Page Two
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
MEETING THE NEEDS OF POST WAR
JEWISH YOUTH
By JULIUS BISNO
Administrative Secretary of the Bnai Brith Youth Commission
What are the interests of Jewish youth today? What are
the problems that loom ahead for them in the post war
world? What is American Jewry doing to meet those prob-
lems? These are the questions posed and answered in this
timely appraisal by Mr. Bisno, administrative secretary of the
Bnai Brith Youth Commission and one of the 25 members
of the United States delegation to the World Youth Con-
ference.—THE EDITOR.
Just before World War II, I
was travelling in the Middle East
and visited the Cairo Jewish com-
munity. The president of the
synagogue, who was a high offi-
cial of the Egyptian railroad and
the president of a Bnai Brith
lodge, showed me around the syn-
agogue with genuine pride. Housed
in a beautiful building, the syn-
agogue had a fine school, audi-
torium, meeting rooms, a medical
clinic and even a hostel for Jew-
ish transients.
"We have the largest congre-
gation in Egypt," the synagogue
president said. "It is one of the
oldest in the world. In the dis-
tance you can see the quarries
where our ancestors cut the stones
to build the pyramids. But tell
me, Mr. Bisno, what we can do
to interest our youth?"
That question is almost uni-
versal in Jewish circles. Ask any
Jewish adult what he considers
the chief problem of Jewish youth
and he is virtually certain to say:
the development and strengthen-
ing of its Jewish interests and
loyalties.
The major difficulty in culti-
vating and stimulating the Jew-
ish interests of young people has
always been the problem of ap-
proach. Youth fed on an adult
diet of Jewish content developed
a variety of allergies which
showed that something was wrong
not necessarily with the diet but
the way in which it was admin-
istered. New programming tech-
niques sensitive to the needs of
youth and adapted to those needs
on a level youth understands and
will accept were essential.
To meet the problem of Jew-
ish youth after the war intelli-
gently and realistically, Jewish
communities must be made aware
of the need for guiding youth to
an awareness of its own needs
and to satisfying these needs
through positive and self-satisfy-
ing experiences. In preparation
for dealing with Jewish youth's
post-war problems, Bnai Brith,
nearly a year ago, reorganized
its youth program.
The Aleph Zadik Aleph, which
prior to the war had been an
older boy program, was converted
into a national organization for
Jewish boys in high school. Older
boys out of high school and young
veterans up to 21 (up to 25 if
they are AZA alumni) are being
formed into a separate national
movement, the Bnai Brith Young
Men. The Bnai Brith Girls has
been revitalized into a national
high school program for Jewish
girls. And young Jewish business
and professional women are being
organized into chapters of the
\\\‘‘N.S.
10 .\\\‘,..\\•\
Bnai Brith Young Women.
These four youth agencies-
AZA, BBG, BBYM and BBYW-
collectively comprise the Bnai
Brith Youth Orgapization
(BBYO), which is supervised by
the Bnai Brith Youth Commis-
sion. BBYO has a national head-
quarters staff of 19 in Washing-
ton, with an additional 16 field
offices throughout the United
States and Canada. Six new field
offices with a total field staff of
50 are to be opened by V-J Day.
Experience has indicated that
at least for the 30,000 Jewish
boys and girls organized in nearly
1,000 chapters of the BBYO, and
for another 50,000 who were in-
troduced to Jewish values in AZA
and are today serving their
country or have taken their place
as young leaders in more than
250 communities, Bnai Brith has
made a substantial and promis-
ing beginning in cultivating and
stimulating the Jewish interests
of youth.
What are the interests of Jew-
ish youth today? What are the
problems that loom ahead for
our young people in the post war
era?
To begin with, adults are not
alone in worrying about Jewish
youth and its problems. Jewish
youth is also deeply concerned
about its own future. For one
thing, youth is determined that
Jews must solve their problems
together. It is tremendously irn-
\ \ NAN.,\‘‘‘‘ %%% %.\\••
% •
Friday, September 7, 1945
pressed by the American Jewish
Conference and looks to the time
when it will expand its scope.
Right now, youth in the United
States is greatly interested in a
World Youth Conference to which
youth of 70 countries have been
invited. Of the U. S. delegation
of 25, three delegates have been
alloted to Jewish youth. For the
past several months representa-
tives of 17 national Jewish youth
organizations have been meeting
to formulate a Jewish program
and select delegates. The three
delegates have been designated
and the spirit of "give and take"
demonstrated by all interested
parties is an indication that the
atmosphere of Jewish unity is a
breath of hope to our youth.
The most considerable problem
that our youth face is, of course,
economic security. A.Z.A. recent-
ly brought together a representa-
tive group of youngsters from
every part of the country to dis-
cuss problems of common inter-
est. The agenda covered such sub-
jects as Palestine, the impact of
the San Francisco Conference,
Jewish community living, etc.
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Called upon to designate the sub.
ject in which they were most
interested, their first choice and
second choice was the economic
problems facing the Jew.
The disadvantage of the next
decade is the present generation
of youth in our American high
schools. As in the early 30's, it
will be they who will have to
come of age too late; too late to
fight the war; too late to gain
the experience of working in a
war industry. This group realize
that it must compete in a gluttpd
labor market with the war vet-
(Continued on Page 14)
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