Kalman Sultanik, a member of the World Zionist Organization Executive, said today that the issue of intermarriage and the alienation of Jewish youth has been over studied and that “the time has come for the initiation of emergency measures to combat the assimilationist epidemic.” Sultanik addressed a meeting of the executive board of the American Jewish League for Israel, a constituent of the World Confederation of General Zionists of which he is executive vice-president.
He said that “with the estimated rate of intermarriage now reaching 35 percent and as much as 40 percent among Jewish students, the unified Zionist movement in this country can no longer afford to play a low-key role in fighting, assimilation.” Sultanik said that “Intermarriage has been the subject of a multitude of studies, surveys and reports accompanied by the formation of one commission after another.” But, he said, the time has come for “emergency measures.”
He proposed the immediate launching of a program for the establishment of a future network of Zionist day schools patterned after similar schools established by the British Zionist Federation and the South African Zionist Federation. He also proposed the expansion of work-study group tours for Jewish youth to Israel.
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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.
