“If we do not care for the conduct, character and spirituality of the Jewish boys and girls,” he said, “the Jewish people will finally become a society of old men and old women.”
URGES HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Declaring that emotion is the essence of all religion, the educator appealed for a broadening of the foundations of Judaism.
“Every Jewish child should be informed on the history, the tradition, the teachings of his faith,” Dr. Adler asserted, “so that he may become a self-respecting Jew.”
Modern Jewish pedagogy compares favorably with the methods of teaching that prevailed in his youth. Dr. Adler remarked. He advocated support of Jewish educational and cultural institutions which are currently in existence.
COORDINATED EDUCATION SOUGHT
The conference, which has brought together more than 500 outstanding Jewish leaders and social workers from fifty cities, will continue through Sunday.
Dr. Samson Benderly, director of the Bureau of Jewish Education, appealed for greater efficiency and improved coordination of the systems of Jewish education in this country.
“Upon Jewish education devolves the task of transmitting to our children our unique tradition and of integrating it for them with the great civic and social ideals that stir our country today,” he said.
“One instinctively shuns the contemplation of the consequences which must follow the further neglect of the Jewish training of our children.
QUICK ACTION NECESSARY
“The alternative to spiritual integration is disintegration and confusion, with the resultant inferiority complex psychosis, a disease as malignant and deadly to the spirit as cancer is to the body.”
Fixing the number of children attending Jewish religious schools at 200 000. Dr. Benderly declared:
“The community dare postpone its responsibilities for Jewish education no longer.”
Harry L. Glucksman, executive director of the Jewish Welfare Board, paid tribute to the Jewish communal center, calling it “a significant contribution to the development of Jewish communal organization by emphasizing the principle of unity in Jewish living.”
CENTERS ARE PRAISED
“It has demonstrated,” he said. “its capacity not only to facilitate the adjustment of Jews to American life, but to bridge diverse elements and to solidify common purposes in the interests of a whole some Jewish communal life.”
Mr. Glucksman pointed to “a well-integrated national movement” in the affiliation of some 300 centers. Y. M. H. A.’s and Y. W. H. A.’s with the Jewish Welfare Board.
Coordination of Jewish social service on a national scale was described as highly desirable by Dr. Maurice J. Karpf, director of the graduate School for Jewish Social Work.
The national agencies are eager for coordinated effort and planned work, he said, adding that many today are on a level below “decent starvation.”
DISCUSS PHILANTHROPY
At a round-table discussion during the afternoon session support of private philanthropy through groups that have emerged and {SPAN}or###{/SPAN} out of the whole community—such as labor, industrial, professional and other middle-class associations—was urged by Joseph Willen, director of the businessmen’s council of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies.
It is becoming extremely difficult, he said, to place complete dependence upon the generous imposes of a small number of wealthy individuals or upon emergency campaigns. A change to systematic and permanent support by groups already organized in other spheres of social life is absolutely imperative, he added.
SOUND ORGANIZATION
“Short, high-pressure, fund raising orgies, no matter how skilful or how well organized, will never prove a substitute for basically sound, continuously functioning community organization. The recurrent crises that bedevil our private welfare organizations, the financial emergencies that follow, one hard upon the heels of the other, point to maladjustments too fundamental to be solved by annual applications of high-powered stimulants, no matter how potent.
“The problem that faces Jewish groups as well as all other groups today is a problem not primarily of fund-raising. but of recognizing and dealing with a reconstructed community. Successful campaigns will bring us breathing spells, but there is no permanent hope for us until we are willing to turn our minds to the most searching and fundamental long range community planning and reorganization.”
LABOR PART OF PLAN
The type of structure he had in mind, Mr. Willen said, was already expedited by the existence of associations of trade and industry, recognized and fostered by the NRA. These, together with the trade unions, could become the basis for the new orientation in social welfare.
“Organized labor is an indispensable part of any communal plan. No group in the community has a more vital interest in the maintenance of intelligent social work programs. Workers have the best possible reason for concern; so large a part of the clients involved come from their ranks.”
SMALLER CITIES’ WORK
A second round table discussion, presided over jointly by Jules Holzberg, president of the United Jewish Social Agencies of Cincinnati, and Mrs. Harry Silverstone, of the Jewish Welfare Bureau of Bridgeport, Ohio, was concerned with the problems of intermediate and smaller cities.
Leading the discussion were Edward M. Kahn, executive director of the Federation for Jewish Social Service, Atlanta, Ga., and Paul Goldblatt, executive director of the United Jewish Community, Harrisburg, Pa.
On Saturday evening, there was to be a general assembly of delegates presided over by William J. Shroder, president of the National Council. Reports of the committees were to be read and passed upon.
Professor P. Chamberlain, of Columbia University, is to speak on “The German Refugees in the United States,” on Sunday. There will be a morning session at 10 o’clock on “Synagogue and Jewish Welfare Activities” with Rabbi Ira Eisenstein and Rabbi David de Sola Pool as speakers. At 2:30 p. m., Judge Joseph N. Ulman of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore, will preside. Speakers will be Joseph Schlossberg general secretary of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Prof. Morris R. Cohen and Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan.
The evening session will be presided over jointly by Ira M. Younker, vice-president of the National Council, and Morris Rothenberg, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
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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.
