Association for Jewish Education Revamps Its Program; New Groups Join

Fifteen national Jewish organizations including official representation from Orthodox, Conservative and Reform wings of Judaism, have joined the American Association for Jewish Education in a demonstration of common concern about the condition of Jewish education in this country, it was announced today by Isadore Breslau, president of the AAJE.

Terming this reorganization “a truly historic achievement,” Mr. Breslau noted that it marked “the successful completion of more than three years of negotiation between the Association and its new constituent bodies.” Forty-three local central agencies for Jewish education in the United States and Canada will also be constituent members of the revamped central service agency of the Jewish community.

“Jewish education is today the largest single enterprise of organized Jewish life on this continent,” Mr. Breslau reported. “It serves more than 700,000 children and adolescents in elementary afternoon schools, day schools, Sunday schools and high schools. It involves expenditure of more than $100,000,000 a year, exclusive of several million dollars which are expended for capital outlays. It employs approximately 17,000 teachers, 8,000 of whom are in full-time service.

“However,” Mr. Breslau stated, “leaders of the Jewish community are concerned not only with the present quality of Jewish education, but with the erosion of Jewish identity and commitment revealed in recent studies. It is this concern, among others, which persuaded the heads of the 15 national Jewish organizations involved to agree to establish a medium for the exchange of ideas and furtherance of their common as well as independent purposes.”

The American Association for Jewish Education was organized in 1939 as a national service agency to stimulate the interest of lay people in Jewish education. It has served as the parent body of Bureaus of Jewish Education throughout the United States and Canada, conducted communal studies and maintained services in pedagogies, personnel, curriculum, and audio-visual techniques.

BRESLAU EXPLAINS RESHAPING OF AAJE; NATIONAL CONFERENCE PLANNED

“In the course of the past twenty years, formal Jewish education, particularly on the elementary level, has become a congregational undertaking. This fact,” Mr. Breslau added, “was revealed by the national study of the Association several years ago. It became necessary to accommodate the organizational structure of the Jewish community to this new condition. The executive director of the American Association. Isaac Toubin, proposed the reshaping of the AAJE and conducted intensive negotiations with the national congregational bodies and other agencies which lead to reorganization.”

A national conference, scheduled for March of 1966, will launch the new program of the American Association for Jewish Education. The development of a national educational structure and system is called for in the plans laid out by Association leaders. Central services are being established to deal with pre-school, elementary and secondary education. Consultative services to the denominational groups will be provided. The existing National Councils on adult Jewish education, camping, and audio-visual materials will be expanded. Pedagogic services and publications will be intensified for use on the elementary, secondary and college levels. Provision is also made for a broad program of field services to smaller communities of the country.

“The American Association for Jewish Education will not intrude upon the ideological integrity of any of its constituent agencies,” Mr. Breslau stressed. “On the contrary, it will seek to help each of them to define and achieve their separate objectives within the setting of a communal approach. Cur major function will be to concentrate on the needs of the Jewish child, adolescent, and adult and to ascertain how best these needs can be served by the separate and cooperative efforts of Jewish educational agencies.”