The Great Debate: The Latke’s Role in the Renaissance, 1991 Debate

When Dear Abby was asked the question ‘Why do Jews always answer a question with a question?’ she replied, ‘How should they answer?’ And when I am asked do I give precedence to the latke or the hamantash? I must reply,despite being absolutely sure of the answer, ‘How should the university answer?’ This is not because I believe that the état c’est moi, whatever you may think. In fact, as president of the University of Chicago, it is my duty never to think.
Let me remind this audience of the stated policy of the university as formulated in the Kalven Committee Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action, published and endorsed by the Council of the University Senate in 1967: ‘[There is] a heavy presumption against the university taking collective action or expressing opinions on the political and social issues of the day, or modifying its corporate activities to foster social or political values, however compelling and appealing theymay be.’ Given my fidelity to the idea of the university and the obligation it imposes for a colorless neutrality, therefore, let me say in the most courageously forthright and outspoken terms that both the latke and the hamantash are simply wonderful.We welcome them to our diverse, pluralistic, and tolerant community of scholars, as we have for a hundred years and as we will for the century to come. Read more

The Great Debate: The Hamantash in Shakespeare, 1965 debate

Who was William Shakespeare?
This question has defied the best scholarly minds for three andone-half centuries. Some critics have said his poems and plays were really written by the seventeenth Earl of Loxford.Others say that the true author was Francis (you’ll pardon the expression) Bacon.Nonsense! Shakespeare alone, or somebody else with that name, is the true author. That this man of lowly origins — a humble hamantash baker by trade — could have written immortal verse comes as a surprise to some. But not to me. For a careful search of his sonnets and plays clearly reveals the man and the powerful source of his creativity.
The first clue to the mystery is to be found in Shakespeare’s central play, The Merchant of Venice. In act 5, the young hero Lorenzo says to the beautiful Jessica: ‘How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon
this bank! Here we will sit and let the sounds of music creep into our ears.’
Here is a statement that appears to be poetic, clear, and straightforward. But how can it be both poetic on the one hand and clear and straightforward on the other? Modern literary criticism and centuries of Shakespearean scholarship teach us this is impossible. So we must look more closely. Read more