Hebrew was the instructional language at the Hebrew University. In May 1927 Martin Buber was invited to lecture at the University. When a group of students demanded that he lecture in Hebrew rather than German he refused and had to be persuaded by Magnes not to cancel his speech. The same year David Shapiro, the publisher of the New York Yiddish daily "Der Tog" announced he would raise $50,000 for an endowed chair of Yiddish at the university. This provoked such a strong reaction, with posters around the city accusing the university of treason and demonstrators outside Magnes' house under the slogan "The chair of Jargon, the end of the university", that Magnes was forced to decline the offer. It was not until 1949 that the university had a chair in Yiddish with David Sedan as its first lecturer.