THE JEWISH NEWS

Inc
* orporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English—Jewish. Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National
Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE 8-9364. Subscripuon $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid At Detroit, Michigan

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ SIDNEY SHMARAK

Business Manager

Editor and Publisher

Advertising Manager

CHARLOTTE HYAMS

City Editor

Scriptural Readings for Concluding Days of Passover
Pentateuchal portions: Friday, Ex. 13:17-15:26, Num. 28: 19-25; Saturday, Deut. 15:19-16:17,
Num. 28:19-25.
Prophetical portions: Friday, II Samuel 22: 1-51; Saturday, Isaiah 10:32-12:6.

Licht Benshen, Friday, April 3, 6:42 p.m.

VOL. XLV—NO. 6

Page Four

April 3, 1964

The Test of a Successful Campaign

When the Allied Jewish Campaign will
It isn't enough to say that we are
be launched formally, next Tuesday, at giving priority to Jewish education, that
least t wo-thirds of the anticipated we are providing good schools for the
$5,000,000 in contributions will have been children, that we are assuring for them
pledged. That's a natural phenomenon: a welcome in Hillel Foundations when
unless there is good preparation for the they enter the universities. The fact is
drive in the form of advance gifts, it that the latter get an unsatisfactory re-
could be difficult to reach all of the sponse, that we have a problem with our
23,000 or more prospective donors. That youth when they enter the universities,
is why the drive has pre-campaign divi- that a new generation often does not
sions; that is why participants in the cam- know its own history.
* *
paign are asked to announce their gifts
in advance—to assure success both in
If we are serious about our desire
coverage of prospects and in attaining to assure the survival of our people under
from them the largest procurable sums. freedom, t h e r e b y defying those who
Nevertheless, the second act in the maintain that we can survive only while
great effort to secure large sums for so fighting persecution and our concern
many important causes is the most diffi- naturally is only with those who seek
cult. A handful of people normally sub- survival—then all the basic facts relating
scribes the bulk of the funds, but the to the difficulties we encounter in re-
balance, the amount that must be raised taining Jewish loyalties should be taken
from the smaller donors, can spell either into consideration.
success or failure in the campaign.
*
That . is why it is so vital that as many
In an article in the American Scholar
contributors as possible should be reached on "Jewish Radicals, Jewish Writers,"
by as well-informed an army of solicitors Allen Guttmann, an Amherst College
as can possibly be mobilized for the major English instructor, had this to say:
fund-raising task in our community. That
Assimilation has been swift. The average
is why it is so important that the volun-
Jew — in dream if not in reality — has
teer army of workers should be enlarged.
deserted Orthodoxy for the suburbs. For him,
We happen to be in a fortunate com-
Herman Wouk is the Jewish substitute for
munity whose constituents form one of
literature. For his wife, Schrafft's is declasse.
"The ladies gathered for Hadassah's tea,"
the largest groups of contributors per-
observes Oscar Handlin at the end of his
centage-wise to community population
history of American Judaism, "stepped out of
figures for any city in the land. Cleveland
the pages of Vogue." Jews came to America
alone matches Detroit in the high per
because America was the new Eden, and —
capita of giving. Yet even that high rating
subject to the usual qualifications — America
must be improved upon if our community
has been paradise enough. Judaism is now, as
standards are to be held high.
Will Herberg wittily demonstrates, one of the
*
*
three great Access Roads to the American
way. Protestant, Catholic, Jew — one is as
The test of a good campaign lies in
good as another because each becomes ever
the manner of response and the outlook
more vacuously like the others . . .
for wholesome continuity. The measure
The literary evidence of the end of Ortho-
of our success this year will be as much
doxy is supported by sociological studies.
in the numerical strength of the constitu-
Orthodoxy all but disappears in three gene-
ents as in the amount to be raised—and
rations. An example from an essay contained
the latter depends in large measure on
in Marshall Sklare's collections: The Jews: in
the former.
Milwaukee, 67 percent of the first generation
An authoritative study indicates that
kept thd Sabbath; 12 percent of the second
generation do so; in the third generation,
by 1970 half of the population of this
only two percent of married sons keep the
country will be under 25 years of age.
Sabbath. Of the Milwaukee Orthodox, fifty-
Since the United Jewish Appeal and our
nine and one-tenth percent believe that Ortho-
local and national causes that are repre-
dox congregations will soon become Conserva-
sented in the Allied Jewish Campaign
tive. My own guess — which runs counter
must look for survival to future uninter-
to ardent claims and some evidence of a
rupted services, the natural question to
recent revival of traditionalism among in-
be posed now is: will the children of the
tellectuals — is that Conservative congrega-
tions will gradually resemble those Reform
generous givers of today be as generous
groups that have already become indistinguish-
when they are the dominant factor in our
able from the local Unitarian Society.
community?
It would be a great pity to permit
If we are looking for tests of commu-
nity strength, of measures of success in anger to be the measuring rod for such
fund-raising, let us not forget to face the views. Either the facts are incorrect, and
issue: can we look to a younger generation in that case they will belie themselves; or
to uphold the standards of giving that they are correct—and in that case we
have made us a community of rahamonim must face the bitter truth and try to
bnai rahamonim—merciful sons of a mer- reach our youth with new approaches yet
to be formalized.
ciful people?

* * *

The major duty of the moment is to
attain the year's goal, to make certain
that the minimum requirement of
$5,000,000 should be reached — and, if
possible, exceeded.
When the drive ends, in about six
weeks, it will be necessary to revert to
the question: is the leadership of our
community prepared to face the issue we
have stated so bluntly? Are we aware of
the impending challenges from a com-
munity of much younger people in less
than a decade? What are we doing to
assure a response from the youth who are
to follow us spokesmen for our people?
Will they be properly prepared to treat
their sacred legacies with dignity, to care
for their fellow men with 'the same
generosity which distinguished the actions
of their parents and grandparents?

Aftermath of Tercentenary

'Jews of the United States
Documentary-1790-1840'

As part of the celebration of the American Jewish Tercen-
tenary, in 1954, a research project was decided upon for the
gathering of historical data about American Jewry. This project
has just come to fruition with the publication, jointly by
Columbia University Press and the Jewish Publication Society
of America, of a three-volume compilation, "The Jews of the
United States-1790-1840-----A Documentary History." It was pro-
duced under the joint editorship of Dr. Joseph L. Blau and Prof.
Salo W. Baron.
A vast amount of material has been incorporated into these
three volumes. Historic letters, state documents, legislative
actions, economic functions, experiences reflecting on family
and social life of early American Jews, will be found in them.
*
*
*
Thus, in the first volume, the reader will find such docu-
ments as Washington's letter to the Newport Congregation, John
Adams' letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah, messages to Jewish
correspondents by Jefferson, Madison and others.
There is Jacob Henry's historic speech, in 1809, on his
right as a Jew to sit in the Legislature of North Carolina.
There is a vast variety of documents indicating that Jews
were involved in many governmental functions, in economic
projects, in railroad building.
And there are scores of letters and papers which provide
data on communal activities in American Jewry, on family life,
neighborly relations, inter-faith activities.
A general introduction points out that Jews were seldom
mentioned in colonial legal sources and the presence of Jews
was suspected only through Jewish-sounding names. "Only when
the Jews appeared in large groups, as in New York (then New
Amsterdam) in 1654, or in Georgia in 1733, was the question of
Jewish status raised by the respective colonial administrations,"
the editors wrote.
Anti-Jewish individuals and groups in colonial America
"were neither particularly vocal nor influential," they also
state. They add, after pointing to the active role that was
played by Jews in the Revolutionary War and in the armed
forces that "the impact of the newly adopted Constitution of
the United States on the psychology of the Jews in America
and Europe was enormous."
Insofar as the communal system is concerned, the editors
show that "the congregation . . . has been the only governing
body of any force," but there has been no form of policing, as
in matters of ritual slaughter and other functions. Although "no
formally organized community of American Jews was developed
under the conditions of life in the United States, it would be
unfair to suggest that communal feeling was lacking," they
state in evaluating developing conditions in the period under
* * *
review.
We would be bur y i n g our heads
*
*
*
ostrich-like in the sand if we were to say
Insofar as the data they have accumulated is concerned,
that this has nothing to do with our fund- the editors state that except for a cultural deficiency—
raising effort now. Everything relating to
"There is scarcely an area or aspect of American life into
Jewish survival, to our future as a com- which these documents fail to lead us. The history of the
munity, is related to the campaign.
Jews in the United States between 1790 and 1840 is an integral
If we are to remain satisfied with part of the history of the United States."
The second volume in the series contains documents relating
what we attain now, and the year after,
and the year after that, risking a sudden to political activities, cultural stirrings, religious adjustments,
drastic decline in income as well as in matters dealing with synagogue finances—including a public
synagogue concern for matzoth, philanthropy and other
community interest, then we will be sub- lottery;
aspects of communal programming.
scribing to the collapse of our communal
In the third volume there are incorporated statements
structures.
relating to intermarriage, interfaith activities, Jews in Masonry,
The test of a successful campaign lies proselytization, immigrant adjustment, relationship with Jews in
as much in current income as it does in other lands, and a score of other matters each of which is in
the future development of our commu- itself a fascinating historical occurrence.
nity, and vice versa. If we fail to take
These three volumes enrich our knowledge about American
this into account, then we are striving Jewish history. They provide permanence for records that should
for unrealistic goals and are bowing to be kept as data of a developing history that is part both of
false gods.
Jewry and the United States.

