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THE OLDEST JEWISH NEWSPAPER PRINTED IN MICHIGAN

VOL XXXI. NO. 20

Section Two

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 1927

because it is usually no asset to be
actively identified with Jewish inter-
ests. Ile will not deny his faith, he
will not be aggressively antagonistic
to it. But he wishes to be left alone.
(Editor's Note:—This is an address delivered by Professor Ab-
It is enough to be a Jew and to suffer
raham L. Sachar of the University of Illinois at the symposium on
for it socially without adding further
"Youth and the Perpetuation of Judaism," held under the auspices
burdens that may easily be avoided.
of the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods at the biennial
At least half the Jewish students who
convention recently held by the union in Cleveland.)
enroll in the universities state no re-
ligious preference on their registra-
Since the war the American collegt 4 :
tion slips. The Jewish student must,
student has become a favorite subject, The
superficial, cynical,
cynical, carefree at- therefore, be weaned from the reli-
of
abuse.
The
press
thunders
at
him,
o
blade that is so
of the stu-
gious indifference common to his type
the
pulpit storms, and many a clever
t
It does not, even at its worst, rep-
novelist has reaped the rich harvest resent all of his interests, certainly and he must also be influenced to
that goes with popularity by baring not his deeper, serious feelings. It break away from the prejudice which
the mysterious intimacies of college is often a pose, a mood, and it is not makes him unwilling to identify him-
self with a Jewish group.
life. Students, they all say in chorus, incompatible with keenness, with in-
Of course every community has
flit thoughtlessly through four years tellectual honesty with earnestness,
similar problems. Young men and
of jazz and the worship ofbrute with a generous spirit.
women are very much the same in uni-
i the
strength. They are masters in
There are probably more drones versity and out. There is no particu-
art of wasting time and effort and
money. Their life is one long dash buzzing
buzzing b a 'tit
( in the halls of our col-
col- lar university religious viewpoint.
leges today than ever before.
For But a large number of Jewish stu-
for
dates; they are pleasure mad, sex
'
the colleges, with impressive social d ents, brought together on a campus,
crazed. Studies are hours designed
features and spectacular athletic pro- gives a peculiar slant to the problem.
to give them an excuse for coming on
to a campus. Texts are niece pre- grams, have become very attractive Fraternities and sororities on one side
texts. Where there are fraternities to young people who should never and unorganized students on the
have left the farm or the office. other, live in two different worlds. It
and sororities, life is emptier, inter-
Thousands of families, too, suddenly i s difficult for a layman to appreciate
woven with snobbishness and jealous-
risen to wealth in the last decade, the height and breadth of the fence
ies and silliness, Fraternities are or-
have flooded the universities with t hat separate them. Their narrowness
ganizations, clans rather, which men
children who come without backs i s so intense that one wonders whether
are permitted to join on condition
ground, without culture, interested there is not the belief among some of
hat they become similar to their
brothers. Similarity means a corn- only in enjoying themselves. Stony them that God is a fraternity man.
moo devotion to cheap ideals, to students drift in without knowing Finally, there are the usually ortho-
why; many are dragged in for the dox and reform divisions, bringing out
clothes and parties; it means con-
same reason. There are always places the usual religious differences—these
tempt for other fraternity or non-
for them in institutions where the are usually subordinate—but social
fraternity men of lesser social stand-
trustees measure the strength and ef-
ing.
ficiency of the college by the numbers
Obviously, such student can have
who attend and who, consequently,
no serious interests, books bring to
lower the standard sufficiently to ac-
their mind the begoggled grind; a
commodate the precious offspring of
despicable term in college parlance.
every righteous citizen. All this vul-
Religion leaves them cold. The aver.
garization of the American university
age student is an irreverent, irreli- is seriously undermining its useful-,
gious spendthrift, interested largely
nem. Nicholas Murray Butler had
in his physical well being, influenced
to remind us recently that we are in
by what is clever, racy and not very
danger of developing a mass product,
profound. Ilia conversation fluctu-
rotten with moral cowardice and rid-
ates between athletics and sex.
dled with the instincts of the herd.
Unfortunately, these damning im-
Yet in the startling increase in
pressions come not only from laymen
numbers which has doubled the popu-
or sensationalists who mistake exag-
lation of our greatest universities,
geration for vigor, and indecent
there are also more of the better kind
quotation for realism. Men who have
of students, as capable and earnest
spent their lives in the academic
as any of the former generations.
world join in the chorus of (lenuncia.
Many get lost in the shuffle or are •
lion. They, too, believe that a uni-
trampled also by the herd. But
versity is no longer a nursery of ideas
there are enough to form a powerful
but a mausoleum. An Illinois pro-
minority with courage sufficient to re-
fessor recently defined a campus as
sist the vulgarization and cheapening A
several thousand acres without an
of American student life. Such a mi-
idea. From Harvard comes the defi-
ninon of American education as the minty there has always been. In the 0
c
process leading from an infantile confusion of conflicting opinions,
then, one may well believe that the
vacuum to an adolescent void. From
college today is no beter and no 0
still another academic source we have
worse than it has been. It is simply
the principle that the student mind is
receiving greater prominence because
capable of infinite resistance to the
more people are interested in it.
introduction of any useful knowl-
Indifference to Religion.
edge.
It is not so easy, however, to re-
The charges have not remained un-
challenged. A chivalrous army of main complacent in face of the
apologists has arisen to defend the charge that there is a growing num-
morals and interests of the maligned ber of students who are becoming
student. We are now riding, I think very indifferent to religious appeals,
who are shifting their whole religious
the tide of the reaction in favor o
the student. The onslaughts, we are balance. We used to be very indul-
gent towards college cynicism; intel-
told, are grossly unfair. They ar
based on the superficialities of college lectual measles, we called it. Every
life. There is, to be sure, less dis student gets them and most of them A
cipline today, but there is less can recover. The student must go through 1
and hypocrisy, too. There is les the usual sturm and drang period,
obedience, but there is less maudlin especially since the war, when it has '0
mushy sentimentality. There is more become fashionable to be startling.
waywardness, but it has in it a debo blow better be startling than by a
nair spirit which keeps it healthy shocking attitude toward every well
There is more impertinence, but i established institution? There has
breaks into some of the shell-backed been so much criticism of the most
propriety which deadens the soul sacred values in life, patriotism, fam-
ily, marriage, religion, that it is very
• natural for the student, the most plas-
tic material in the world, to follow
will-o-the-wisp fashion, without being
too careful about direction.
I wonder if we can make the same
answer today. Are we not blinking
R
deliberately in the face of a new situ- A
ation when we take such a smug, con-
We Wish All Our Friends
servative view of the student's reli- A
and Patrons a Joyous
gious reactions? We may say it is
only the measles and wait for the
Passover.
student to recover; we may make the $
same gentle answers of former days
and turn away his doubts. The pat-
renizing attitude is the line of least ;
rsstistance. Or we may say perhaps
55 bat the student feels is the symp-
tion of something deeper, perhaps he
is the barometer of the general spirit- I
ual unrest; he is asking very serious
questions, very pertinent questions; .0
it is worth while taking advantage of !;*
his curiosity to help him meet his per- ,
plexities honestly so that he may de-
velop a chastened reformulated faith.
It is the very exceptional type who
painfully makes his way through to s;
intellectual irreligion. The average ;
Also
serious student is just vaguely rest- I
Cleaned and Reblocked.
less. Whatever the cause, the ten-
dency of opposition is there and it I
keeps grossing. The student is not I
Niflef3E101112221112112220E202011
ready to follow the first piper. Ile f s
has to be won. Ile has to be con-
Cleaned and Reblocked.
vinced that he ought to be influenced
before he will submit to influence.
With the Jewish youth the problem I,
is complicated further. The serious10
student is usually as curious, as
questioning as other students, per-, I
(Next to Capitol Theatre)
haps more so. It seems to be a Jew.
Randolph 9509.
ish talent to doubt. But he is more
-s difficult to sway by religious appeals
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Take a package (lose.
Give the family an
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Sera.

This College Generation

1200

difference as well. Your piths( on the
campus is governed, like the new im-
migration law, by your father's coun-
try of origin.
This, then, is the usual Jewish sit-
uation on a campus. Not every stu-
dent is destined to become a leader.
There are drones and there are work-
ers; there are students w ith petty in.
terests and students who respond to
every worthwhile call. The, is a ma-
jority destined to heronse average citi-
zens in every trade and every profes-
sion, whose loyalty is very important.
And there is a keen, virile minority,
the finest human quarry in the world.
They can he molded into effective
leaders for the communities into which
they are destined to go. They are
hright; there is no brighter type, none
so quick to scent the difference be-
tween reality and humbug. They are
curious, irreverent, suspicious of the-
ological values and religious concep-
tions, torn by loyalties of every sort.
This is the campus. And the problem
is how are we to influence this great
mass, partly serious, partly frivolous,
to appreciate, to understand, to love
Jewish religious and cultural values.
flow are we to stir them so that they
may become leaders or useful follow-
ers in the Jewish community of to-
morrow?
Jewish Collegiate Work.
Several organizations have already
entered the field. The must inclusive
is the nal 'Frith Hiller Foundation,
first established at the University of

ROOMS

WITH

Illinois in 1923. It has already en-
trenched itself on four campuses in
the Middle West and it hopes to ex-
tend itself to every campus where
there are enough Jewish students to
warrant such a thorough organiza-
tion. Its principle is to create a cen-
ter on the campus, close to the stu-
dent, playing on his religious, intei-
'Mufti, social and recreational life, in-
teresting him in every field of Jewish
activity. The student is net person-
ally; he is met in his group, he is met
in the mass. Whatever qualities or
interests are latent in him are brought
to the surface and an attempt is mule
to develop them.
The Menorah movement is a much
older influence. It does not much con-
cern itself with the religious side of
the student except as a phenomenon in
modern Jewish life. It aims to study
intensively and rationally the prob-
lems and interests of the Jewish world.
It does not strive to reach all, it is con-
tent with small numbers. It was the
pioneer in Jewish student activity, and
it is still the only Jewish influence in
the majority of universities.
The efforts of the sisterhoods and
the Union of American Hebrew Con-
gregations have also been influential,
the one providing social activities and
making the Jewish student feel at
home on the campus, the other organ-
izing religious services in an attempt
to give an opportunity to students to
express themselves religiously.
The Avukah, successor to the Inter-
LU

collegiate Zionist organization, is
frankly a Zionist endeavor, studying
Jewish problems in relation to Zion-
ism. It is a very recent experiment
and its greatest foothold is in the uni-
versities of the East. There are
other influences not very well organ-
ized, usually the personal contacts of
rabbis and Jewish leaders in commu-
nities very near to functioning, who
have done splendid work often against
great obstacles. But the field has
only superficially been developed.
There is ample morn for greater ac-
tivity.
It would be presumptuous of me to
outline a program fur the future. The
problems to be faced require, for their
solution, more than the personal re-
ections of any' individual. But per-
haps nay suggestions, briefly classified,
and dealing with a number of the
more important problems, may de-
velop a fruitful discussion and a pro-
grans Certainly we cannot approach
a vast student problem without our-
selves being clear about what we wish
to accomplish. We aim to speak to
the student; we wish to interest him
in our niessage. What have we to say?
What is our program?
I shall concern myself largely with
the serious minority, growing in num-
bers constantly. The Jewish student
who conies to a campus because he has
no other place to go or because he
wishes to play fora few years before
going to work, is also an important
problem and needs a definite program

560

BA TO

ROOMS

AT

54

Cut the subject
of mass education.
opens another field of discussion. The
tine, thinking minority is my particu-
lar problem.
Importance of Approach.
First, then, as to the content of the
message to hits. It must be linked
up with his life. It must be intelli-
gible to him. Ile is living in a new
world, reacting to a new environment.
It is useless to come to him crying
for a Jewish consciousness, for loyalty
to the old faith. Why, the student will
ask with provoking regularity, why ■
Jewish consciousness? And what do
you mean by the old faith. And, un-
like Pilate, he will wait for an an-

swer.

The student is the most difficult
critic of religious values because he
He
is in a university atmosphere.
comes front classes where he assimi-
lates facts and information. lle re-
ceives concrete material wherever he
turns; in the physics laboratory, in
the mathematics lecture, in the lan-
guage class, even in his discussions on
philosophy and literature. Ile cannot
help making comparisons as he listens
to a religious discourse that is vague
and deals in abstractions. Ile wants
no mere formulas, but definite ap-
proaches to fundamental problems. It
is fatal to come to him without a pro-
gram of religious values in general
and Jewish values in particular. He
is in the mood to examine the funda-
mentals of his faith, the richness of
his culture, the difference that sep-

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