116 Friday, September 9, 1983
Best wishes for a
happy, healthy
New Year
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
A Solution to Jewish Assimilation - in U.S.
By RABBI EZRA
BOYARSKY
A Seven Arts Feature
ELIAS & LILI GREEN
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to all
our friends
and relatives
MR. & MRS.
ARON WEINSTEIN & BRYAN
Come, Wednesday, Sept.
7, at sundown, Jews the
world over will gather in
their respective houses of
worship to bid farewell to
the year 5743 and in a mus-
ing mood of serious reflec-
tion greet the advent of the
New Year, 5744. Address-
ing ourselves specifically to
the current American
Jewish scene, what should
we scrupulously reflect
upon?
It i an indisputable
statistical fact that Ameri-
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
MR. & MRS. MAX FISCHEL
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
JOAN & JERRY PENFIL
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
NMIE & STUART ROSEN, RENEE & CARY
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
MERLE, SELMA, GLORIANNE &
DAVID SILVERMAN
• Wishing all our family and
friends a year of
health and happiness
IRVING, HELEN & RITA KOZUCH
A Very Happy and Healthy
New Year to All Our Friends
and Family
can Jews, after having
reached a population
plateau of six million, are
now beginning to experi-
ence a downward trend.
And should this attritional
process continue un-
checked, the American
Jews, in the course of time,
are threatened to shrink
into a loose, disjointed, cul-
turally anemic ethnic group
of merely Jews in America.
The American Jewish
community, presently still
the largest and most inf-
luential in the Lands of Dis-
persion, is now facing the
most crucial crisis and chal-
lenge in its relatively brief
history. With or without ac-
cessibility to verified statis-
tical data, the sombre fact
remains that Jewish life in
the U.S. is eroding at a fast
and furious. pace.
The unrestrained surge
of alienation among
Jewish youth, the alarm-
ing unprecedented tidal
wave of intermarriage —
estimated to have
reached the 50 percent
mark — and the steadily
climbing divorce rate
among Jews, all consid-
ered together is the result
of a galloping process of
assimilation.
Even with the ever-
increasing rate of mixed
marriage and other forms of
assimilation (joining cults,
etc.), it would still be unfair
to maintain that all Ameri-
can Jews are assuming a
laid-back, indifferent atti-
tude to this ravaging ero-
sion.
Only last June a group of
Jewish leaders, active in
various fields of Jewish life;
were invited by Hadassah
Magazine to a dialogue in
New York City to suggest
how "the rapid course" of
assimilation in America
might be reversed.
While some of the
panelists merely restated
the problem or at best of-
fered only band-aid and
dubious therapy, still a
number of the participants
came up with more substan-
tive cures, worthy of consid-
eration.
Rabbi
Arthur
Hertzberg of Englewood,
N.J. stated that "since
aliya and self-
ghettoization are obvi-
ously rejected by the
majority of American
Jews who are both prod-
ucts and beneficiaries of
our great open society,
other options must be
sought." He further
commented that "com-
munal Judaism: doing
good deeds, fighting
anti-Semitism and prom-
oting human rights have
proven ineffective."
Being a keen student of
the American Jewish
scene, Rabbi Hertzberg's
analysis is valuable to the
extent of clarifying what
is not workable in al-
leviating the problem.
Rabbi Walter
Wurzberger, president of
the Synagogue Council of
America, said that "gefilte
fish Judaism won't suffice.
We must cultivate a deep
personal religious voca-
tion." He urged a free
Jewish educational system
to take priority over health
and social services.
It is enlightening indeed
that a number of other
prominent panelists con-
curred in essence with the
above view: that there is no
magical solution to the
rampaging onrush of as-
similation except a radical
shift of present priorities
prevailing in most com-
munities; by replacing the
present ramshackle two-
three day a week afternoon
"educational" institutions
with a network of top
caliber schools across the
country, staffed with
highly-qualified profes-
sional educators.
In the first of the double
Torah portions, Nitzavim-
Vayelech, which were read
in the synagogue on the
Sabbath prior to Rosh
Hashana, we find that
Moses, the great prophet,
foresaw the days and events
to come, including our own.
Addressing the entire
House of Israel and its
leaders, he declared:
"For this commandment
which I command you
this day, it is not too dif-
ficult for you, neither is it
Old Synagogue Remembered
HELEN & STEWART GOTTLIEB
LISA & SUSIE
To All Our
Relatives
and Friends,
Our wish for a
year filled with
happiness,
health and prosperity
IRVING & BRENDA ALTUS & SONS
larvn nalz riaV2
far off; it is not in heaven,
neither is it beyond the
sea but is very near you,
in your mouth and in
your heart, so that you
may do it." (Deut. 30:11-
14).
Will we do it? We better,
for on our immediate action
depends whether we remain
a viable American Jewry or
slip into a status of simply
Jews in America ..
Tobacco was introduced
to England by Luis de Ter-
res, a companion of Colum-
bus who had settled in
Cuba.
'Best wishes for a
happy, healthy
New Year
to all
our friends
and relatives
MR. & MRS. MEYER
SILBERBERG & FAMILY
rin3 1 7
tan=
to all
our friends
and relatives
DAVID, FANNY &
GAIL SILVER
FERN & HERB BAKER
& FAMILY
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
ANNIE, ROB, JENNY & EMILY COHEN
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
THE GREENS
DONNA, LENNY, ALLEN, SANDY & JAQI
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
ESTHER & ISAAC KURTZ
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
JACK & BEATRICE ROTH
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
MR. & MRS. NATHAN WOLOK
15420 Oakwood Dr., Oak Park, MI 48237
Tis?ita , ;74tipd
,
Wishing all our family and
friends a year of
health and happiness
ARTHUR & REGINA FEUER & FAMILY
Wishing all our family and
friends a year of
health and happiness
This old photograph shows the Rabbi Judah he-
Hasid Synagogue, known as the "Hurvah." The main
Ashkenazi synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, it
was destroyed by the Jordanians after they occupied
Jerusalem in 1948. The synagogue was built between
1857 and 1864 on the ruins of a synagogue that had
been built in 1701. Reconstruction of the "Hurvah" is
planned.
Wishing all our family and
friends a year of
health and happiness
ROMAN, FELICIA & MARLA SHLOSS