Educational Deficiencies and Lack of Conviction
(Continued from Page 1)
rabbis.
Rabbis conceded a deficiency
in education that could link
Judaism with current world de-
velopments. Students honestly
admited being inadequately in-
formed about Judaism. Accord-
ing to Rabbi Benjamin M. Kahn,
national Hillel director, students
appeared eager "to know who
they are." That was why they
chose to attend the institute,
often from great distances and
at their own expense.
Rabbi Kahn felt students dis-
played lack of conviction "of the
uniqueness of being Jewish and
knowledge of Jewish values . . .
of what Judaism has to say to them
as human beings." The students
were clearly committed to ideals
of social justice and human wel-
fare without consciously relating
this to Judaism.
The rabbi pointed out that not
one of 25 U.S. Peace Corpsmen
of the Jewish faith who are
serving in an African country
accepted an invitation to visit
Israel on the way home. But a
non-Jew was eager to see Israel.
The Jews were somehow com-
partmentalized within, without
real understanding of the rela-
tionship between their existence
as Jews and human beings.
Rabbi Oscar Groner, assistant
national Hillel director, saw the
task not in terms of justification
of "our existence as Jews." He de-
picted wide current acceptance of
Jewish intellectual and religious
ideas. The aim he envisaged was
"to seek for the meaning which
lies behind our continued exist-
ence as a people."
The rabbi said "it is not a valid
question to ask, 'why was I born?'
but rather the existential question
of, 'what is the meaning of my
existence?' and 'what is the mean-
ing of my being born Jewish to
me?' "
In less personal terms, said the
rabbi, one could ask what was the
power of conviction which caused
the Jewish people to endure des-
pite adversities. The rabbi said:
"What convinced them that their
tradition was so excellent that the
world needed their collective sur-
vival? Ancient Jews did not live
in a vacuum. The Bible would not
have been so concerned about
idolatry if the Jews hadn't found
it so attractive.
"Man is the creature of God, but
he is also a creator, a doer in the
world. Life is not fate. The choices
man makes are crucial. This is
the heart of Judaism's challenge to
the world. Man has always sought
to evade his responsibility and his
freedom." The rabbi added that to
evade freedom "is to deny respon-
sibility for the world, to say that
man has no choice whatsoever
about the world in which he lives."
Rabbi Groner explained how
in the absence of a personal
God, man also becomes deper-
sonalized. He explained how
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faith. They returned from the in-
stitute with suitcases crammed full
of books which they bought out
of their own pocket money.
At the end of the institute, it
was less puzzling that so many
Jewish youths find their way to
the Poverty Corps and the picket
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Judaism represents more than a
collection of customs and cere-
monies. "Man is a responsible
creature because God demands
responsibility of him," said the
rabbi.
The most telling point made by
Rabbi Groner was that "God has
given man the • ability — even the
right — to protest against God, to
call God to an accounting. -If we
took our freedom seriously, we
would ask the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob to face the God of
Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and
Dachau."
When Rabbis Kahn, Groner and
others finished five days of answer_
ing, the students came up with
new questions. They wanted to
know more about Judaism as a
Strictly
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, October 15, 1965-3
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