A Jewish Planning Committee Needed in U.S., Says Dr. Kaplan

Following are excerpts of the address delivered by Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan before the National Council of Jewish Federation yesterday

The organization of a National Council of Jewish Federations should be viewed as an expression of the Jewish will-to-live, of the centripetal forces in Jewish life making for Jewish survival. It is that, in spite of the fact that many of those identified with Federation are indifferent, or even antagonistic, to Jewish group solidarity, and thus represent the centrifugal forces in Jewish life.

The problem to which the Council should address itself is how may this Jewish will-to-live, this centripetal energy, be utilized as a force for organic community? To be organic, a Jewish community must be the incarnation of the principle “Kol yisrael arebim zeh bazeh,” (All Jews are responsible for one another).

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

In such responsibility, first consideration must be given to that additional economic insecurity to which Jews are subject because they are Jews. Though by no means the only objective of communal organization, economic adjustment should constitute the initial rallying point for all endeavors to federate Jewish effort. If the Jew is to meet his obligations to America, he must be integrated into the economic framework of American life to the same degree as his non-Jewish fellow citizens.

So long as he will labor under economic disabilities and discriminations, he will be lured by disruptive propaganda. Only upon the removal of their economic disabilities will Jews be in a frame o# mind to develop their cultural and spiritual values. This aim must be pursued with all the vigor at our command, if we want to save our youth from the moral breakdown which must follow upon their finding themselves unwanted supernumeraries in the American scene.

MUST GAIN CONFIDENCE

The ideal of an organic community cannot be fulfilled unless all Jews, no matter what their beliefs, mode of life or social standing, will not only be regarded as eligible for membership but will be sought out for registration.

Federation, by virtue of its concrete achievements, is logically the nuclear agency to launch the community movement. But before it can do that, it must learn to synthesize the mechanics of fund gathering and fund allotments with Jewish idealism. It must change its attitude toward the social workers from that of employer to that of collaborator. And instead of ignoring the Jewish masses it must win their confidence and cooperation.

YEAR’S TIME NECESSARY

No one person is capable of formulating a practical community program. That can come only from a Jewish Planning Committee consisting of men and women who are representative of the various interests in Jewish life, who are firm believers in the value of Jewish group survival, and who by their expert knowledge are able to bring about such survival.

The members of that committee should be freed from their routine tasks, and be given the opportunity to devote themselves for at least a year to the study of the problem of Jewish life from all possible angles, to gathering data and consulting all who have had any experience with matters of Jewish interest. By the end of that time they should present a specific plan and program of procedure for the organization of Jewish communal life in this country.