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WHEN MY BROTHER AND I WERE CHILDREN IN THE 1920s there hung in our room two portraits of famous men, one with beard, one without. The latter was Abraham Lincoln--the 1919 lithograph by Boardman Robinson, who portrayed him from photographs before the 1860 election. The other was Theodor Herzl, the famous etching by Hernann Struck, and it was signed by both men.(1)
In school Henry and I could readily identify Lincoln-we read about him in books, and his profile was on the penny, a coin of value then (one bought a penny postcard, two a newspaper, five a large ice cream cone, ten everything in the 5&10). And did not Father tell us that it was in the home of Victor Brenner, engraver of the Lincoln penny, that he and Mother had first been introduced? Concerning the man with the beard we were vague. In time both portraits vanished. Although they were not Zionists, I recall hearing that my parents had donated the Herzl to a Zionist organization. As for the Lincoln, it was probably sold for a few dollars--the Depression meant that every dollar was desperately needed.
Another historic picture was in Father's study. It showed a gray-haired man in red robes extending an arm while delivering a speech to avast audience on a hillside. This was the inauguration of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus in 1925 (when I was three), and the speaker was Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), signer of the Declaration eight years before when he was foreign secretary in the British government. It had fallen to him to play a central formal role in both historic events, inspired by his warm endorsement of the cause.
This picture, by the artist Leopold Pilichowski, disappeared too, and in recent years I began wishing I had it still.(2) Happily, an officer of the Hebrew University made it possible for me to acquire a large photographic reproduction of the original painting, now in the Sherman Administration building on Mount Scopus, so that, handsomely framed and placed in a commanding spot, it enriches my home once again.
The 70th anniversary of the inauguration was marked in Israel with fitting observance, and perhaps the inauguration might be recalled here too. For the Hebrew University--text omitted--arose from the...