Great Loss of Respect Among Jews for Spiritual Values Says Famous Yiddish Literary Critic Niger at B

American Jewry must find its spiritual home in America, for only in that way can there be any spiritual creative life, Mr. S. Niger, the well known American Yiddish literary critic who is now visiting Europe, said in replying to the greetings at a reception given here in his honour, attended by Dr. Leo Bramson, the President of the O.R.T. World Federation, Dr. Singalovsky, Dr. Gergel, Dr. Julius Brutzkus, the Yiddish poet Daniel Czarni, who is Niger’s brother, and others.

The danger facing Jewish culture in America was not assimilation and Americanisation, Niger went on. Jews were reading fewer Jewish books, not because alien culture was making such inroads, but because they were reading altogether fewer books. Jewish children were not sent to the Jewish schools which were being maintained at such enormous expense and sacrifice, only because the parents did not bother with spiritual problems. The great problem was the decrease in numbers and quality of the minority of Jewish intellectuals. It must be admitted, he said, that there was a tremendous loss of respect among Jews for spiritual values. The people who were creatively active were isolated. The only ray of light that he could see in the present situation was that the new generation of Jews talented in literature would be able to restore the failing contact between the great mass of the people and the minority of those who are spiritually creative. It was his aim, he said, to unite European and American streams in Jewish intellectual life.