For Victory
Buy
U. S.
War
Savings
Stamps
And
Bonds

VOL. 2—NO. 6

THE JEWISH NEWS

A Weekly Review

2114 Penobscot Bldg.

RA. 7956

of Jewish Events

Detroit, Michigan, November 27, 1942

34 4&Ziu. 22

For Victory
Buy
U. S.
War
Savings
Bonds
And
Stamps

Federation Issue

Jewish Social Services
Gear d to War Needs

By ABRAHAM SRERE

President, Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit

The impact of war on the organized Jewish com-
munity finds us with a new set of communal problems
under changing conditions.

Out of the strengthened community relations en-
gendered by the unifying influences of the War Chest,
there already has been created an improved social
climate, with a better understanding based on closer
cooperation.

,

The general community has become more aware of
our special services and the place that these activities
play on • the home • scene and the world over.

Perhaps most important of all, as we survey +he
social scene at this time of year, is the fact that we
are free in the coming winter and spring months to
devote ourselves to the programs of service, ,rather
than to the organization and machinery of fund-raising.

We have talked in the past about the need for edu-
cation within our own group. Education is more than the
dissemination of the spoken or wriften word for promotional
effect; education is a living process that involves partici-
pation by members of the community in the day-to-day
problems at school, in the home, at play, at work and in
all of our other relationships.

The war, which is being fought for the preservation of
our democratic institutions, makes our responsibility that
much greater and more important. The present is a time of
trouble throughout the world. It is this general situation of
social crisis and tension that throws out to all of us a supreme
challenge. Can we meet this challenge? Can we as a com-
munity meet this test without compromising our ideals and
our community goals and responsibilities? Can we meet
the challenge and the trust placed in us by our Jewish
brethren who now suffer under the heel of the oppressor?
They have not given up hope. They have marched as free
men before and they will march again.

We must bear in mind that in the process of achieving
military security we, together with the rest of the Amer-
ican people, must not abandon the articles of our demo-
cratic faith and practice—our social welfare goals—our
communal institutions for the furtherance of well-being.
It becomes our responsibility as a community to maintain
a continuing and lasting interest in and support for the
social services.

Child-care services must. be maintained and strength-
ened to meet the needs of children in war-time. Children
must be safeguarded—and they can be safeguarded—
in the midst of this total war so that they can live and
share in the free world for which we are fighting. They
must be nourished; they must be provided with proper
shelter; they must be protected and guided in their
development.

The family is always subjected to the stress and strain
of daily life. War has aggravated many of the "normal"
problems of families who come for help to the family

agency. The family is the corner-stone of the democracy
for which we are fighting. The community must exert every
effort to help the families in distress, to ease the burden of
those families broken through separation, conflict, or death.

In the field of vocational guidance and employment
service, the time would seem to call for contraction of
program and personnel. Yet even at this - moment, when
the public employment services are performing such im-
portant functions, those same public agencies are asking
the utmost cooperation from private vocational services
such as the one established in our community.

The war has had a double effect on Jewish community
centers and their programs of recreation and general
educational work. Many of their members have been called
to serve in the armed services. Into these buildings, how-
ever, have come a great many new activities induced by
the war. The community centers were among the first
social agencies to go on a war-time footing. USO activi-
ties for the men in the armed forces, Red Cross and kin-
dred war-connected programs for civilians, services for
war workers who only recently came to the community,
physical fitness programs for young men and women have
made our own Center an arsenal of civilian morale and
volunteer effort.

In the health field it is imperative that the community
should not allow the war to impair its operating efficiency.
Despite the entrance of many physicians into the armed
services, the community should make every effort to
mobilize. new volunteers from the medical ranks to man
this important civilian station-during the war.

Providing Jewish education is one of the privileges and
strengths of the Jewish community in a democracy. As a
community we must intensify our efforts in order to assure
the continuing function of our school system.

The war did not eliminate the need for a vigorous
and coordinated civic-protective program. While many
areas of activity formerly in our hands have become the
direct concern of government, there are other areas in
which we ourselves must continue to operate.

These are but a few of the guide posts in the com-
munity's effort to meet its social needs and to fulfill its
social responsibilities. The maintenance of the community
institutions which we have established depends in the largest
measure upon our understanding of the purposes they ex-
emplify and the services they render. Devotion to the
common good, however selfless and single-minded, is not
enough, unless accompanied by understanding.

In the year ahead it will be our responsibility to bring
to the community—and to the individuals who make it up
—a' more detailed presentation of the functions, purposes
and needs of the social welfare institutions which the com-
munity maintains. We hope that this wil; result in a strength-
ening of those loyalties which are so necessary to the well
being of the community and its agencies.