New Delhi: All of us hate exams. Well, if that sounds exaggeration, then we can rephrase it to ‘most of us hate exams’. But the fact remains that exams in schools and colleges are something most of us do not enjoy. We have to read, memorise and jot down the words during the examination. A tedious work, isn’t it? That brings us to the question: Who came up with the idea of exams? While this article will answer that question, we would request the readers not to hold any grudge against the person in question if they do not have happy memories of exams.
Well, who invented exams?
The answer to this question is reportedly Heinz Albert Fischel. He was an American-German professor emeritus of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Indiana University who played a key role in starting the Jewish Studies Program at that university and he secured a grant from Lilly Endowment in 1972-73 for the university to develop the program. Professor Fischel lived in Bloomington till he passed away in 2008.
Fischel was born in Bonn on November 20, 1913, and his parents were Adolf (no, not that one) and Anna. His father was engaged in the profession of shoemaking and since his childhood in Bonn, Fischel loved to play chess, tennis, and soccer, and he even tried his hands in competitive boxing.
Apart from being a talented student and sportsperson, Fischel was also an accomplished pianist. He completed a degree in rabbinical studies at Berlin’s Hochschule für Wissenschaft des Judentums. At the same time, he enrolled himself as a student at the University of Berlin. During the World War II, the Nazi Germany widely persecuted the Jews, committing several mass murders. They imprisoned Fischel at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp following the Kristallnacht Pogrom. Notably, the concentration camps had gas chambers to execute the Jews in large numbers.
Fischel got his degree in rabbinical studies in 1939 from the Hochschule and got a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. In 1958, he began to serve the Brandeis University and in 1961, he accepted the offer to work in a position at the faculty of Indiana University. He was married to Sylvia who passed away in 1987. According to reports, Fischel died on March 20, 2008.
The answer to this question is reportedly Heinz Albert Fischel. He was an American-German professor emeritus of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Indiana University. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
