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e ; | ' 1 AMERICAN FRIENDS’ SERVICE CO... .ATTEE—Retugee Section 20 South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, Penna. Rurvus M. Jones, Chairman Crarence E. Pickett, Executive Secretary To THE AMERICAN SEMINAR’S SECOND SEASON Josrrmngy J. WrLtiams Only a very small number of refugees are able to come to this country at the present time, partly becaus policy, and partly because of the d of the stringency ‘of our immigration fheulties involved in reaching a neutral port and securing passage. But among the few who do manage to come, there are distinguished intellectuals culture will be out of all proportion and artists whose contribution to our to their number. The newcomers’ need- - for Americanization has lone been recornized; more recently we have realized that the professional vroup of sefugees face special problems of adjustment. If they are to teach and lecture and write, they need an excel- lent command of English, which car only be gotten through intensive work that is adapted to their academic training. If they are to have fruitful and cordial personal relationships with American students and audiences, they must have a sympathetic understanding of our social customs, our traditions and our characteristic attitudes. The American Seminar, now in its second year, is one of several projects sponsored by the American Friends’ ‘Service Committee with a view to help- ing refugee scholars and artists with these problems of adjustment. The first session was held in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, in the summer of 1940, the second session at the Holderness School in Plymouth, New Hampshire, July 2 to September 2, 1941. The Seminar was again organized according to a plan worked out by Dr. Hertha Kraus, Assuciate Professor of Social Economy at Bryn Mawr College, and Consultant to the American Friends’ Service Committee, who also served as Executive Secretary of the Seminar. Professor Herbert A. Miller, formerly Professor of Sociglagy at Bryn Mawr College and Temple University, was the Resident Director and an inspired leader. ‘The faculty of four members and 21 tutors were American teachers or graduate students except for one tulor who had taught English in Austria. The maintenance exceptions the entire staff contributed their services, Staff and faculty led a strenuous life. The odd jobs that turned up gave scope to every latent talent but no one thoucht of begrudging the hard work. The members of the Seminar had been carefully selected, following recommendations of the several refyeee agencies, professional associations, and professional colleacues. They pdid a fee of one hundred dollars, cover- ing all expenses for the nine weeks. -About 259 of the group were sponsored by New York refuzee agencies who made their training possible, paying a reduced fee of cighty dollars, supplemented by a twenty dollar scholarship of the American Friends’ Service Committee. In other cases members were helped by individual friends to meet the fees. The eighty-two members were of ten different nationalities: approxi- mately one-third of the group was ;Austrian and anolher third German; French, Czechs, Russians, Hunguridnus, Roumanians, Poles, ltalians and Dutch made up the rest. The ifty-three men and twenty-nine women included fifteen married couples. ‘The majority had a doctor’s degree and had been well established in their professions. The scholars included twieve social scientists, three natural scient}sts, five Philusophers, three psycholo- *