u201c. . . From an unprejudiced point of view they have deserved all that they have received. From their own standpoint they have been brought into prominence more than they thought fair. I believe, however, that when any race or individual, whether it is the Jews or the Dean of Men, is easily caricatured and is constantly before the public, as some of our Jews here are, they must expect caricature and comment, and they ought to learn to take it kindly.\u201d[17]<\/a>\u00a0Early in 1920, responding to a Jewish student who wondered why the University’s athletic facilities were closed on Sundays, Clark declared that this was \u201ca Christian country established upon Christian traditions and Christian principles\u201d and that it was the responsibility of University officials \u201cto uphold these traditions and to maintain these principles . . . even when they may be opposed by foreigners or by those who would like to wipe out all our Christian traditions.\u201d Clark’s remarks sparked a great deal of controversy, eventually prompting the dean of men to protest in the Daily Illini that \u201cmuch is read into them that was not there.\u201d[18]<\/a><\/p>\nReferences<\/h5>\n
[1]<\/a>\u00a0Carl Stephens, \u201cThe University of Illinois\u2013A History, 1867-1947,\u201d Record Series 26\/1\/21, Carl Stephens Manuscript History, Chapter 6, 3-4, University of Illinois Archives.\u00a0[2]<\/a>\u00a0Arthur Seymour to Edmund James, 1913 April 21<\/a>, Edmund James Faculty Correspondence (2\/5\/6), B: 29, F: Seymour, University of Illinois Archives.\u00a0[3]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.\u00a0[4]<\/a>\u00a0Carol Huang, \u201cThe Soft Power of U. S. Education and the Formation of a Chinese American Intellectual Community in Urbana-Champaign, 1905-1954\u201d (Ph.D. Diss., University of Illinois, 2001), 30.\u00a0[5]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 2, 30.\u00a0[6]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 95-96, 99-100.\u00a0[7]<\/a>\u00a0Seymour to James, 1913 April 21.\u00a0[8]<\/a>\u00a0Huang, 88.\u00a0[9]<\/a>\u00a0\u201cColored Students,\u201d Dean of Men General Correspondence (41\/2\/1), B: 8, F: Clan-Col, University of Illinois Archives.\u00a0[10]<\/a>\u00a0Albert Lee, \u201cThe University of Illinois Negro Students,\u201d June 25, 1940, University of Illinois Archives Reference File.\u00a0[11]<\/a>\u00a0Daily Illini<\/em>, 13 February 1913.\u00a0[12]<\/a>\u00a0Tamara Lynette Hoff, \u201cThe History of African American Women at the University of Illinois, 1901-1939\u201d (Ph.D. Diss., University of Illinois, 2015), 88.\u00a0[13]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 112.\u00a0[14]<\/a>\u00a0Winton Solberg, \u201cThe Early Years of the Jewish Presence at the University of Illinois,\u201d\u00a0
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