New School A History of the New School for Social Research

The New School was a center for adult education established in 1918 in New York and was always open to and supported by Jews. Ch. 5 (pp. 84-106) describes the creation of a graduate faculty in 1933 by president Alvin Johnson. He brought twelve leading Jewish scholars from Germany, assisted by private Jewish contributions and by the Rockefeller Foundation which, however, disapproved of the Jewish and socialist background of these scholars and feared the disruption of the quota system. Ch. 6 (pp. 107-127) describes the refugees' studies on the nature of fascism and their gradual abandonment of socialism. Hans Staudinger, in particular, emphasized the crucial role of racism in the evolution of the Nazi state. With the outbreak of World War II, the New School tried to save more refugees but was obstructed by State Department officials. Also mentions the work of Hannah Arendt at the New School in the 1950s-60s.