In 1948, a defunct medical school squatted quietly near Waltham, Mass. The 200 acres of grass and mud were violated only by a stable, a single classroom building, a few houses, and The Castle, a fantastic melange of turrets and crenelations.

In the eight years since, the fieldstone stable has sprouted a shining wing and become a library; the dissecting room of The Castle has become a dining hall. Thirty-one major buildings have risen, roads have been built, shrubs planted. Respected academic names and promising younger ones have brought ability and prestige to the result: Brandeis, the first Jewish-founded nonsectarian university in the country.

The current wails of established colleges testify that even abstract thinking about expansion is difficult, that building a new institution of immediate high quality is a prodigious task. Brandeis has accomplished that task.

In seeking the ideal of an institution of quality, where "the integrity of learning will not be compromised," Brandeis has conquered many obstacles--no money, and no alumni to get it from; no academic reputation and no faculty to derive it from.

But through the fund-raising abilities of President Abram L. Sacher, and through such devices as foster alumni, money was gathered. Through high salaries and freedom from administrative burdens, an eminent faculty was assembled. Now, as the University concludes its eighth year, thousands of benefactors, hundreds of alumni, and Sachar and his staff can look back on a noteworthy achievement in American education and a milestone in the history of American Jewry.

That milestone is the first on a 70-year-long road. For decades, American Jews have wanted to found a nonsectarian educational institution. They have felt a vague gratitude to the hundreds of colleges founded by other denominations which have admitted Jews, frequently without limitation.

The impetus has been one of gratitude, not of defensive obligation. "After all," Sachar explains, "the Jewish community always chose to make its great gifts to existing institutions" with such happy results as Harvard's Littauer School of Public Administration.

Interest in founding a school was first prompted in 1867 with the establishment of Swarthmore by the Friends. But this movement was cut short by immigration: Jews constituted a sizable part of the Eastern European waves which came to this country between 1870 and World War I.

"Yes, But This is an Emergency"

The concern of American Jews became rehabilitation or support, or of eking out a living in a new land. A University was still a "wonderful idea, but this is an emergency."

Other emergencies followed: two World Wars, Nazi persecution, the plight of millions of displaced persons, and, for many Jews, the hope of Israel.

Finally came the catalyst to action. In 1946, the campus of defunct Middlesex Medical College was offered to a hastily-organized group of Boston businessmen. Middlesex was founded by Dr. John Hall Smith, an old New Englander who reacted against discrimination by other medical schools. Smith succeeded in maintaining a non-discriminatory admissions policy, but failed to maintain a satisfactory level of instruction.

The school was offered at no cost; the only demand was that the businessmen found an educational institution which continued the non-discriminatory admissions policy.

Despite obvious risks, the seven managed to raise $1,300,000 ad at one point shelled out $250,000 of their own. After settling squabbles with a "prefounding group" in New York, supported by Albert Einstein, they brought Brandeis into being in October, 1948.

The Castle and the miscellaneous buildings were the entire setting. Fortunately, the founders agreed on Sachar--a genial, stocky man with a remarkable ability to raise funds--for the presidency. Educated at Washington University, Harvard, and Cambridge, Sachar had taught history at the University of Illinois, and had written a "History of the Jews," which has gone through 14 editions. He also had gained an excellent administrative background by serving as president of the National Hillel Foundation for 15 years.