Ex-Detroiter Urges Community:
Give the Young a R esponsible Arena
(Editor's Note: Sol Silver, for-
mer Detroiter and graduate from
the school of architecture at the
University of Michigan, is an ac-
tive member of the San Fran-
cisco Jewish community, having
served as co-chairman of the
Marin Division of the Jewish
Welfare Federation campaign
and co-chairman of the young
leadership development program,
as well as many other activities.
This article is excerpted from
his paper submitted to a sym-
posium, "Y outh Looks at the
Jewish Community," at the re-
cent general assembly of the
Council of Jewish Federations
and Welfare Funds in Mont-
real.)
*
*
BY SOL SILVER
Just as the young American Jew
has drifted away from the Jewish
community, so has Jewish com-
munity life drifted away from him.
Instead of finding a vital com-
munity, with meaningful roles and
purposes and opportunities for
significant participation, the young
American Jew finds a relatively
closed structure, with little seri-
ous dialogue and meager oppor-
tunities for education.
It would be unfair to place all
the blame for this situation on the
Jewish community. External forces
in our complex, pluralistic society
have had a great deal to do with
assimilation and an acceptance in-
to the nonsectarian mainstream of
that anonymous culture we call the
American way of life.
Our young generation enters
this stream with little under-
standing of that Jewish heritage
of spiritual, cultural and ethical
values which could give mean-
ing to its participation.
Our contemporary American cul-
tural life, without deep feelings of
social commitment, is even more
conducive to alienation than our
contemporary Jewish cultural life.
While we can understand the
general pressures f or c i n g with-
drawal, it is equally true that there
is nowhere else to go. Sooner or
later rebellious youth must come
to terms with conditions as they
are. This is not analogous to Jew-
ish community life.
In the general community to-
day, there are encouraging sights
that the swing is towards enthu-
siasm and involvement, social ac-
tion and commitment and away
from apathy and indifference. This
generation is increasingly involved
in group action for universal lib-
erties. The civil rights movement
and the youthful vigor of the Ken-
ledy administration both helped
ndle a spirit of purpose and dedi-
Ilk- cation. However, as to participa-
)
tion in dynamic Jewish community
purposes, there is no sign of a
change from indifference and
apathy, withdrawal and disaffec-
tion.
Looking at Jewish life, one
would expect our young intellect-
uals to be active and articulate
critics, attempting to reshape a way
of life that they are expected to
participate in, but they are silent,
bored, and uncommitted. When
they go through the motions of par-
ticipation, it is a cursory, super-
ficial gesture.
If the young generation in
America can be roused from its
indifference and apathy towards
Jewish life, it will require a re-
construction of Jewish commit-
ment. The young generation
wants to be useful, more import-
antly, it wants to belong to a
dynamic community. Belonging
is essential to full and equal par-
ticipation.
To establish this participation,
the Jewish community must help
reconstruct Jewish commitment to
a way of life in America today,
based on our great heritage of Jew-
ish ethics and values.
There is a growing need for a
community umbrella which relates
the fragmented elements of Jew-
ish life into an organic Jewish com-
munity. Out of the moral crisis in
today's society comes this oppor-
tunity for community action.
The internal forces that operate
to sustain a cohesive Jewish com-
munity must be strengthened. This
means providing challenging op-
portunities for volunteers to make
decisions on social, cultural and
religious issues through their par-
ticipation.
If the young are expected to be-
come involved and committed to
purposeful r o 1 e s, they must be
given a responsible arena in which
to play these roles; they must also
be given an adequate educational
foundation if they are to act
wisely.
The leaders in the community
must be prepared to sacrifice
some of their illusions about
traditional procedures that have
worked in the past and are fail-
frig today. Unless we are pre-
pared to test new ways of obtain-
ing positive identification, we
may be faced with a community
of adults working through out-
moded establishments with only
memories to share. Our young
will be serving other causes, re-
maining indifferent to the prom-
ise and potential of the Jewish
way of life.
Use me, but first educate me
to the role of a dynamic and mean-
ingful Jewish community life in
America; thereby you can assist
me to serve the needs of my fel-
low man.
Plans Formulated for '66 Campaign
(Continued from Page 1)
younger generation. In attendance
were 10 invited college students
and 16 active members of the
junior division.
In his report for the education
division, Dr. Drachler said there
has been a stabilization in the
schools, with a slight decline in
enrollment due to: 1. a decline
in the total Detroit Jewish popu-
lation; 2. a drop in the birth
rate in our community, and 3.
the movement of young Jewish
families to the suburbs and the
enrollment of their children in
Day Schools or congregational
schools.
Dr. Drachler indicated anew that
Bar Mitzvah has become a term-
inal point in Jewish education, that
85 to 90 per cent of the boys end
their Jewish studies at the age of
13. He also deplored continuing
dropouts and warned of the short-
age of teachers in Jewish schools.
In a report for the capital needs
committee, Louis Tabashnick said
many buildings need renovations.
He said the committee's plans for
the coming year include the con-
struction of a branch of the United
Hebrew Schools in Southfield.
Among the outlined needs for
increased services during the corn-
ing year, indicated in division re-
ports, is an expected increase of
new immigrants, as a result of
the liberalization of the immigra-
tion law, and the settling here of
more refugees from Cuba.
The budgeting conference had
Declaration 'Only
a Start'-Cushing
Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of
Boston, was on record as believing
that the Ecumenical Council
promulgation on Catholic-Jewish
relations was "only a beginning"
for Catholics "to go further and
to take out of Christian literature
all that reflects upon the Jewish
people."
The Cardinal's view was con-
tained in a letter he sent in reply
to one from Charles H. Silver,
former president of the New York
Board of Education and a personal
friend of the prelate. Silver
had written to the Cardinal to
thank him for seeking Silver's
advice before going to Rome for
the final session of the Council
this fall and for "the valiant and
uncompromising stand" the Card-
inal took in battling for a strong
draft declaration on Jews. The
final approved version, which is
now formal Catholic doctrine, re-
pudiated the charges of collective
guilt of the Jewish people in the
crucifixion of Jesus and deplores
anti-Semitism.
The Cardinal wrote also that
the declaration was "not perfect"
but that "it is a good start." Peo-
ple will forget this declaration as
years go on but we must not for-
get to follow it up to the end that
all terrible things said about the
Jews in Christian literature or all
the evil insinuations against them
must be eradicated," Cardinal
Cushing stressed.
SURWIN'S
29 Jewish Groups Honor
Allan Bronfman at 70
LOT G NORTHLAND
MONTREAL (JTA) — Allan
Bronfman, one of Canada's out-
standing Jewish communal and in-
ternational leaders, was honored
here at a testimonial dinner on his
70th birthday attended by more
than 700 people. The testimonial
event was arranged by 29 national
and local Jewish organizations.
He threatens who is afraid. —
Bronfman's sons, Edward and French proverb.
Peter, announced plans to contrib-
ute an addition of the Shaar Hasho-
mayin synagogue here, where the
family worships, which will bear
Bronfman's name and house a li-
brary, museum and youth center.
They also announced they would
donate a reception center at the
2 DOORS
Hebrew University of which
WEST OF
Bronfman is deputy chairman of
the board of governors.
Bronfman was presented with
six glass vessels, discovered by
archeologists in Israel, which date
from the first to the third cen-
turies of the Common Era. Two
"ese
uniformed guards watched over
the vessels as they were unveiled.
Bronfman called them "priceless"
and "an unusual and extraordinary
gift which I will treasure forever."
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comes meaningful to them in a
way that giving money can not."
Junior Division President Ivan
Boesky said ways to implement
the suggestion would be sought,
and he invited the college students
to form an advisory body to the
division.
The Junior Division of Federa-
tion is comprised of young adults—
students and professionals — who
contribute to the Allied Jewish
Campaign. Board members spon-
sor educational programs to at-
tract young leadership and conduct
the Junior Division AJ Campaign.
They also serve as a liaison with
members of other Federation
agency boards as part of the Jun-
ior Division leadership training
program.
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a new look. College students,
most of them relatives and
friends of Federation members,
were in attendance, and division
chairmen took special pains to
explain the budgeting figures to
the younger group.
Federation Junior Division board
members later hosted a luncheon
for the vacationing collegians,
most of them from the University
of Michigan and Wayne State Uni-
versity.
During the luncheon and open
board meeting, the students dis-
cussed ways of bringing the Jew-
ish community, through Federa-
tion, to the campus. It was agreed
that the current image of the Hillel
Foundation has not attracted the
majority of Jewish college stu-
dents, but that there is a lesson to
be learned from the drawing
power of protest groups.
One guest, working on her
masters degree at Wayne, said
students would prefer to perform
service work for the community,
say at the Jewish Home for the
Aged, rather than make a finan-
cial contribution. "When they can
paint a house for some old per-
son," she said, "the experience be-
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" S6".4
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, December 24, 1965-5
VAILABLE JANUARY 1st
Phone
WA 5-4900