Jewish college youth in the United States accept their Jewishness naturally but are vague about the contents and significance of it and peripheral in relating it to Jewish activities, Philip Bernstein, executive director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, told the closing session of the CJFWF General Assembly, in summarizing the deliberations of the five-day gathering of 1,200 delegates from Jewish communities in all parts of the country.
“The loss of faith and rejection of faith by college students does not begin when they arrive at college,” Mr. Bernstein said. “That process is only intensified; students follow the pattern of worship set by their parents. We must therefore start before the youths get to colleges. With 70 percent of Jewish youth attending colleges, communities will have to develop a more intellectual approach to reach and hold them.”
Referring to the discussions on Jewish Education, Mr. Bernstein said that communities are increasingly concerned about what may be a needless duplication of buildings and classrooms that may not only involve unnecessary costs but even more seriously, may be short-changing the quality of Jewish education. “There is greater attention,” he said, “to the possibility of combining schools at the high school level especially, and giving added weight to programs for teacher training by communities for all schools–recognizing that the quality of teachers is the indispensable requirement for quality education.”
The CJFWF executive director reported that community centers are reappraising their responsibility and role in the light of communities that are shifting in location and in character. “The Assembly discussions stressed their obligation to enhance the quality of creative Jewish group life in America with meaningful relevance to present day needs and aspirations and with imaginative programming for these purposes,” he stressed.
DIFFERENCES IN FUND-RAISING REQUIRE FUNDAMENTAL ATTENTION
Dealing with the question of fund-raising in the communities, Mr. Bernstein pointed out that there are vast differences in community levels and achievements. Some cities are 25 per cent ahead of the national peak year of 1948, while others are 50 per cent or more under what they did that year. The per capita giving of some large cities is 400 per cent greater than the giving in comparable major communities–and in intermediate and smaller cities, some are raising 800 per cent more than others.
“These differences,” Mr. Bernstein said, “are not explained by a few large gifts or by differences in the economy. The Assembly discussions tried to probe the reason underlying these differences in responding to basically the same overseas and national appeals, and to similar local needs.
“The differences,” he continued, “cannot be overcome by gimmicks or superficial short-cuts. They can only be dealt with successfully by the most fundamental attention to the underlying strength of the federations and welfare funds, the year-round involvement of people in their responsibilities and work–recognizing that the greatest understanding and commitment comes through participation.”
Mr. Bernstein reported that there is marked progress in the development of endowment funds by federations, and the progress is accelerating. “But here too, there are great variations of achievements among the cities,” he emphasized. “Some large cities have built endowment funds 30 times greater than other cities of comparable size. In the intermediate cities, the differences are as great as 100 times. Development of these funds also requires thorough planning, commitment of staff service, and commitment of lay leadership, time and funds. There are great potentials here for meeting special needs and for greater stability to financing.”
Federations, he stated, “must develop well-defined concepts of what they are trying to build community commitment to–from a different American Jewish community, American-born, college-educated middleclass. And they need well-planned and thoroughly executed programs to carry out these concepts. The federations are competing in the market place of ideas, and with the most skillful media of communication, he pointed out.
“With the continuing severe staff shortages, federations and their agencies need to find ways of supplementing staff services with greater use of volunteers in tasks that will enrich agency services, and help build community understanding of needs and programs. To do this they will need to plan for how volunteers can best be used, and to devote the necessary time to training them,” the CJFWF executive declared.
He said that Jewish community organizations need to look not only at what was done last year, but at what must be done next year; not only to plan for one year, but for 10 years. They must not only respond to needs when pushed by those needs, but must set their own goals on what communities should aspire to be, and develop programs to achieve these goals. “They must not only meet the needs of individuals but must build better communities in which there is no compromise with the standard of excellence,” he stated.
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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.
