258 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS ed, in 1892, Dr. Hirsch joined the Semitic department and still holds a professorship there. For three years he tanght classes regularly. One of the purposes of the department was to prepare /Jewish students for the rabbinate. Three students entered the university for this purpose and graduated, but none of them is now actively engaged in the Jewish min- istry. In the strict interpretation of the word, Dr. Hirsch has not raised up disciples. He did not want his students to imi- tate him in thinking, much less in mannerism. He served his students best by making them independent of him. ** Think out your own world concept, he said. ** Differ with me if you must, but do not follow me. ' ' In a larger sense, however. Dr. Hirsch has raised up legions of disciples in his own faith and among those whose fellow- ship is historically separate from the synagog. He has been the spokesman of Judaism to the Jews and has been the glo- rious representative to the non-Jews. No man in this country has ever expounded Judaism to Christians more eloquently or more learnedly. He has been concerned not only for the Jews but also for the destiny and mission of America as a democracy, the haven of refuge for the oppressed of earth. If to-day the Jew is appraised at a higher value than ever be- fore, it is due to the eloquence of Emil Q. Hirsch. His pulpit has not been Sinai Temple, Chicago, alone, but every dty in America, and England, Germany, and France. He has been oflScially connected with three pulpits in his long and busy career: the first, Baltimore; the second, Louis- ville ; and the last, Sinai Temple, Chicago. He entered Sinai a young man and has served his people as a teacher for over thirty years. No man in the city of Chicago has been more influential in molding the ethical, sociological and re- ligious conceptions of the citizens of the Middle West than he. No man is more venerated for his learning and purity of character. His name has been on the tongues of thousands but never with a word of reproach. A reverential son, he is a devoted father, a loyal, sympathetic friend to those who merit his friendship, ever quick to hear the cry of distress and to plead for the widow and orphan.
