12 Friday, February 19, 1 982

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THE INTROIT JEWISH NEWS

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Fifty Years of American Judaism

(Continued from Page 1)
identity and a felt need
for identification with
family and community.
Children grew up, mar-
ried and generally con-
tinued to live in the same
community as their par-
ents. A three-generation
spread from grand-
parents to parents to
children in the same
community was- a corn-
mon phenomenon.

In the course of a 50-year
span there occurred a
number of radical changes.
There has been a constant
attrition of Jewish life and
culture on all- fronts. We are
still the leading Jewish
community in the world. We
are still being looked up to
for a great many things.
However, some changes
have taken place which
must be carefully studied.
There has already oc-
curred a marked decline in
Jewish population. We are
probably not much more
than 5,000,000 Jews in the
U.S. today. There are many
dire predictions as to the fu-
ture. There is no doubt that
the trend is definitely
downward. Several factors
make this decline inevita-
ble.
We have, for one thing, a
very low birthrate, perhaps
lower than any ethnic group
in the United States. We are
definitely not reproducing
ourselves. Even under the
best of circumstances this is
no asset.
We are living in an open
society. There
are no bar-
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,1.10 -

riers, voluntary or other-
wide, to close contact with
our Gentile neighbors. The
Jewish neighborhood is a
thing of the past. The old
"five o'clock shadow" when
business and casual con-
tacts with Gentiles stopped
at the threshhold of social
life, has disappeared. Even
the greatest concentration
of Jews is now constantly
exposed to close social con-
tacts with Gentile
neighbors. This begins from
childhood and goes on
through elementary school,
college, business and pro-
fessions and, naturally,
through social life.

We are no longer
excluded, on the whole,
from Gentile society.
When we were, we re-
sented it and called it
anti-Semitism. Now that
we are for the most part
in, this has become our
undoing. Close social
contacts over a long
period lead to intermar-
riage. What was rare
some 20 or 30 years ago is
now a common- occur-
rence. Without speaking
in terms of percentage, it
is safe to say that there is
hardly a Jewish family
which does not have
somewhere in the family
relationships at least one
intermarried couple.

The only place where
Jews today are certain to
meet other Jews exclusively
is at a synagogue service, at
a Jewish center, or a
Jewishly-sponsored meet-
ing. And how many Jews

attend services on frequent
occasions, or go to meetings
of Jewish groups to which
they belong?
Affiliation, we know, is so
often a nominal matter. The
result is that the Jewish life
style that these Jewish
functions create and foster
is being whittled away. Dif-
ferenCes are no longer
noticeable. We eat together,
go to each other's homes and
eventually marry each
other.

Jewish Family
in Disarray

The Jewish family is in
disarray in another sig-
nificant sense. We are fac-
ing the same problem that
the general American
community is facing in
terms of a growing rate of
divorce. Divorce was once
very rare in the Jewish
community, and was even
regarded as more or less of a
disgrace. Now it is ex-
tremely frequent, especially
among young. recently-
married couples.

One comes to the conclu-
sion that they take mar-
riage rather lightly, and
they take divorce in an
equally carefree manner.
This is part of the new
morality that is sweeping
through the country. Sexual
relations are no longer con-
fined to marriage. Live-in
partners and premarital sex
are fairly common. Sex is no
longer sacred and is even
regarded as a form of rec-
reation. Sexually, the shift
from the premarital to the

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marital state is hardly
noticed.

Added to this is the
very large increase in the
number of Jewish singles
and single parents. This
is something that the
Jewish community has
not learned to deal with
as yet. Children with
single parents are a fre-
quent occurrence in our
Jewish schools. Unmar-
ried singles are legion.

How to handle this situa-
tion and how to find a place
in' our community setup for
these people constitutes a
problem that the Jewish
community is not yet pre-
pared to tackle. Only egin-
nings have made thus far,
and progress is very slow.
The problems of the
Jewish singles can be
matched by another new
family situation, the two-
career family. The two
mates have to be very well
organized in order to be able
to do justice to their careers,
establish a home for them-
selves, raise children, and
give them all the love and
care that they deserve.
How can they also give
them an adequate Jewish
education and the proper
Jewish home environment,
with the parents serving as
role models for living a
Jewish life? These are prob-
lems that each family has to
solve in its own way. But the
challenge is definitely
there.

Another troubling fac-
tor is the fact that we are
living in a very mobile
society. Travel is swift
and easy: Driving a car is
taken for granted, and
hopping a plane is a very
common occurrence. It is
very common to have
parents living in one
community and three
children living in three
other communities.
There does not exist any
longer a close familial re-
lationship between par-
ents, children and grand-
children. Each fraction of
a family lives its own life,
has its own social con-
tacts and marries
spouses from strange
cities.

The growing spatial gap
between parents and chil-
dren also has its ideological
aspects. There were prob-
lems of parent-child rela-
tionships in the past too.
There were occasional re-
volts against the life style of
the parents at home and the
adoption of different ways of
living.
This is no longer the case.
The average Jewish home is
no longer a sanctuary of
Jewish life. There is no
firmly-rooted Jewish prac-
tice in the home. Kashrut,
Shabat, holidays, etc. are
minimally observed.

Young people are not
leaving home; they are
changing their ad-
(Continued on Page 56)

In 1946, its first year of
operation, CARE provided
food for 3,380,000 people.
Today, CARE helps feed 30
million people throughout .
the world.

t.

k

1

PROTEST THE VICIOUS ABC NEWS-
ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA BROADCAST

The ABC News 20/20 TV Program of February 4,
1982 was supposed to be a documentary of
Israel's treatment of Arabs in Judea and
Samaria. Instead, it was a deliberate smear de-
signed to incite and justify violence against the
Jewish State and its supporters.

.

Among the many false and slanderous
charges: ABC News suggested that Israel was
neglecting Arab medical needs and permitting
newly-born Arab babies to die and that it was "a
planned program of genocide." They offered as
evidence the fact that the hospital in the Arab city
of Ramallah had only one respirator while Hadas-
sah Hospital in Jerusalem had ten. ABC News
said both hospitals serve about the same number
of people.

What ABC News failed to tell:

• Ramallah is a small town only 1/5 the size of
Jerusalem and a half hour drive from Hadassah
Hospital on Mt. Scopus.

• Hadassah is a regional hospital serving the sur-
rounding Arab villages and towns as well as
Jerusalem.

• 40 percent of Hadassah's patients are Arabs —
including Arabs from neighboring countries.

• Mayor Elias Freij of Bethlehem observed that ".
.. the number of doctors has increased sixfold
since 1967. We have no problem getting doc-
tors or specialists." Independently compiled
data shows infant mortality has been reduced
over half and that malaria, trachoma, cholera
and smallpox have been eradicated.

report in Times (London), May 2, 1977

•

new clinics have been established for blood
and urine diseases, 45 clinics for minor opera-
tions and two eye clinics.

170

Dr. Franz Walter, health representative in the territories
International Committee of the Red Cross, 1977 Report

.

• Three new schools of practical nursing, a
school for midwives and a ,school for graduate
nursing has been established in the area.

It is imperative ABC News be made aware of
our deepest concern and objection to this pro-
gram. Urgent steps should be taken to rectify
this injustice.

ZOA Action Guideline

Send letters or mailgrams to:

Mr. Roone Arledge

Mrs. Jeanne Findlater

1330 Avenue of the Americas

20777 West 10 Mile Rd.
Southfield, Michigan 48037

Station Manager ABC TV7

President of ABC News

New York. N.Y. 10019

1) Express your indignation and revulsion at the inflamatory
smear of Israel by ABC News — their failure to be objective

and honest.

2) Insist that ABC News immediately schedule a program by
20/20 giving the Government of Israel an opportunity to
reply.

Copies should be sent to Hugh Downs and Ted Koppel of ABC
News that took part in that smear. (N.Y. address)

ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA
-DETROIT DISTRICT

IRVING LAKER,

president

SIDNEY SILVERMAN,

EXECUTIVE BOARD CHAIRMAN