Addressing the 53rd national conference of Jewish Communal Service here, Dr. Ira Eisenstein of the American Society for Judaism called for the establishment of community organizations “to serve the needs which Jews experience as a result of being Jews.”
He described these needs as including fellowship, status, tradition, education and religious guidance and protection. The Jewish community, he said, must have mutual responsibility, diversity, constitutionalism and voluntarism.
Dr. Samuel A. Goldsmith, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Chicago, told the session that 80 percent of the Jews of America live in 20 large communities “where a constant accommodation of forces is required.” He warned that “if, out of a yearning for traditional Judaism, we should impose a structure on our communities which have flowered here in America, we will find ourselves in a jungle. Flexibility always has been and is today the highest form of community organization. If once we are committed to a particular central fund, or a particular ideal, disregarding all others, we will find out the Jewish community has become a totalitarian state.”
In his presidential report, Emanuel Berlatsky, president of the National Association of Jewish Center Workers, declared that the race between salaries paid workers in non-profit enterprises and the rising cost of living has been disheartening. He said there was a greatly accelerated demand for trained professional workers in the Jewish community field and reported that the shortage of qualified workers had become “critical.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
