A statement of principles aimed at establishing a commonly accepted goal and objectives for all Jewish Centers was adopted last night at the closing session of a three-day meeting of the Jewish Center Division Committee of the Jewish Welfare Board.
The statement defined the functions of the center as: Service as an agency of Jewish identification, Jewish integration and personality development; assistance in the integration of the individual Jew, as well as of the Jewish group, into the total Amrican community; furtherance of the democratic way of life; and providing a dynamic and flexible program of service in the fields of recreation and informal education for the entire Jewish community.
The statement declares that “the program of the Jewish Center should devote primary attention to Jewish content” and that in “activities connected with informal education, recreation and health education,” which are “essential for a well-rounded program of the Jewish Center, the first and greatest emphasis should be placed on the spiritual-cultural factors which constitute the Jewish way of life.”
The principles now go to the eight regional Sections of JWB, who will discuss them at their annual conventions this fall, and to the boards of directors of the Jewish Centers and YM-YWHAs. This will be followed by the formal adoption of the principles at the 1948 annual meeting of JWB. Once they have been ratified by the annual meeting each Center now affiliated with JWB would be required to accept the principles within three years as a condition of continued affiliation with JWB. For all new Centers, acceptance of the principles will become an immediate condition for membership in JWB.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
