Dear Friends, 

In May 1774, William Murray complained, lightheartedly, to Barnard Gratz about the latter’s brother, Michael. Murray was Michael Gratz’s business partner. He had eagerly traveled from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to finalize a land purchase. Michael, however, wasn’t available to sign the papers. 

Murray found Michael in the middle of the Shavuot holiday. Murray, a pious Christian, knew the gist about Shavuot. “As the devil will have it, you must be informed forsooth,” he wrote to Barnard Gratz, “that Moses was upon the top of the mount in the month of May—consequently his followers must for a certain number of days cease to provide for their families.” 

In truth, William Murray respected the Gratz family’s religious devotion. Shavuot, a festival that commemorates the Jewish people’s reception of the Torah and its attendant wisdom, was a particularly moving occasion. It was important to Barnard Gratz that his family be remembered for their faithfulness to the Bible. In the 1790s, Barnard sat for his portrait painted by Charles Peale Polk. The painting depicts him seated beside a worn volume of the Bible, plucked from the worn, well-used edition behind him.

The Barnard Gratz painting, on display at Philadelphia’s Museum of the Revolution, like Michael Gratz’s unimpeachable dedication to Shavuot observance, represents American Jewry’s uncompromising commitment to Jewish learning. 

Gratz College is also steadfastly devoted to the advancement of Jewish wisdom. It’s therefore fitting that in a few days, directly after Shavuot, we will invest Prof. Brendan Goldman as the inaugural holder of the Dr. Saul Philip Wachs Chair of Jewish Life and Learning. In this final public program on the Mandell Education Campus—before the College relocates to Bala Cynwyd and Jenkintown—we will celebrate Saul Wachs’ career and scholarship and transmit that sturdy tradition to the College’s newest faculty member. Most of all, we will rededicate the College’s commitment to lifelong Jewish learning, the hallmark of our mission and the pivotal theme of the upcoming Shavuot holiday. 

With best wishes,