Recently, the Yeshiva chapter of Eta Sigma Phi held its annual meeting at the home of Professor Louis Feldman. Eta Sigma Phi, a national fraternity with many chapters in various universities throughout the country, is devoted to the study of classical literature in the original Greek or Latin. The fraternity's slogan, "philosophoumen kai philokoloumen" (from Greek: "we love wisdom and we love beauty") closely reflects its aims.

Each year, Yeshiva University's chapter, Gamma Delta, initiates several new students in a traditional ceremony. Any student interested in joining must be in (or have completed) their second year of either Greek or Latin. Additionally, potential initiates must translate a piece of literature into either of those two languages. Past years' translations into Latin have included a wide variety of unique selections, such as the O.J. Simpson Fuhrman Tapes (translated by Shmuel Hertzfeld); Act 4, Scene 1, of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (translated by Larry Moscovitz); and Rashi and Tosafot on the story of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus and the question of Greek wisdom in Talmud (translated by Joseph M. Lipner).

Benji Joffe's translation into Latin of twelve songs from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band during the 1999-2000 school year gained national attention and indirectly led to his being elected national president of Eta Sigma Phi. This year, Shlomo Schwarzbard, Gamma Delta's only new member, submitted his own translation of A. E. Housman's "Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff."

Despite the small number of new initiates each year, Yeshiva's department of Classics can boast remarkable successes. During the 1999-2000 school year (the same year that Joffe attained the presidency of Eta Sigma Phi), Pinchas Grossman won second place in the fraternity's nationwide intermediate Greek translation contest, having taken only a semester and a half of elementary Greek when he actually competed. Another student won second place in the intermediate Latin contest just last year.

However, achievements of Yeshiva Classics students go back much further than just a couple of years. As a matter of fact, the Gamma Delta chapter has existed for over half a century. Dr. Feldman's students have attained a wide variety of prestigious positions; Dr. Shaya Cohen, a Yeshiva alumnus and classics major, recently gained full professorship at Harvard, becoming one of the first Yeshiva graduates ever to do so. Dr. Moshe Bernstein and Dr. David Berger, both classics majors, are professors at Yeshiva, along with Rabbi Saul Berman, who took two years of Latin at Yeshiva, and teaches at Stern College for Women.

Rabbi Meir Fulda, who teaches in JSS and serves as an academic advisor, also majored in Classics and initiated the Gamma Delta chapter some time ago. "I felt," says Rabbi Fulda, "that the classical languages held the critical key for a great deal of scholarship in the ancient Jewish era." He points out that Jews were under both Greek and Roman rule for quite a long time. Additionally, he had a special love for Greek because of the "Targum Hashivim," the Septuagint.

Rabbi Fulda approached Dr. Belkin, a Greek professor himself, who was president of the university at the time, with a special request. Despite the general ban on fraternities at Yeshiva, Rabbi Fulda wanted to start a local chapter of Eta Sigma Phi because he felt that it was a purely academic organization. After an agreement was made that no pagan-like rituals would occur at the chapter's events, Dr. Belkin approved the fraternity chapter. Rabbi Fulda became the first prytanis (president) of Gamma Delta. He also started a club, Eranos, which sponsored lectures from outstanding scholars. A half-century later, Rabbi Fulda still enjoys reading ancient Greek and Latin literature. "I've always retained my love for the Classics," he said.

There are many reasons why Greek and Latin have intrigued secular scholars throughout the ages. One is that many of the earliest notions of many subjects have their origins in the classical writings. It is no coincidence that biology (from Greek, bios, life + logos study), philosophy (from Greek, philia, love + sophia, wisdom), political science (from Greek, polites, citizen + from Latin, scire, to know), and physics (from Greek, phusis, nature), etc. (short for et cetera, the rest, from Latin) are all referred to by Greek or Latin nomenclature. Although the way that ancient thinkers perceived the world often differs radically from modern notions, their opinions, methodologies, and novel ways of examining their surroundings are often fascinating and insightful. As many classics majors have wondered, what class topics could be more exciting than reading about Livy's or Virgil's account of the origins of Rome, Pliny's doubtfulness as to how to treat the early Christians, or Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, all in the original?

Additionally, studying Classics offers (from Latin, offerre, to bring) great advantages for college students (from Latin, studere, to be eager) and professionals (from Latin, professio, declaration) alike. With Latin roots comprising approximately 50% of the English language (from Latin, lingua, tongue), along with Greek roots which claim another 15%, familiarity (from Latin, familia, family) with either of the two languages enhances both vocabulary (from Latin, vocabulum, name) and grammar (from Greek, gramma, letter) skills.