I PURELY COMMENTARY
Future And Money
Continued from Page 2
"values once imparted in the Jewish
home and within the Jewish family, are
not the values of yesteryear, "Dr.
Rackman admonishes that "supreme
value is now placed on the acquisition
of wealth rather than intellectual and
moral excellence linked with sacrificial
service to all mankind.
How does Dr. Rackman arrive at his
warning and does he have a solution to
an approaching, very saddening
development that affects all of our
fellow citizens? He turned to the warn-
ing pronounced by another eminent
Jewish scholar when he wrote in his
essay about Jewish students and their
monetary aspirations:
It was Prof. Ephraim Katzir,
former president of Israel and a
brilliant scientist, who observed
during a recent visit to the
United States that while two
generations ago American lab-
oratories were densely popu-
lated by Jews, this is no longer
the case.
Today it is in the university
programs in business ad-
ministration that attract the
greater number of Jews. Of
course, no one has made a
careful survey to prove that this
observation is acurate. However,
it is well known in academia
that the pursuit of careers in
pure and natural science by
Jews is no longer as overwhelm-
ing as it once was. While Jews
are still very much interested in
the professions — engineering,
law, and medicine — the appeal
of these disciplines may be due
to considerations no different
from those that motivate the
Jew who wants to get rich via a
business career.
But why is there a decline in
the number of Jews engaged, for
example, in research in
mathematics and the natural
sciences? Have we failed to
stress the pursuit of wisdom
either for its own sake or to bet-
ter the human condition instead
of to get rich and enjoy the
"good" life?
Jews were once able to do it.
I do not mean to say that all
Jews felt that way about learn-
ing. But the ideal was always ex-
pressed and often fulfilled. To
study Torah for the sake of
enriching its literature was an
end in itself.
Many of the young chose
precisely that type of career —
and, indeed, many still do. For
them such a career was in the
cause of the Jewish people and
their heritage. By comparison
with the joy that was theirs
because of what they did, self-
denial was of no consequence.
With equal devotion, many Jews
in this century applied them-
selves to other disciplines. A
number of them won the coveted
Nobel Prize.
However, with fewer Jews
doing that today, and most of
them in abundantly gainful
careers, the number who will
34F_RIDNLEERRUABY 5J9,8,8
get the prize must inevitably
decline. That is why I ask
whether there is a way to
stimulate Jews to return to the
less lucrative pursuits for
humanity's sake and the pride
of our people.
I want to suggest one way,
and specifically to the rich.
Years ago many a wealthy Jew
delighted in having at least one
son, or son-in-law, devote his life
to Torah study while the family
business and fortune were ad-
ministered for the benefit of all
equally. There was a so-called
division of labor. Some made the
money to support all while one
scholar among them afforded
the entire family great pride in
his accomplishment.
Several years ago, to stimu-
late aliyah to Israel, I suggested
a similar procedure. Let a fami-
ly — or a family society — under-
take the support of one among
them to represent all of them in
the development of the young
state. I know of several families
that did precisely that. They had
a so-called Israeli branch. In
one case that I know well, a
group of brothers in business
arranged for one of the group to
devote his life to Torah study in
Israel and raise a fine family
there. The student retained his
partnership interest in the fami-
ly business and was the family's
major contribution to the Jew-
ish people — a contribution of a
life plus lives where they were
needed by us.
Let us apply this procedure
to the problem I raised.
If there be a very promising
scientist in an affluent Jewish
family, the family as a whole
should take pride in making it
possible for him to devote his life
to research in pure and natural
science. And the family should
make it possible for him to do
this without his being seduced
to a more lucrative undertaking.
If the family has no such
genius in its midst, why not
make it possible for some young
people in Israel, whom the im-
poverished universities cannot
employ or sustain with fellow-
ship money, to be supported by
an American family to engage in
the research that will keep Jews
in the forefront of scientific
endeavor and thus increase the
number of candidates for future
Nobel prizes?
It sounds like a dream. But
as Herzl said in another connec-
tion, if we but will it, it will be
no dream.
One of the great problems of
Israel's academic community is
that it is unable to exploit the
talent available, so that talent
will be lost to us forever. At the
same time, not only Japan,
China and Korea, but the rich
Arab oil states are forging
ahead, leaving us far behind.
The exercise of just a bit of
imagination by those of our co-
religionists who have "made it"
in business will help make Pro-
fessor Katzir and many others
far less uneasy.
The preferred solution is quoted
here in deference to Dr. Rackman and
in respect for his devotion to scholarship
needs in Israel. It must be recognized
that he also links the collegiate
challenge to this country by Japan and
other developing forces competing for
ddomination with all of us. In the
Jewish aspect, the traditional Jewish
devotion to learning is fully outlined
here. There have been Jewish magnates
with fame that often became interna-
tionally acclaimed moneywise and who,
nevertheless, made scholarship and
learning a great duty. There is a record
of such multiple interests in the
Rothschild family and other histori-
cally-powerful financing merchants as
they were called.
The problem and the search for
solutions to the aim that approaches
"greed" are multiple. There is the duty
to make the family a vital factor and
adhering to highest goals in scholar-
ship. There is the home atmosphere
whence comes the great need to elevate
all standards and retain the establish-
ed goals in Jewish life.
The problem has been raised and is
treated with justified concern by Dr.
Rackman and Prof. Katzir. The duty to
adhere to highest ranks of scholarship
as a solution must never be abandoned.
The forecast of a drastic decline in
the cultural-scientific aspirations of the
Jewish youth, with the desire for more
money, commenced with a Jeremiad.
Dr. Rackman expressed pride in the
overwhelming number of Jewish scien-
tists, cultural leaders and authors, who
dominate in the list of Nobel Prize win-
ners, but he foresaw a big decline in at-
taining such glory again. He stated in
his essay:
Will there be as many Jews
receiving Nobel Prizes in the
21st Century as in the 20th?
There is cause for pessimism in
Jewish circles, and I cannot
dispel it. The likelihood is that
more Jews will be in Forbes'
listings of multi-millionaires but
not on lists of those making
giant contributions to the ad-
vancement of science. And as
much as Jewish philanthropy
needs the support of the af-
fluent, Jews cannot rejoice that
they will have relinquished to
Asians their first place among
Nobel laureates.
In one respect, what I write
may be offensive to many
because it reveals my chauvi-
nism as a Jew. I cannot deny
that the achievements of Jews
have always made me very
proud. And the spectacular
representation of Jews in the
galaxy of Nobel stars could not
help but warm the Jewish heart,
just as the many Jews who com-
mit "white-collar crimes" are
depressing.
What I am bemoaning, how-
ever is not so much the pro-
bability that in the 21st Century
Jews will not be able to boast a
disproportionate number a-
mong the great men of the age.
Rather, it is a the fact that values
once imparted in the Jewish
home, and within the Jewish
family, are not the values of
yesteryear. Supreme value is
now placed on the acquisition of
wealth rather than intellectual
and moral excellence linked
with sacrificial service to all
mankind.
In the past, the struggle that com-
pelled Jews to aim for superiority
because anti-Semitism sought to
degrade them into inferiority may not
again be a major compulsion for high
achievements. There was a time when
Jews, battling against such degrading
experiences, signaled to the anti-
Semite: "You will not compel us into a
concession to make fools of our
children." Therefore, our hope that the
legacies that uplifted us again will
become symbols of the major aims in
our life: For cultural attainments and
the highest moral and ethical teachings
to lift us to the highest rung on the
human ladder. Let the guidance and in-
spiration of our teachers like Emanuel
Rackman lead us toward retaining
these ideals.
Russian Jewry
Continued from Page 2
Salo Baron
500 pages the vastness of the Russian
Jewish theme.
In a new preface written in early
1987, the author shows how the treat-
ment of Jews is a continuity from Tsar-
dom to Communism. There is hardly a
difference between Thar and commissar.
DE Baron provides this important com-
ment on the equated treatment of Jews:
In general, Russia's domestic
policies toward Jews have not
changed very much. They may
be characterized as a combina-
tion of assimilation and anti-
Semitism.
The Soviet state continued in
this area much of the anti-
Jewish behavior maintained by
the tsarist regime. When in 1939
the Soviet Union shared with
Nazi Germany the occupation of
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