What Made Seven Boys 'Go Bad'? —
Study Probes Synagogue Burglary
NEW YORK—A case study of father to services, and breaking
seven boys brought into court last i the rules of the Sabbath."
In addition to continuing anti-
year in what the New York news-
papers labeled the "Synagogue social behavior, there were
Burglary Case" shows that inten- other important signs of personal
difficulties for the youngsters.
sive communal services are needed
All but the 14-year-old were
in urban areas of Jewish population
school drop-outs. All of the six
where the clash of traditional fam-
ily background and modern-day over 16 years of age had beha-
living problems can result in de- vior or learning problems in the
yeshivas they attended, and all
linquency among young people.
were critical of their school ex-
The study is reported by Murray
Itzkowitz, director of community periences.
The families of the boys rallied
care services at New York's Jewish
Board of Guardians. Writing in the to their sons' defense after the ar-
Summer 1966 issue of the Journal rests, engaging attorneys and post-
of Jewish Communal Service, pub- ing bail. In two instances they ac-
lished by the National Conference cepted the offer of services of the
of Jewish Communal Service, Itz- Jewish Board of Guardians. In
kowitz notes that none of the fam- Spite of the confessions, mothers
ilies involved had sought social have denied or minimized the al-
service aid, although parent-child legations. The parents appear to
be unaware or unwilling to accept
difficulties were rife.
In December 1965, Brooklyn po- the ideas of cause and effect and
lice arrested seven boys, ranging mental health known to the general
in age from 14 to 20, charging them population, Itzkowitz writes. They
with crimes which incluuded bur- seem to feel that their sons are
glary, breaking and entering, pos- "bad" or being led by "bad friends"
and see no way of changing the
session of burglar tools and posses- situation.
sion of stolen property. The boys
Itzkowitz asserts that the most
were all yeshiva students at ( ne
time or another, and had commit- prominent feature of the case is
ted thefts from a number of syna- the lack of community services
which might have changed the
gogues.
The section of Brooklyn from course of the boys' development.
which the boys came was found to None of the parents sought profes-
be one of major population turn- sional social or medical agencies
in their difficulties with their chil-
over, with a large influx of Jewish dren.
families, among whom many were
"Another factor which seems
ultra-Orthodox in belief.
to
emerge from the study is that
The boys are the children of
these seven boys and their fam-
immigrant families who began
ilies are very reminiscent of the
arriving in New York in 1945.
first and second generation Jew-
The parents and most of the
ish adolescents of 30 or 40 years
children traveled through Eu-
ago on the lower East Side," he
r ope, Israel and South America
continues.
before reaching the United
"For some of the children of the
States.
"These are people who have Lower East Side immigrant groups
been uprooted, dispersed and now in the 1920s and 1930s crime and
reassembled to recreate the shtetl," anti-social behavior remained a
Itzkowitz writes. The parents had way of life until the community
a difficult time in surviving; Itzko- became sufficiently aroused to pro-
witz raises the question of what vide services in sufficient quantity
"survival techniques' involving dis- and quality to make a difference.
regard of usual moral values may The settlement houses, camping
have unwittingly been transmitted associations and casework agencies
to the children, and how important combined to saturate the area in
years with great effective-
this may have been in the boys' those
ness.
development.
"Perhaps the experience of ag-
The boys' first acts of rebellion
against parental tradition and encies during those years should
authority was in the area of Juda- be dusted off and renewed and the
ism. Itzkowitz states : "All of the same kind of social work effort be
boys had been sent to yeshivas by made in behalf of this difficult,
their families for training in `the somewhat remote and restive new
Jewish life,' and the first overt immigrant population living among
parent-child difficulties arose when us."
the boys rebelled and either
stopped attending or were dis-
missed from the yeshivas. There
appears to be a widening of the
rebellion to abandoning the phylac-
teries, refusing to accompany the
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Jewish Values in U.S., Israel Suffer,
Rabbi Lelyveld Tells Annual Dialogue
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
LONDON — Oxford University
voted Tuesday night to rename its
Iffley College, as the Isaac Wolf-
son College, and named Sir Isaiah
Berlin, noted British Jewish philos-
opher, as President of the new col-
lege.
The motions calling for these
moves were made by A. Norring-
ton, president of Trinity College,
and adopted unanimously.
Sir Isaac Wolfson, the British
Jewish Industrialist and Phil-
anthropist, gave Oxford $4,500,-
000 for the establishment of Iff-
ley College a year ago.
Since then, the Ford Foundation
has added an equal amount, mak-
ing the $9,000,000 contribution the
largest benefaction ever given to
Oxford at one time.
Prof. Norrington's proposal re-
named Iffley into Wolfson and
named Sir Isaiah as president be-
cause, the Trinity head said, "it
is due to his enthusiasm and con-
fidence, and his very high reputa
tion here and in the United States,
that these grants have been offer-
ed us."
Friday, July 29, 1966-9
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Oxford Names School
for Isaac Wolfson
Tel Aviv—The pressures of na-
tion-building in Israel, and the
trend toward assimilation in the
United States are causing Jews in
both countries to abandon those
cultural and ethical values that
made the Jews a distinctive people,
Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld, president
of the American Jewish Congress,
warned Wednesday.
Dr. Lelyveld weighed the rela-
tionship of both Israeli and Amer-
ican Jews to Jewish traditional
values in opening the AJC's an-
nual "Dialogue" Wednesday., The
event, this year, is being held at
the Weizmann Institute of Science
at Rehovot.
About 40 Israeli and American
scholars, writers and religious
writers are attending the three-day
parley which is devoted to the
theme of "The Nature of The Jew-
ish Distinctiveness in The United
States and Israel."
"Both the Sabra and the Canaan-
ite Jew in Israel and the assimilate-
ed Jew in the United States," said
Rabbi Lelyveld, "reject the dis-
tinguishing values born of the Jew-
ish religious heritage and folk ex-
perience. As a result, the heritage
of Jewish values has been blurred
and now faces the danger of being
erased."
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Dr. Drachler Is
Acting Schools
Superintendent
Dr. Norman Drachler, assistant
superintendent for community re-
lations for the Detroit Public
Schools, was appointed by the
board of education Tuesday as
acting superintendent.
Dr. Drachler, who has held the
assistant superintendent's post
since 1960, re-
places Samuel
Brownell, who is
retiring. The ap-
pointment will be
effective Sept. 1.
Dr. Drachler,
a veteran of 30
years with the
school
system,
headed Temple
Beth El's religi- Dr. Drachler
ous school, has served as assistant
principal of Roosevelt School and
as principal of King and Mettetal
schools.
As the community relations ex-
pert for the schools, Dr. Drachler
has served as liaison between the
schools and community groups.
It was expected that he would
support Detroit's unionized teach-
ers as he is one of the few top-
cc helon administrators who belong
to the Federation of Teachers.
Dr. Drachler worked with the
Citizen's Advisory Committee on
School needs in 1957 and 1958, serv-
ing under George Romney as
chairman.
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