The Scholar and the Analyst

I got to know Harry Wolfson shortly after my arrival at Harvard, having been introduced to him after lunch one day at the Faculty Club. He had his lunch every day at the Club, where he presided over what came to be known as Wolfson’s table, where he was often joined by several Harvard scholars including Jakob Rosenberg of the Fine Arts Department, the legal scholar Samuel Thorne, my predecessor at the Education School Robert Ulich, the Divinity School professor George H. Williams, the philosopher Morton White, and occasional others. He welcomed me warmly when we met, expressing his interest in the field of education and his pleasure in the fact that I had had a strong background in Jewish studies, and had graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He was, thereafter, cordial whenever we met, urging me to promote the advancement of Jewish education in Boston by helping develop a school or schools to that purpose. It was all very vague, but exceedingly friendly. Years later, his typical remark to me when we would see one another in the lobby of the Faculty Club was “We must talk sometime”, which was never followed by an actual meeting.