The problem of becoming “insiders” as Jews is a difficult one for American Jews migrating to Israel, Dr. Harold Isaacs, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today told the Conference on Acculturation and Integration, sponsored at the Arden House Campus here by the American Histadrut Cultural Exchange Institute, More than 90 scholars and civic leaders attended the three-day parley, which was addressed also by Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel P, Moynihan.
Many of these migrants, Prof, Isaacs said, find that they remain “outsiders” as Americans, a situation that for American Jews in Israel involves many fundamental cultural conflicts concerned with religion, politics and ways of life. For most of them, he said, it also takes on very literal form in the matter of choice of citizenship.
Dr. Abraham Duker, of Yeshiva University, told the conference that American Jews are better integrated in the American culture than in the Jewish culture, and that Americanization is no longer a problem. What is a problem, he asserted, is working out a balanced integration in both the American and Jewish cultures and ways of living. He warned that “cultural imperialism” of the very large nationalities was a “menace” to the cultural growth of the smaller groups in many parts of the world.
Ben-Zion Ilan, representative of Histadrut, the Israel Labor Federation, said that “the divisive factors of race, religion and cultural differences have made an imprint on the Israel political scene, but it is surprising that the stresses of large-scale immigration have not resulted in greater tensions.” Declaring that “it is imperative that the gap between the Israelis of Oriental and of Western origin be closed,” he stated that “there is justifiable optimism that the ethnic factors in Israeli politics are temporary, and that they will be eliminated in a generation.”
Prof. Louis Guttman, American-born director of the Israel Institute for Applied Social Science, stated that the acculturation problem, involving Near Eastern and North African immigrants “is and will continue to be that of adapting largely to Western ways of life.”
Howard J. Samuels, chairman of the Institute, stated that “in Israel, Histadrut has created a prototype of the “Great Society” called for in America by President Johnson.” He said that “Israel could more easily make economic and social innovations than a large country like America.”
Dr. Judd L. Teller, executive vice-chairman of the Institute, described the roles of Yiddish and Hebrew in Jewish and Zionist history, and said that they differed from most other languages “in that they have lived longer in time than in space.”
Other speakers at the conference included Dr. Albert B. Sabin, of the College of Medicine of the University of Cincinnati; Prof. Nathan Glazer, of the University of California at Berkeley; Prof. Aaron Bar-Adon, of Israel, a visiting professor at the University of Texas; and Prof. Amitai Etzioni, of Columbia University.
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