“The 1960’s present the first significant lull from the desperate survival issues of the past 30 years in the Jewish community throughout the world, and we should use this time to introspect the values by which Judaism can make a meaningful contribution to private as well as public welfare,” Philip Klutznick, former International president of B’nai B’rith and former special United States representative to the United Nations, declared last night at Brandeis University.
Addressing the weekend dedication of the university’s new Philip W. Lown Graduate Center for Contemporary Jewish Studies, Mr. Klutznick noted that there is a need for independent research to identify and evaluate contemporary Jewish problems. He called for an instrumentality to focus on the areas of Jewish life today “of which we talk so much and know so little.”
He proposed that the heads of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and Yeshiva University and Brandeis president, Dr. Abram L. Sachar, should have at their disposal some $100,000 to conduct independent research on existing organizations; to study the problems and find solutions. He noted that the new Lown Center would be an ideal focal point for this study and that it might properly be among the Center’s first undertakings. The Center is a gift to Brandeis by Philip W. Lown, who had previously underwritten the university’s Institute of Advanced Judaic Studies.
In his address, Mr. Klutznick emphasized that “towards the resolution of the present difficulties there need to be ways of assuring diversity at the same time affirming the centrality of Jewish survival.” His address climaxed the dedication. Other. speakers at the dedication included Dr. Marshall Sklare, director of the Scientific Research Division of the American Jewish Committee, Dr, Benjamin Rosenberg, executive director of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston; and Dr. Judah Shapiro, secretary of the Foundation for Jewish Culture.
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.
