56 Friday, February 19, 1982

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Fifty Years of American Judaism in Retrospect

(Continued from Page 12)
dresses. And they find
the pattern of living in a
new and strange
environment very easy to
adopt and fit into, be-
cause what they are leav-
ing was not radically
different. There is,
Jewishly _speaking, no
trauma connected with
the change.

-

This is especially notice-
able on the college campus.
Adolescent boys and girls
get their first real feeling of
independence when they go
to college away from home.
New vistas open before
them. They meet new
friends from all over. They
are stimulated by new fields
of knowledge. There is a
new social milieu to which
they are strongly attracted.
Home and parents play a
shrinking role in their lives.
The old connections are not
vital; they become nominal.
Another by-product of the
threat of intermarriage is
the large number of candi-
dates for conversion in
every Jewish community.
This is also a very new phe-
nomenon. But it is an in-
adequate solution to a very
difficult problem.

One would expect a
convert to Judaism who
seeks membership in the
Jewish people and the
Jewish faith to be wel-
comed with open arms, to
be absorbed into the
Jewish community, and
to adopt the life style of
this new connection. This
does not exactly work out
as one would expect.

LOUIS BRANDEIS

type that we had in the past,
locally as well as nationally.
To mention only one case
out of many: Louis D. Bran-
deis came into Jewish life
from the outside, so to
speak, with a minimal
Jewish background and ex-
perience. He joined the
Zionist movement when he
was already in his middle
50s.

As a labor mediator
among his fellow Jews
and as an active Zionist
he came in close contact
with the Jewish masses
throughout the country.
This made a noble, dedi-
cated Jew out of him. One
of the by-products of this
transformation is the
little-known fact that
when Brandeis died he
willed half of his estate to
Palestine and the ad-
vancement of the work of
Zionism.

This could hardly happen
today. The effective leaders
of the American Jewish
community today are not
leaders in the traditional
sense of the word. The work
is being done by executive
directors of federations and
national organizations.
They are for the most part
`not Jewishly-trained for
their jobs. They are often
not too knowledgeable in
Jewish affairs and not ob-
servant in terms of religious
practice. They are adminis-
trators and usually stay in
the background.

The Jewish family that
converts becomes part of a
world that is generally in-
different and non-observant
in the Jewish sense of the
word. We find that for the
most part there is no strong
objection to a child marry-
ing a convert because the
difference is not that sharp.
The absorption is not so
much Jewish as it is social.
There are no real
standards of Jewish living
for the most part that the
The putative leaders of
convert can aspire to, very
little to imitate. The the Jewish community are
standards of Jewish living generally wealthy Jews
that they are taught to who are drawn into posi-
adopt they do not always tions of leadership for
have occasion to practice. prestige purposes and in
And there is a definite feel- order to enhance their repu-
ing of letdown on the part of tations. They look to their
these innocent applicants professionals. their execu-
for- membership in the tive directors, for guidance.
Jewish faith. The only hope They are doing a notable
in the problem of converts to piece of work, and their ef-
Judaism is that when the forts should be encouraged
new couple begins to plan a and appreciated. But they
family and have children of reflect the eroding situation
their own, they will feel the of the general American
urge to give them some kind Jewish community.
What is going on in the
of Jewish environment and
some kind of Jewish educa- United States generally
that is really affecting our
tion. -
The leaders of the Jewish situation is a gradual proc-
community are also not the ess of secularization.

interest to continue beyond
that stage.
A good deal of the slack
has been picked up by the
all-day schools, a rather
new phenomenon on the
American Jewish scene.
Here a Jewish child is
placed in a Jewish
environment for the greater
part of the day. The _educa-
tion he is given is intensive.
The best teachers are drawn
to the all-day schools.

America is strictly and le-
gally speaking not a reli-
gious civilization. We are
founded on the principle of
the separation of church
and state, and on religious
liberty.
Religion in the U.S. is a
private affair, and this is
the basis of freedom and
conscience. Religion cannot
be a matter of public con-
cern or responsibility. That
is why the Christian com-
munity — the vast majority
in the U.S. — is facing the
same problems that we are
facing.

This type of school is still
new and has not had a
chance to prove itself. Some
Christians as well as very important questions,
Jews pay lip service to however, have to be asked.
religion but are actually How many parents send
not guided or influenced their children to these
by ethical or religious schools because they want
standards in their private them to have an intensive
lives where religion is - Jewish education and will
supposed to have its provide them with the kind
of environment that will
place.
This is the plight of the make this type of education
secular Jews in our commu- stick? And how many par-
nity. They have given up ents send their children to
all-day schools because they
religion as a matter of pub-
lic community concern. If want to take them out of the
you wish to be religious in public school system, and
your private life, no one will will provide them with a
minimal Jewish environ-
interfere.
Judaism — Yiddishkeit ment?
Can the all-day schools
— is an ethnic and cultural
succeed
in developing a
concern. But ethnicity is not
a very strong handle to hold program of parent edu-
on to. The melting pot of cul- cation that will be effec-
tures and ethnic groups in tive in creating Jewish
the U.S. is too strong for home environments for
them to resist. The older their children? And not
generation of secular Jews the least, how much
at least had religious roots, community support can
and they rebelled against a the all-day schools get so
religiously observant that the tuition will be
within reach of the aver-
milieu.
age Jewish family?
Process of
In the course of this pre-
Secularization
The current secular Jew sentation references have
does not have the experi- been made to the Jewish
family as a source of much of
ence of having been part of a
Jewish life-style. He is an the difficulty that American
Judaism finds itself in. The
uprooted Jew who has a
label and an affiliation, but Jewish family together with
the entire Jewish commu-
in his private life is com-
pletely lacking in the ex- nity is a victim of circum-
stances. The time has come
perience of Jewish living.
within
the last few years
There is very little dif-
ference between him and when national Jewish
organizations are focusing
the secular American.
in
on the problems of the
An institution that has
been particularly af- Jewish family and inter-
fected by the erosion of marriage, and trying to see
Jewish life in the U.S. is what, if anything, can be
Jewish education. The done to improve the situa-
afternoon school was the tion.
We have been taking the
bulwark of our educa-
tional system in the past. Jewish family for granted
This type of education because we assumed that it
can no longer be ex- was functioning. It did so, in
pected to accomplish fact, for hundreds of years,
and we assumed that it was
what it formerly did. It still
doing so. The family
cannot take a child with
absolutely no Jewish was the basic social unit of
knowledge and out of a the community. Not only
very weak Jewish did every individual belong
environment in the home to a family, but he could not
and make a knowledge- possibly picture himself not
able and practicing Jew belonging.
The family was the in-
out of him.
stitution
through which the
It can prepare children for
Bar or Bat Mitzva, but un- heritage of Judaism was
fortunately only a very transmitted. The pattern of
small percentage of these life set by the parents was
expected to be followed by
have the motivation and the
the children, and when they
became parents they had
the same expectations as far
as their children were con-
cerned.

.

The Jewish family was
always more basic than
either the synagogue or
the school. They both de-
pended largely on the
family for their ability to
function. The school was

not expected to start
teaching the child from
scratch, but rather con-
tinued on the basis of
what the child absorbed
in the home and in the
synagogue.

there are advantages to
being different and to
being part of a small
minority, and that to be
part of a great mass of
people is not always a
blessing.

The synagogue also based
itself on the religious needs
and practices of the home.
Shabat dinners and com-
munity sedorim were not
needed in the traditional
synagogue because it was
correctly assumed that
every Jewish home had a
Shabat dinner and a Pesach
seder.
The reconstitution and
the rejuvenation of the
Jewish family is our hope
for the future. This will re-
quire a great deal of stub-
born dedication. The Jews
have always been a stub-
born, stiff-necked people,
and we have to regain a
good measure of that old
stubbornness.
We have in the U.S. a
category of Jews previously
unheard of: non-observant
Reform, Conservative and
even Orthodox Jews. They
have synagogue affilia-
tions, and some attend serv-
ices, but in their private
lives they are all pretty
much alike in their
watered-down Judaism.

They will thus have to
find a greater measure of
fulfillment in being them-
selves and knowing them-
selves. And this means
being the product and out-
growth of 4,000 years of
Jewish historical experi-
ence and Jewish living, as
well as a link strong enough -
to enable the 'tradition to
continue into the future.
If they do this there will
be a Jewish community
with sufficient life re-
sources to be able to con-
tinue and even flourish, be-
cause they will not be a di-
minished product of past
momentum, but rather
have an inner propulsion
that will be sufficient for
maintaining personal and
community life on a high,
meaningful, and creative
level.
The Jewish community of
America is in reality only
about 100 years old, If we
start counting from the be-
ginning of the mass immi-
gration of Jews from east-
ern Europe in 1881. Centers
None of these groups of Jewish settlement in the
have observant Jews in past history of our people
sufficient numbers. If have lasted at least several
they did, the walls of our hundred years.

synagogues could not
contain them. But there
are in the Orthodox, Con-
servative and Reform
movements a sufficient
number of observant
Jews, in each group ac-
cording to its own
standards. It is upon
these Jews that our
hopes for the future must
rest.

The - observant Jews in
each group will have to
band together and consti-
tute the core of the Ameri-
can Jewish community of
the future. They may be
small in number, but they
will stick it through.
In the days of the
Pharisees in the period of
the Second Temple there
were Jews who were called
Haverim. These Jews were
part of the Pharisee move-
ment, but they assumed
religious obligations over
and above those assumed by
the mass of Jews. They were
the hard core of observant
Jews of their time. These
Haverim should be emu-
lated in our generation.
Even they will not have
an easy time of it. They will
have to live their Jewish
lives on a high plane of con-
sciousness. It will have to be
planned Jewish living in
every sense of the word —
planned with a definite
purpose.

They will have to edu-
cate themselves to live a
certain type of life and
educate their children
and indoctrinate them to
follow in their footsteps.
They will have to find
satisfaction and fulfill-
ment in a limited area of
life. They will have to
learn what Jews of the
past always knew: that

For American Jewry to
be experiencing a decline
in such a short time
would be a tragic phe-
nomenon in Jewish his-
tory. There have been
other communities that
have gone through
periods of decline and
disintegration. Some
have also experienced
revivals and sustained
growth.

American Jewry can do
the same if we h a - -ve the
same commitment and the
same stamina that our an-
cestors have shown in the
past. And let not a very
small population disturb us
either.
Baron
Salo
Prof.
estmated that at the end of
the Middle Ages there were
left only about 1,000,000
Jews in all the world. And
yet we not only survived but
grew in number and
flourished. It all depends on
the determination and the
stubbornness with which
we apply ourselves to living
a meaningful and creative
Jewish lfie.
It can be done, and, with
God's help, it will be done.

DR. SALO W. BARON