From the Archive: Rabbi Avigdor Miller's FIRST Published Article (1928)

From an article by Dr. Yitzchok Levine 
Republished from The Jewish Press with permission 

The Hebrew part of this issue of Hedenu contains a number of divrei Torah by the students at
RIETS [Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University]. The most well-known author in this issue is Rabbi Avigdor Miller.

​Rabbi Miller came to RIETS in 1925. In 1928 he was a member of the first entering class of Yeshiva College. However, in 1932 he left to study in Slabodka, shortly before the college's first graduation and therefore never actually graduated from Yeshiva College.

Rabbi Miller's contribution cannot really be classified as a d'var Torah. It is more a piece of inspirational writing about Chanukah. I can only speculate that he was motivated in part by the fact that he and the other boys in the yeshiva had moved into the dormitory of the new building shortly before Chanukah. It was certainly a far cry from the quarters that he and the others were used to on the Lower East Side.

Harry Steinberg, another member of the first entering YC class told me that when he arrived at RIETS in 1927 he shared an apartment across from 302 East Broadway with Rabbi Miller and eight other boys. "We were two boys to a room. Two of us even slept in the kitchen!" he recalled.
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Dr. Yitzchok Levine, a frequent contributor to The Jewish Press, is a professor in the
department of Mathematical Sciences at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New
Jersey. He can be contacted at llevine@stevens.edu.