On his show April 10, 2013, Dennis said: “I wrote a paper for a
Marxist. One of my professors was Sidney
Morgenbesser [an ordained rabbi]. He wasn’t a communist. I liked him personally.
I’ll never forget I wrote a paper for him comparing Judaism with
Marxism as philosophies of life. I knew that had he lived another 100
years, he would not have gotten another paper like that at Columbia. I
knew he wondered how I got in — that I actually believed in religion
and thought it was superior to Marxism. To his credit, he gave me a B.
I’m sure he wanted to give me a D but it was too well-researched. I was
like a sort of extra-terrestrial. I felt that way at graduate school.”
According to
Wikipedia: “Sidney Morgenbesser (September 22, 1921 – August
1, 2004) was a Columbia University philosopher. Born in New York City,
he undertook philosophical study at the City College of New York and
rabbinical study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, then
pursued graduate study in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania,
where he wrote his Ph.D. thesis under the direction of Nelson Goodman.
Morgenbesser returned to Columbia to teach in 1953 and, in 1975, was
named the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy there. Morgenbesser was
known particularly for his sharp witticisms and humor, which often
penetrated to the heart of the philosophical issue at hand. He
published little, and established no school, but was revered for his
extraordinary intelligence and moral seriousness. He was a famously
influential teacher; his former students include Jerry Fodor, Raymond
Geuss, Robert Nozick, and Derek Parfit.”
