THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS—Friday, November 13, 1959-32
‘Ghettoization' Viewed as Major Problem in
Rabbi Albert Gordon's 'Jews in Suburbia'
"Are Jews likely to be-
of a series of isolated Jew- America (Conservative) grew
come ghettoized in suburbia?
ish suburban communities, from 365 to 599 congregational
Is the suburb in danger of
provincial in outlook and affiliates, an increase of 234
becoming a gilded ghetto?"
ghetto-like in character, is congregations. Conversations
These are two of the chal- not what any reputable Jew- with Conservative leaders indi-
lenging questions that are ish leader desires. How to cate that the major growth
posed by Rabbi Albert I. Gor- live equally in two great in affiliation occurred in the
don in his thought-provoking
civilizations remains the ma- suburbs. This appears to indi-
"Jews in Suburbia," published
jor problem and the greatest cate that the choice of de-
by Beacon Press, Boston. challenge."
nomination is often a compro-
Presently rabbi of Temple
Rabbi . Gordon believes that mise between extreme points
Emanuel in Newton, Mass., "Jews who constitute a large of view."
Rabbi Gordon, who has had 30 proportion of the economic
The synagogue in the sub-
years' experience in the rab- middle class will continue to urbs is described by Rabbi
binate, formerly served as ex- move into the .new suburban Gordon as "a center of fellow-
ecutive director of the United communities."
ship for young and old," as a
Synagogue of America and is
In the course of his study, "means by which identification
author of an earlier good book, he expresses the belief that as a Jew is currently achieved."
There is a tendency, he
"Jews in Transition," has de- "the suburb is helping to pro-
voted a lot of time and did duce marked changes in the states, to reintroduce rituals
much research on the subject basic structures of the Jewish in the home.
of suburbia. His current book family and its educational, po
"Another heartening ex-
is a most revealing document litical, religious, cultural and perience to suburban rabbis
on the subject.
social life." He states that is the fact that the English
In answer to the above "whatever their place of resi-
names now being given Jew-
questions, he points to the
dente, across the length and ish children are often Bibli-
fear that "further segmenta-
breadth of America, suburban- cal in origin," Rabbi Gordon
tion of the community along
ites seem to agree—life is reports.
religio-ethnic lines will create
good in suburbia!"
While 388 respondents, 63
both physical and spiritual
Discussing factors vital for per cent of the suburbanites
ghettoes." He adds that "ghet-
toes tend to be created un- continuation of Jewish cul- who replied to his questions,
wittingly; they are seldom de- tural activities, Rabbi Gordon "believe there is no anti-Jewish
liberate creations," and he points out that "the sudden feeling in the suburb in which
states: disappearance of the use of they reside," Rabbi Gordon
"Jews who have recently the Yiddish language in the writes that "190 persons, or
moved into a suburb from suburbs is often noted by ob- 33 per cent, believe that there
an exclusively Jewish neigh- servers in all parts of the is or may be 'some' anti-Jewish
borhood in the city tend to country," he adds that "grand- feeling."
He reports a deep interest in
create patterns very much parents to whom Yiddish is a
like those they knew before. language of discourse, even Israel and Zionism among sub-
They desire to live near though they may understand urbanites.
Rabbi Gordon closes his study
synagogues, temples and Jew- and speak English, are another
ish shopping areas. Since - channel through which Jewish on a note of optimism, declar-
non-Jews tend to move out culture may be retained for ing:
"The Jews of suburbia
from such areas, suburbia another generation."
have, to date, achieved a high
may ultimately arrive at a
"The family is still the
condition which can only be
degree of integration into
nuclear institution of the
the total life of their corn-
described as ghetto-like."
Jewish people in suburbia,"
munities. They have also
Rabbi Gordon continues his he declares. "L believe it will
succeeded in attaining a high
evaluation of this issue by continue its time-honored
maintaining:
role if it is able to sink its
measure of identification
"Each religious group in roots deep into the life and
with the Jewish people and
America has not only a legal soil of a community and
its way of life. Weaknesses,
right but a moral duty to pre- remain fixed there for at
imperfections and even de-
serve its distinctive values. No least one generation."
cay and dissolution are • read-
religious group in any com-
We learn from this instruc- ily apparent to the observer
munity favors the loss of its tive book that "in communi- of the Jewish way of life in
identity through complete as- ties in which low-cost housing suburbia. However, there is
similation. Each denomination, predominates, Jewish families
much about which we may
therefore, seeks to preserve tend to affiliate with the syna- be highly pleased. Today,
itself by providing healthful gogue when their children are
there are more Jews—young
. and culturally stimulating old enough to attend Hebrew enthusiastic Jews—who have
youth groups and activities. or Sunday school."
the will to be Jews than I
The synagogue, like all the
"In most cases since 1946,"
have noted in over three
others, attempts to provide op- we are told, "the first syna-
decades of careful observ-
portunities for Jewish young gogue in a new suburban coin- ante. There is ample reason
people to meet under favor- munity is Conservative. In to speak hopefully concern-
able conditions."
1949, for example, 392 congre- ing their future."
The able analyst then comes gations were affiliated with
Rabbi Gordon's study, "Jews
to this partial conclusion:
the Union of American He- in Suburbia," which opens with
"This vexing tendency to- brew Congregations (Reform). an introduction by Prof. Oscar
ward ghettoism is not easily These grew to 530 by 1956, an Handlin, gives an excellent ac-
solvable, yet we dare not increase of 138 Reform tem- count of Jewish authoritative
for that reason ignore or ples. During the same period, work to date on matters relat-
minimize it. The development
the United Synagogue of ing to Jews in the suburbs.
Dr. Salk to Receive Honorary Weizman Fellowship on Dec. 8
Dr. Jonas Salk, originator of
the anti-polio vaccine, will re-
ceive an honorary felloWship
from the Weizmann Institute of
Science at a dinner on Tuesday
evening, Dec. 8, at the Waldorf
Astoria Hotel, it was announced
by Abraham Feinberg, president
of the American Committee for
the Weizmann Institute of ,Sci-
ence. Among the Weizmann Fel-
lows are Nobel laureates Niels
Bohr, I. I. Rabi, Victor Weiss-
kopf and J. Robert Oppenheim-
er.
In a statement issued at the
organization's headquarters, 250
W. 57th, New York, Feinberg
also disclosed that the Israel
science center, located at Rehov-
oth, had just received a five-
year, $125,000 grant from. the
U. S. National Institute of
Health "to continue and expand
its research on polyamino acids
as protein models."
This work, to be carried on
by Weizmann Institute scien-
tists, Prof. Ephraim Katchalski,
head of the Biophysics Depart-
ment and his associates, Drs.
Michael Sela and Arieh Berger,
is one of a series of 20 research
projects at the Institute sup-
ported with funds by such Am-
erican governmental agencies as
the U. S. Air Force and the
Office of Naval Research.
The organization's 11th an-
nual dinner will mark the 25th
- DR. JONAS SALK
anniversary of the Daniel Sieff
Research Institute, the first unit
of the Weizmann Institute,
which was opened in April,
1934, under the direction of Dr.
Chaim Weizmann. The Institute
honors Dr. Weizmann, the scien-
tist-statesman who served as
first president of Israel and of
the Institute. He died in the
new state on Nov. 9, 1952.
The W e i z m a nn Institute,
which engages in research in
the exact sciences and biology,
is now headed by Dr. Abba
Eban, former Israel Ambassa-
dor to the United States, re-
cently elected as the Institute's
second president.
Through the medium of the
American Committee, some thin
ty-odct members of its scientific
staff have been enabled recent-
ly to come to the United States
to pursue special studies at lead-
ing American universities and
research centers.
Last September, the Institute
was selected as host for the
symposium of the International
Cancer Research Commission of
the International Union Against
Cancer.
Around the World...
A Digest of World Jewish Happenings, from
Dispatches of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Other
News-Gathering Media.
Europe
FRANKFURT — Dr. Fritz Bauer, Hesse prosecutor-general,
filed an appeal against a Frankfurt court order releasing Adolf
Heinz Beckerle, Hitler's Ambassador to Bulgaria, who was under
arrest on charges of complicity in the murder of 11,343 Mace-
donian and Thracian Jews . . . Karl Sontheimer, 27, was sen-
tenced to four months imprisonment and fined 100 marks for
slandering a Jewish taxicab driver in Wunsindel and for heiling
Hitler . . . Rudolf Treffurth, 52, a trade school teacher in New
Ulm, is under arrest on charges of libelling Jews .. . The trial
of Karl Chmielewski, 56-year-old former commander of the
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, on charges of torture
and murder of several thousand prisoners, will begin in January
in the Ansbach Circuit Court.
PARIS—A decision to join forces with the Jewish Agency
to improve underdeveloped settlements in Israel was approved
by the Administrative Council of the Jewish Colonization Asso-
ciation, the goal, according to Sir Henry d'Avigdor Goldsmid,
JCA president, being to bring the settlements up to a standard
permitting normal progress, 20 to 25 settlements to be added
at a cost of 15,000,000 Israel pounds . . . The Franco-Israel
Chamber of Commerce declared that the decision of the partly-
government-owned Renault Company to cancel operations in
Israel was "incompatible with French conceptions of law and
equality within the framework of international legislation."
LONDON — Reports reaching here reveal that editors of
newspapers in Australian provinces have been flooded with anti-
Jewish pamphlets, including a tabloid brochure published in
Queensland by the notorious Queensland anti-Semite, D. W.
DeLouth . . . The JDC has contributed $5,000 to a fund in
memory of the late Bishop of Chichester, the Rt. Rev. George
K. A. Bell, the Church of England prelate who was one of the
first to recognize the menace of Nazism in Germany, who played
a prominent role in assisting Jewish refugees, who was an out-
spoken critic of Nazi persecution of Jews and who was credited
with having done more than any one else to inform British
public opinion on Nazi racism . . . The World Jewish Congress
issued an urgent appeal to the Greek government to reconsider
a bill to drop all persecutions of war crimes committed during
the Nazi occupation of Greece . . . R. N. Carvalho, president
of the Anglo-Jewish Association, declared that plans under way
in Greece to release Maximillian Merten, .Nazi. war criminal
serving a prison sentence, are "deplorable," and he stated that
"it is pressure from West Germany that has persuaded the
Greek government to take this action" . . . The literary supple-
ment of the London Times carries a lengthy articles under the
heading "A Vocal Group," dealing with "the Jewish part in
American letters," speaks of the American Jew's "aggressiveness
and his shrewdness" and states that the American Jew "for
most practical purposes is counted today with the majority"
and that the "sense of Jewish difference remains but it is a
painless one.
HAGEN, West Germany — New charges have been made
against Paul Thomanek, a Sudeten German who was convicted
in 1957 of the murder of five Jewish forced laborers in the
East Galician camps of Kamionki, Hluboczeck and Czortkow and
who already is serving a 15-year sentence, following testimony
that he served as a guard in two additional labor camps.
DUSSELDORF—Karl Marx, publisher of the Jewish weekly
Die Aligemeine Wochenzeitung der Juden in Deutschland, was
awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by North Rhine Westphalia
Premier Heinz Meyers, for his "untiring efforts to reconcile
nations and races."
ROME—Odo Cagli, president of the Rome Jewish community,
sent a message to Mayor Urbano Cioccetti expressing the "satis-
faction and gratitude" of Rome Jewry for the commemoration
by the City Council of the extermination by the Nazis in 1943
of 2,000 Roman Jews, stating that the 16th anniversary of the
tragic event "gave high example of human solidarity."
Israel
JERUSALEM — Israel's Foreign Minister Golda Meir and
Romania's Foreign Minister Petru Manu conferred here on
"routine problems and relations between the two countries"
and are believed to have discussed the reunion of Romanian
families in Israel . . . Jordan withdrew a complaint filed with
the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission that Israel had
driven a group of 200 Beduins across the border into Jordan,
as a result of an offer by Israel to admit the Beduins after
the commission's investigation found no proof that the Beduins
had ever resided permanently in Israel . . . Israeli Air Force jet
fighters chased four United Arab Republic MIG-1'7 fighter planes
back across the UAR border, after the Arab craft penetrated
18 miles inside Israel air space over the central Negev desert.
. . . Reports reaching here from Bogota, Colombia, reveal a repe-
tition of anti-Semitic occurrences there, including the painting of
swastikas on Jewish institutions, shops, cars and homes.
Latin America
BUENOS AIRES—Msgr. Antonio Caggiano, the new Arch-
bishop of Buenos Aires, visited the Temple Congregation Israelita
here in a return courtesy call paid on him by Dr. Guillerno
Schlesinger, the congregation's rabbi . . . A branch of the Israel
Corporation for Economic Development has been established
here by the Argentine Zionist Organization and will issue
$3,000,000 worth of debentures for participation by Latin Amer-
ican investors in financing public_ projects in Israel.
United States
NEW YORK — Aufbau, German language weekly organized
by Jewish refugees here 25 years ago, was acclaimed in messages-
by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and President
Eisenhower and by speakers at an anniversary celebration at
Hunter College Assembly Hall, and honors were extended to
Manfred George, editor of Aufbau. . . . Speaking at an "Ameri-
can Jewish Congress Month" rally, Dr. Joachim Prinz, AJC
president, deplored the growing indifference to Jewish identifi-
cation and the increasing ignorance of Jewish values which, he
said, pose a "deepening crisis" in American Jewish life.
WALTHAM, Mass.—A new 750,000-volume library was dedi-
cated at Brandeis University as the gift of the Brandeis National
Women's Committee.