A group of students in 1939 organized the first annual Religious Emphasis Week. Religious Emphasis Week ran from October 22-27 and featured seminars, lectures, discussions, and special group meetings selected from a poll of the student body. Selected topics of focus included “What Can Be Accomplished by Prayer?,” “A Christian Philosophy of Life,” “Religious Basis for Social Action,” and “Religious Resources for Personal Living.” Rabbi Edward L. Israel of Har Sinai Congregation and Baltimore delivered the Thursday evening address in Aycock Auditorium on “Religion and Abundant Living.”
Religious Emphasis Week continued until 1953 when it was renamed the Inter-Faith Forum.