Communal Workers Find Negro Integration and Jewish Living Compatible

The National Conference of Jewish Communal Service, attended by more than 1, 000 workers in Jewish communal institutions in this country, concluded its sessions today with the adoption of a statement answering the question whether it is possible to achieve that subtle balance of integration and separateness that makes possible both creative Jewish living and full participation in the struggle for civil rights for all Americans.

The statement defined two ancient Jewish traditions as basic to definition of any program of action. The first is the commitment to social justice stemming back to Biblical days and the second is the value in preserving a distinctive Jewish community.

A proper understanding of Jewish traditions as well as of democracy make clear, the statement declared, that there is a compatibility between these two commitments that make possible constructive solutions of such problems as the intake, membership and resources of Jewish agencies, that can serve both the Jewish and the general communities.

The statement concluded with a series of questions related to how the various fields of communal service can play an effective role in meeting the demands for full justice for all Americans, and at the same time contribute to the enhancing of Jewish life and withstand the drive toward conformity and assimilation.

DR. GLAZER SEES CHALLENGE TO JEWISH COMMUNITY IN NEGRO DEMANDS

Dr. Nathan Glazer, University of California sociologist, told the conference that Negro demands, while formally similar to those of other groups in the American society, challenge the right to maintain such sub-communities as the Jewish community “far more radically than any other group demand in American history. “

Such demands for equality, he said, imply the conclusion that the sub-community “has no right to exist. It either protects privilege, or creates inequality. This is certainly the force of present-day Negro demands. “

He added that the liberal viewpoint, both Jewish and non-Jewish, in the United States had always assumed that the group pattern of American life itself was not being challenged and the advancement of disadvantaged groups would proceed in such a way as to respect it. “But it has not and perhaps cannot” in the case of Negro demands, he asserted.

He pointed out that if American Jews were for the time being protected against this demand, “they are not protected against demands for entry on equal grounds into institutions which are the real seat of Jewish exclusiveness, the Jewish business for example, or the Jewish–or largely Jewish–school. “

Louis Berkowitz, executive director of the Educational Alliance of New York, said the experience of that institution had indicated it was possible “to have a substantial minority of Negroes and Puerto Ricans and other groups, while retaining its primary Jewish character. “

Sam Arkus, executive director of the Julius Schepps Community Center of Dallas, said that while Negroes rarely used Jewish Community Center facilities in the south, “lay and professional center leadership have taken the stand that membership based on color was reprehensible but that each center needed to work through for itself in terms of its own communal situations the solution best suited for that continuity.”

He said that a study conducted among Jewish Canters in the South showed that “the more Jewish image the center had in its community, the smaller the number of non-Jews using its facilities and that Negroes therefore rarely made use of Jewish Center facilities and only rarely made requests for either membership or use.”