THE JEWISH NEWS

Page Two

Friday, November 27, 1942

Jewish Vocational Service Plans War Programs

Expanded Group Guidance Will Strengthen Arsenal of Democracy; Mingling of Jews with Other Patriotic
Americans Will Help End Prejudice; Conversion from Civilian Jobs to Be Eased

By M. WILLIAM WEINBERG
Executive Director,
Jewish Vocational Service

The General Problem
Thousands of trained workers
are needed in our industrial
plants to turn out the military
equipment vital to the winning
of the war. At the same time,
many workers are losing their
jobs because the.industries and
businesses in which they work
are being forced by shortages of
materials and by priorities to
curtail or go out of business.
Many young people, seeking
jobs, lack the training which
would qualify them for work in
our war industries. As men are
increasingly withdrawn from in-
dustry for service, demand will
grow for women to take their
places. These women, largely
newcomers to the industrial field,
will need guidance and training.
Many of the displaced workers
and potential workers are Jews.
The Detroit Problem
Classified by the War Man-
power Commission as the second
critical labor supply area, De-
troit faces a general labor short-
age of record proportions. De-
spite th - most intensive recruit-
ment from local labor resources.
including wholesale transfers
from non-essential activities to
war production jobs, more than
100,000 additional workers from
outside the Detroit area will be
required. Over 90,000 of this lat-
ter group will be "in-migrants"
for whom housing accommoda-
tions must be provided.
The Problem as it Affects
the Jewish Community
During the last year a few
thousand Jews have found their
way into the war plants of the
Detroit area. In many instances,
their occupational activities have
not changed. They have merely
transferred to a war industry.
This is particularly true of Jew-

ish females who are now em-
ployed in great numbers in the
Ordnance and other plants, agen-
cies and offices here. By virtue of
prior training or training recent-
ly received through the Voca-
tional Training for War Work
now working in the plants are
skilled or semi-skilled.
If rationing is extended, prior-
ity shortages increase, and con-
centration of industries is in-
itiated in distributive as well as
civilian manufacturing, then a
relatively large number of Jew-
ish workers in' the wholesale-
retail trades (54 per cent of the
Detroit Jewish working popula-
tion according to the Henry J.
Meyers study) will eventually
have to leave the downtown
areas for work in the plants.
Jews, now employed, will be
markedly affected 'by the disloca-
tion arising from the war be-
cause of their relative concentra-
tion in the non-war occupations
and industries. Their experience
does not fit them, without re-
training, for occupations critical-
ly needed by war industries.
Moreover, Jewish youth have
traditionally chosen careers out-
side the mechanical trades and
thus, in large measure, are not
well-equipped for the available
opportunities today. In the not
too distant future, Jewish wo-
men now engaged in home and
household activities may have to
take their places on the various
production fronts.
The J. V. S. Program
By the training and retraining
of Jewish workers for war pro-
duction, two significant purposes
might be achieved.. First, and
above all, the "arsenal of de-
mocracy" would be strengthened
by the addition of skilled hands.
Second, the presence of Jews in
considerable numbers, working
program, many Jewish males

Women Are Vital Aid in War Work

which he is totally unfitted, or
otherwise waste his powers and
complicate his re-adjustment.
The fee-charging trade schools
now flourishing do not univer-
sally select their students in con-
sideration of their probable ca-
pacity for profiting from the
training offered; placement serv-
ices frequently are under too
much pressure to supply person-
nel to make careful selections on
the basis of personal fitness and
other qualifications. People must
be reached BEFORE they make
vocational decisions.

Supplementing the Public
Program

This program is conceived as
supplementing the work now be-
ing done by government agen-
cies. Our public agencies, en-
gaged in recruiting workers on a
mass basis for the war indus-
tries, cannot effectively reach
many of the displaced and fac-
tory inexperienced Jewish work-
ers with the individual counsell-
ing and analysis they need.

beside other American workers,
in our American war industries,
might go far toward breaking
down some of the unfortunate
prejudices which are bases of
anti-Semetic discrimination in
employment.
The Jewish Vocational Service
intends to initiate an expanded
group guidance program, directed
not only at the recruitment of
Jewish workers for war work,
but also to ease the conversion
process for the many Jewish per-
sons now engaged in civilian pro-
duction and distribution. This
project would attempt to reach
and encourage through the mails,
radio, press, talks by staff mem-
bers, voluntary speakers, bureau
and club leaders, and individual
counselling, all Jewish 'groups,

male and female, wherein neces
sary potential labor supply is
available.
It is highly important that each
individual's best potentialities be
discovered. Especially is it im-
portant to relate each applicant's
special qualifications to the many
specific occupations in war in-
dustry.
The importance of informed
and sympathetic guidance can-
not be overestimated. In the av-
erage case, a displaced workeer or
a young man or- woman going to
work for the first time is beset
by many conflicting possibilities.
There is always grave danger
that, without guidance, he will
spend time, energy and money
on training that will serve no
purpose, try to do work for

Moreover, it is recognized that
our program... can succeed only in
co-operation with the public
agencies. Much basic information
regarding labor supply, labor re-
quirements and training facilities
will have to be obtained form the
federal, state and local offices
of the United States Employment
Service, the War Manpower
Commission, and the United
States Office of Education. The
placement of workers after train-
ing or retraining must be largely
the function of the United States
Employment Service.

Our "war service program,"
here described, has been sub-
mitted to the U. S. Employment
Service, the Manpower Commis-
sion and the Vocational Training
for War Work program in De-
troit, and has been enthusiastical-
ly recived and approved.

Problem of Our Aged Is Obligation of Whole Community

Head of Home Says Steady Increase in Proportion of Persons 60 or Over L ifts Question Out of Parochial
Agency Bracket; Outlines Functions and Objectives of Central Jewish Bureau

By MYRON A. KEYS
Chairman of Board, Jewish Home for Aged

normal and prevalent way of
living. The Social Security
Board reports that of 1,800,000
individuals who were accepted
for . old-age assistance in the
period of 1936-40 and for whom
information was reported, 85 per
cent were considered able to
care for themselves, 13 per cent
were said to require help within
the home although they were
not . confiined to bed, and only
2 per cent were bedridden.

Within recent years we have become increasingly
aware of the social implications involved in the aging of
our population and its effect upon our economy, institu-
tions and way of life. There are important portents for
social agencies, and for the community at large, in the
fact that each year persons 60 years of age and over

constitute a larger proportion of
our total population. The 1940 is much greater. In Detroit, a
census indicates an increase in recent study shows that of a
years of approximately 32 per total of 1,092 Jewish individuals
cent in this age group — from knowli to social agencies—pub-
10,385,026 to 13,747,645. We now lic and private—only 123 were
have reached the point when residents of the Jewish Home
we can no longer afford to con- for Aged. Four hundred were
sider the aged from a parochial recipients of old age assistance
viewpoint. We must discard our grants; 111 were receiving relief
agency-mindedness and develop from the Department of Public
a community approach in deal- Welfare; 22 were residing in the
ing with the problem.
county infirmary. Almost 450 in-
Permanent Responsibility
dividuals were active at North
The entrance of government End Clinic—the outpatient serv-
into this field has brought the ice agency of the Jewish Wel-
problem to the fore and has fare Federation.
stimulated long-time planning
Central Bureau
and programming. Within the
Evidently
the implementation
last decade, the State and Fed-
eral governments have. accepted of a program that attempts to
the doctrine that old age secur- meet the needs of the aged on
ity is a regular and permanent every level involves planning on
responsibility and function of a community basis. This type of
government. The Social Security planning resolves itself into a
Act represents the first attempt, central bureau, a council or
on a national scale, to meet the committee on the care of the
need for security in old age. aged, composed of representa-
Governmental programs, how- tives of the various agencies
ever, are not designed to meet operating in the fields of family
all the needs of the aged. They case work, health, leisure time
are intended, primarily, to pro- activities and institutional care.
vide the aged person with min- Such a bureau, or committee,
imal financial security. The com- should also have a definite re-
munity cannot afford to stop lationship to the public agencies
there. A total community plan working with the aged.
calls for case work services, Within the last few years
mental hygiene and medical there has been a definite and
facilities, recreational opportuni- marked change in the character
ties, leisure time programs and of institutional population. A
housing provisions. larger percentage of the popula-
Our institutions serve only a tion is composed of chronically
limited clientele. The number of ill aged individuals. As the years
aged persons receiving other pass by, this will become the
types of care in the community predominant group in the insti-

MYRON A. KEYS

tution. In our Jewish Home for
Aged about two-thirds of all the
residents are chronic cases in
various stages of incapacity.
Because of this, there is need
for greater emphasis on board-
ing-out programs and upon the
attempt to adjust aged persons
within the normal community.
Boarding care for the aged has
come much later than foster
home care for children.
• Desire Conmmunity
For a long time we failed to
recognite that there is an inter,
mediate step between the aged
person's own honie and the in-
stitution.' There are many old
people Who have . no . homes of
their own or who, for various
reasons, cannot continue to live
with their own families, but
who wish to live in a setting as
nearly like a normal private
Family life as possible.
The large majority of aged
people continue' to reside in the
community—because that is the

It is true that in the general
population, the proportion of
bedridden persons, or bedridden
but requiring considerable care
from others, may be somewhat
larger. Many needy aged per-
sons who are seriously incapaci-
tated are not receiving assist-
ance because they are inmates
of public institutions. However,
it is apparent that the primary
need of the majority of old-age
assistance recipients is not in-
stitutional care, but rather as-
sistance in planning, obtaining
proper living quarters, medical
care, being made happy and
useful.

In Experimental Stage
The experience of Jewish
communities with central bur-
eaus for the aged is compara-
tively recent and limited. While
endeavors to develop a commun-
ity program for the care of the
aged are being made in a' num-
ber of the larger and intermedi-
ate Jewish communities, they
are limited organizationally in
most instances to arrangements
between the local homes and
the family agencies for the in-
vestigation by latter of applica-
tions for admission to institutions.
By virtue of this arrangement,
there has developed, as a by-pro-
duct, some form of clearance and
allocation of cases in need of one
or another kind of service. Much

more comprehensive coordina-
ting and planning machinery
has been developed in a few of
the larger cities such as Chicago,.
Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Fran-
cisco and Detroit.
The Detroit old age bureau
has been functioning for more
than a year and a half. On
February 27, 1941, at a meeting
called by the Jewish Welfare
Federation, the bureau was or-
ganized. It is a delegate body
consisting of three board mem-
bers and the executive of each
of the following agencies: Jew-
ish Home for Aged, North End
Clinic, • Jewish Social Service
Bureau, and Jewish Welfare
Federation.
How Bureau Functions
• Beginning in April, 1941, the
Old Age Bureau met monthly
to hear and pass upon applica-
tions to the Jewish Home for
Aged. The procedure on these
cases is that negative action by
the OAB is final unless a dele-
gate of the JHA wishes the
case referred to the institution.
In case of positive action, the
recommendation is referred to
the JHA. whose investigating
committee makes an independ-
ent investigation. Final decision
always rests with the JHA ex-
ecutive committee.
Medical reports are required
in every application before it
can receive consideration, either
by a family physician or at the
North End Clinic.
The social investigations of ap-
plications—for admission to the
JHA and for other services—are
handled .by the Jewish Social
Service Bureau. The Bureau also
recruits, investigates and ap-
proves boarding homes, placing
and supervising old folks placed
in them. This can be developed
into a valuable service. Begin-
(Continued on Page 14)

