THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, June 17, 1977 23
Family Education to Fight Assimilation
WASHINGTON (JTA) --
A four-day confernece spon-
sored by the American Asso-
ciation for Jewish Educa-
tion closed June 5, with the
endorsement of a long-time
experimental program
aimed at educating Jewish
families to prevent their iso-
lation from Jewish in-
stitutions and Judaism it-
self and thereby to pre-
serve the Jewish identity of
the younger generation.
The Conference on Jewish
Family education, the first
of its kind since 1970, drew
some 300 delegates from 56
communities in the United
States and Canada. The par-
ticipants included represen-
tatives of 18 national and
local Jewish bodies, includ-
ing federations, social serv-
ice agencies and bureaus of
Jewish education. It was
TRAVEL
AGENT
TRAINING
chaired by Arthur Brody,
president of the Jewish
Community —Federation of
Metropolitan New Jersey.
The problem was stated
at the opening session by
Dr. Daniel Thursz, execu-
tive vice president of Bnai
Brith, who warned that ex-
horting Jewish parents
from the pulpit or other
community forums "to do
what they have no skills or
knowledge to accomplish is
a destructive approach."
On the other hand, he em-
phasized the "crucial impor-
tance" of family life in pre-
serving Jewish identi-
fication. He cited the find-
ings of a study conducted
by Dr. Fred Mazaryk, a so-
ciologist and Dr. Max F.
Baer, director of the Bnai
Brith Youth Organization
(BBYO) which disclosed
that parents and grand-
parents were the most domi-
nant factors influencing the
Jewish attitudes of youth
while rabbis and religious
school teachers were "the
least influential."
revolution" that has affect-
ed the American middle
class, including Jews.
Beyond the "public
agenda" directed toward
the quality of Jewish com-
munal life, the Jewish com-
munity must now contend
with a "hidden, private
agenda" in which the indi-
vidual's concerns for person-
al satisfaction are in-
fluencing his life-style,
Schulweis said.
"Jews are suffering from
middle class ills," he
added. "They say: 'Do not
tell me what I can do for
Judaism, tell me what
Judaism can do for me —
and I mean for me, not as
a member of the commu-
nity,"' he said. According
to Schulweis, unless the
community's efforts re-
spond to such private needs
"we will not be able to en-
ter the home and the fam-
ily to accomplish our pur-
pose."
The conference adopted a
program presented by
Isaac Toubin, executive
Thursz' added, however,
vice president of the AAJE.
that "Rabbis and teachers One aspect directed the
need not be defensive since
AAJE to establish a nation-
it is not their professional - al commission to help in-
NOW ENROLLING
competence nor style that itiate and evaluate special
FOR
is the basis for failures in local educational efforts di-
JUNE 27 CLASSES
the present system of Jew- rected toward the Jewish
STATE LICENSED
ish education but rather the family and to raise funds to-
structure and timing."
PLACEMENT
ward subsidizing the pro-
Rabbi Harold Schulweis, grams.
ASSISTANCE
of Los Angeles. warned that
Toubin anticipated that
CALL 399-5522
any program of education
the
experimental programs
directed
towards
the
Jewish
for Information
family "must pay attention would be tested in two met-
to the nature of the dis- ropolitan-size cities, two me-
content of the Jewish diuni size • cities of about
middle class, which "these 25,000 Jewish population
days seeks to find answers and two smaller- commu-
in encounter movements." nities of fewer than 10,000
Schulweis said that the Jews. The delegates recom-
problem was not that Jews mended•a three-year test pe-
oppose religiosity or assimi- riod to be followed by eval-
22932 Woodward,
late but one of middle class uation studies and possibly
Ferndale, Mich. 48220
reaction to a "psychological a follow-up national confer-
ence.
Cleveland, whose commu-
nity leaders have indicated
strong • interest, was likely
to be the site of the first ex-
21751 W. NINE MILE ROAD • SUITE 102
perimental programs. Tou-
SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48075
bin said. He said "The suc-
(313) 357-2766
cordially invites you to the
cess of the program de-
pends heavily on a pooling
of inter-agency resources,
utilizing all of the needed
disciplines — social work-
ers, theologians, sociolo-
gists, educators and similar
expertise in an integrated
way."
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Second Annual
Rose Frenkel Meeting
sponsored by the Rose Frenkel Memorial Fund,
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Thursday, June 23rd at 1:00 p.m.
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Congregation Shaarey Zedek
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speaker
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Israel Continues
Ties With Bonn
JERUSALEM (JTA)—
Menahem Begin, who ob-
jected vehemently to Israeli -
diplomatic relations with
West Germany when he
was an opposition leader,
will maintain close and cor-
dial ties with the Bonn gov-
ernment when he becomes
premier, informed sources
said.
The sources based their
*views on comments by
Likud leaders and foreign
diplomats in Jerusalem.
Begin had a friendly con-
versation with a high rank-
ing German diplomat re-
cently and is expected to
welcome West German
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt
when the latter visits Israel
in December on an in-
vitation extended by Pre-
mier rYitzhak Rabin.
Top Likud figures have as-
sured German diplomats
that there will be no
changes in Israeli-German
relations under a Likud re-
-gime.
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