Last week I browsed the book section of a thrift store and picked up Bruce Feiler's America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story. The title intrigued me so I flipped some pages and came upon the following: (p. 95)
"All ten colleges founded on America soil before the Revolution offered instruction in Hebrew. The seal of Yale depicts an open Bible with the inscription "Light and Truth" in Hebrew. The seals of Dartmouth and Columbia include Hebrew as well. The Harvard commencement included a Hebrew oration every year until 1817. Even in the face of the Enlightenment, the Hebrew Scripture stubbornly maintained its grip on the American mind. And Moses maintained his status as the Bible's chief ambassador to the United States.
Fascinating. (I bought the book.)