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PURELY COMMENTARY
The Future And Money: The Jewish Angle
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
G
reed is well, and on the rise
"among college students, ac-
cording to an extensive study
just made public. The results of it are
extensively publicized and the basic
facts appear in an article headlined
"Freshmen Found Stressing Wealth" by
Diedre Carmody in the New York Times
Jan. 14. The basic facts analyzed in the
lengthy expose are:
A record proportion of more
than three-quarters of college
freshmen surveyed around the
country feel that being finan-
cially well off is an "essential" or
"very important" goal. At the
same time, the lowest propor-
tion of freshmen in 20 years, on-
ly 39 percent put great emphasis
on developing a meaningful phi-
losophy of life.
In addition, the number of
freshmen saying that a key
reason for their decision to at-
tend college was "to make more
Rabbi Rackman
money" has reached a new high
of 71 percent. • Business con-
tinues to be the preferred career,
as a record 25 percent of the
students name it as their first
choice.
"Despite Newsweek's an-
nouncement that greed is dead,
our data show that it is alive and
well," said Alexander W. Astin,
director of the 22nd annual
survey of entering freshmen
conducted by the American
Council on Education and by
the Higher Education Research
Institute at the University of
California at Los Angeles. The
findings were drawn from ques-
tionnaires completed in the fall
by 209,627 freshmen at 390 two-
and four-year institutions.
The one exception to the
trend of materialism that has
been on the rise in the survey's
results since the early 1970s is
an increased interest in teach-
ing as a career, a finding that
took researchers by surprise.
This fall 8.1 percent of the
freshmen said they planned to
pursue careers as elementary or
secondary school teachers, up
from 7.3 percent the previous
year and well up from the low
point of 4.7 percent in 1982.
Other points that emerged
from the survey were:
A sharp decline in interest in
computing, engineering, techno-
logical and nursing careers. The
lack of interest in these
fields was expressed by men
and women alike.
Apparently there are no exceptions
to these findings and they include all
the college students. Neither are Jewish
collegians exempt from the findings.
Their attitudes are revealed in a vital
discussion of related matter in Jewish
ranks by the esteemed scholar and stu-
dent of Jewish cultural values, Dr.
Emanual Rackman.
In one of his very important syn-
dicated columns, appropriately titled
"To Save the Selfless Jewish Savant
From Extinction," Dr. Rackman, former
president of Bar-Ilan University in
Israel, now its chancellor, broached the
serious problem prior to the publication
of the survey of the "New" aims of
students in American universities.
Bemoaning the concern that the
Continued on Page 34
Salo Baron's Addendum To Russian Jewish History
tudents of history, non-Jews
as well as Jews, will always
be indebted to Prof. Salo Baron
for his philosophical studies of the
history of Jews through the ages.
Sharing a leading role as historian
with Heinrich Graetz and Shimon Dub-
nov, Dr. Baron has contributed a vast
library to the archival Jewish records.
A second edition of his The Russian
Jew Under the Tsars and Soviets
(Schocken-Pantheon Books) sup-
plements his great works which were
especially highlighted by the 20-volume
A Social and Religious History of the
Jews.
The current work had its first ap-
pearance in a volume published in
1964. The current one is not up-dated
as of 1988. Its publication does not
reach the Mikhail Gorbachev actions in
relation to the current relations with
the United States and to the appeals for
the right to increase Jewish emigration
from Russia.
The concern over the status of Rus-
sian Jewry lends importance to the
Baron volume as a guide toward
S
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Vol. XCII No. 24
2
February 5, 1988
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1988
knowledge sought on the subject by the
present generation of young Americans
who are engaged in the effort to secure
means of aiding the tens of thousands
who demand visas to leave the USSR,
especially those desiring to go to Israel.
Dr. Baron's The Russian Jews
Under Tsars and Soviets retains the
significance it attained as a textbook
and as a guideline for libertarians in
1964 when the first edition made its in-
itial appearance. The experiences under
Catherine and Alexander I, continuing
with the legislation under Nicholas I
and Alexander II are included, as well
as the periods which led to the horrors
encountered by the Cantonists, the
Jewish children who were abducted to
serve for 25 years in the Russian Army.
It was in an edict (1827) by Nicholas I
that Cantonism was enforced and one
of the objectives was to compel the cap-
tives "to move them most effectively to
change their religion!' As a "calculated
government oppression, the Jewish
community unsuccessfully opposed
"the calculated government oppres-
sion."
Learning a sad lesson from an act
that would not completely attain its
goal, Alexander II, at the end of
Nicholas I's regime, speedily discon-
tinued the cantonist system in 1856.
Pogroms were among the sad ex-
periences in the regimes of Alexander
III and Nicholas II.
The assassination of Alexander II in
1771 was used as an excuse for anti-
Jewish legislation which became
known as the May Laws.
Interesting data is provided on the
period of the brief existence of the
Duma which was instituted by Nicholas
III in an attempt to pacify the develop-
ing revolt against his tyranny. It didn't
take long for that gesture to be dis-
solved. Jews generally participated in
the elections to the two Dumas. The
socialists boycotted the elections, seeing
in it a reactionary attempt to pacify
"the discontented masses!" Twelve Jews
were elected to the Duma, including Dr.
Shmaryahu Levin, who later assumed
important roles in world Zionist
leadership.
The historic records analyzed by Dr.
Baron relate to conflicts in the Jewish
community, the Zionist-Bund controver-
sies revealed here. The economic status
of the oppressed Russian Jews as well
as the literary Renaissance that
developed in spite of the oppressions.
In his descriptions of the Com-
munist and revolutionary era, Dr.
Baron provides important data with
special references to the anti-Semitism
that marked a continuation even under
Communist dogmas, which proclaimed
anti-Semitism to be a crime.
Jews like Lazar Kaganovich, who
helped fan the hatreds that were
manipulated against Jews by Stalin,
are depicted here. So is the mass
murder of Jewish intellectuals under
Stalin's orders.
In the highly-scholarly fashion of
his distinguished career as author and
teacher, Dr. Baron packs into less than
Continued on Page 34
Courage, Understanding
More than once, in the past few
days, commentaries on the sadden-
ing occurrences demanded chang-
ing. There were viewpoints calling
for "erasing of evils from the image
of Israel." Now there are the new
demands upon us to keep the faith
in Israel and not to permit the judg-
ing of Jewry to become a
sportsmanship.
It is possible that if there had
not been so many distortions of the
basic facts of the history of the pre-
sent generation, in Jewry as well as
in Israel, the rocks thrown at
Israel's defenders, the hate leveled
at them, might have lessened. It
has increased. Israel-wise it is the
hatred expressed and nourished
during Israel's rebirth. Therefore
the duty to assemble the defensive
forces. The anticipated genocide
must not reach its peak.
It has become all too easy to be
judge over Jewry and Israel. There
are such "playing judge" groups in
our own midst. This is not a -
privilege for interpretation of the
nation's morality. We are prepared
to match the moral standards of our
antagonists. Where and when there
are sins, we'll erase them. But not
by means of the suicide that is pro-
posed for the revived Jewish na-
tional autonomy. It would have
been suicide if Jews had not battl-
ed for justice and redemption 40
years ago. It is the same battle now.
There were judges over Israel then
as there are now. Would-be
destroyers were not given the op-
portunity to turn their game of
judging, molesting and destroying
into a sportsmanship. They must
not be given that encouragement
now.