Check on Jewish Assimilation Discussed at W. J. C. Parley in Geneva

Thousands of Jewish youth all over the world are “drifting from Judaism, ” I. M. Sieff, British Jewish leader and chairman of the European executive of the World Jewish Congress, declared here today at the current meeting of the WJC executive. Mr. Sieff called for the establishment of a global Jewish body to tackle the problem of assimilation and counteract it with a far-flung cultural program.

Dr. Israel Goldstein, former president of the American Jewish Congress, estimated that some 500, 000 Jewish children, approximately half the school-age Jewish children in the United States, were receiving some form of a Jewish education. He reported that 40, 000 children attended all-day Jewish schools in American cities and that American Jewish children have “more and better Jewish schools” to attend than their parents had 40 years ago.

Dr. A. Steinberg, director of the WJC cultural department in London, spoke optimistically of the religious revival among American Jews, asserting that the “overwhelming majority” of Jews in the U.S. are “inclined to identify itself” as a Jewish religious group.

At the same time, Dr. Steinberg described the Jews of the Soviet Union as remaining faithful to their Jewish traditions. Though the future of the USSR’s 3, 000, 000 Jews appears “shrouded in mystery, ” he said, whenever “a Jewish eye succeeds in piercing the veil, it meets faithfulness to the Jewish destiny. “

INDIFFERENCE OF ISRAELIS TO JEWS IN OTHER COUNTRIES STRESSED

Dr. Arieh Tartakower, chairman of the Israel executive of the WJC, analyzed Israel-Diaspora Jewry relations. He warned that indifference by Israelis to the affairs of Jews in the rest of the world may result in a very definite split between them–to the detriment of both. He said the responsibility for the present situation rests “to a rather considerable degree with the spiritual leaders of Israel’s Jewry who have not succeeded in building a bridge between Israel and the Diaspora and in only too many instances are even far from really understanding the problem. “

Expressing the view that the majority of Israelis “may be considered as rather indifferent” to the rest of Jewry and their problems, Dr. Tartakower said: “This is especially correct as far as the younger generation is concerned. ” While lack of adult interest might be attributed to a degree of absorption in the affairs of the young state and in their daily work, no such explanation can possibly exist with regard to the youth. Young Israelis, born or educated in the country, were mostly far from interested in Jews elsewhere.

“Their world, ” Dr. Tartakower continued, “is the world of Israel only, and the danger of their developing into another nation which has very little if anything to do with the Jewish people in other countries can be considered as imminent. ” He revealed that officialdom in Israel is also concerned. “They too are aware of the danger involved in the present development of affairs and are trying to strengthen the bonds between the youth of Israel and the Jewish people throughout the world, ” he said.

SLOW PACE OF PROCESSING JEWISH CLAIMS IN GERMANY PROVOKES CONCERN

A report on the payment by Germany of compensation to Nazi victims was given at the session by Dr. Nehemian Robinson, World Jewish Congress restitution expert. He expressed concern over the pace at which claims are being processed. He and two other members of a special team representing the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany recently visited Germany and, after a survey of the compensation offices in the various Laender, offered certain suggestions to speed up the processing.

“There’s a dearth of personnel in all the Laender with large numbers of claims, ” Robinson reported. He said the slow pace of adjudication could be best illustrated by the situation in Rheinland-Pfalz where in the office dealing with claims for Israel, 80, 000 cases ready for adjudication were “lying around. ” In Berlin only claims from persons over 75 had in the main been adjudicated, and in Nordrhein-Westphalen the body dealing with cases of loss of life and damage to health was “so understaffed that it could not adjudicate more than one-half of the number it should have done to accomplish its task in time. “

Dr. Robinson said the number of adjudications “must be increased” to at least 30, 000 annually in order to meet the deadline of the law. The WJC expert also reported that there are “large blocks of cases which lie idle because they involve a decision in principle which is left to a higher court. ” Such cases include the majority of claims for deportation to Transnistria, Hungarian forced labor camps and the inheritability of claims by stateless persons and refugees.

Dr. Robinson contended that the entire compensation program could be concluded “considerably and fairer” if the responsible authorities in the Laender would agree to decide jointly on a number of questions arising out of the law, in particular “questions which are essentially political such as persecutions in Rumania, Italy or slave labor in Hungary. ” If all disputable problems were relegated to the courts, the number of cases would exceed court capacity to handle them. This would needlessly delay the adjudication of large numbers of claims.