Jerry Hochbaum
Jerry Hochbaum
I remember writing my first poem in my childhood and sharing it with my parents.
Their response was remote as both my parents and grandparents were immigrants from
Poland and never had the opportunity to obtain a formal education.
When I was enrolled in the second grade, my Jewish Studies teacher, before
dismissing his class every Friday afternoon, led us in singing the Biblical Song of Songs
deemed one of the most beautiful poems in the Bible. Those Friday afternoons are one
of my most fulfilling memories. Soon after that I began to read and even write poetry.
In my subsequent education, I was ordained at Yeshiva University, earned two
graduate degrees in sociology and community organization at Columbia University and
a doctorate in sociology at New York University. As I reported above, early in my career, I
taught sociology at Yeshiva University after which I was appointed executive vice-president at
the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture where I served for more than four decades.
During that period, the Foundation awarded thirteen thousand and five hundred
fellowships, doctoral scholarships, and grants, creating a most impressive mosaic
of a generation of academics, scholars, rabbis, communal workers and artists to replace
the Jewish cultural elite decimated in the Shoah. In addition, the Foundation supported
the preparation and publication of more than four thousand books dealing with
Jewish culture broadly defined. It also pioneered in organizing thirty-two international
Nahum Goldmann Fellowships on six continents which identified and trained more
than one thousand young men and women for leadership positions-communal and
cultural-in Jewish communities around the world.
When i retired and began to organize my files I found several labeled poetry. They
contained scribbled sheets and neatly typed ones that brought back to me my life long
exposure and love of poetry Even more important, the collection of poems in this modest
volume will hopefully arouse thinking about the spiritual
intelligence and ascent to which we all aspire.
