International Jewish Seminar Attended by 250 Students; First of Kind in U.S.

More than 250 students from around the world have been arriving here during the past two days to attend the first international Jewish student seminar in America. The five-day conference, entitled “Jewing It, ’32: Encounters in the Month of Ejul,” (the final month in the Hebrew calendar) officially opened today, and the discussions between now and Monday night will force on Jewish arts and life-styles. Approximately 280 students are expected at Camp Arthur, a Jewish Yisad Quarters’ Camp here, for the seminar, which was organized by the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), an international federation of Jewish student unions in more than 30 countries. WUJS, established in 1924 and headquartered in London, has concentrated its authorities in Europe, Israel and Latin America. Three previous WUJS conferences have been hold in Europe, and the North American delegations to them were relatively small. At the present meeting, however, more than half of the delegates are from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Debbie Littman, the conference’s coordinator, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the purpose of the conference is to expose the students to the kind of innovation going on in the Jewish student community. Most of the experimentation in Jewish cultural forms and life-styles is taking place in North America, she said.

Miss Littman pointed out that the conference will provide an opportunity for the ISS and Jewish Americans, most of whom come from Europe, to learn what possibilities are open to them in areas such as the Jewish performing arts, community-type groups, political groups and student newspapers. She said it is hoped that students from abroad, as well as from those parts of this continent where such activities have not yet been undertaken, will return home and apply what they have learned at Camp Arthur by developing programs in their own universities and communities. Most of the students at the seminar are between 18 and 22 years old, and Miss Littman said “WUJS is trying to bring a whole new generation of leadership out of this conference.” The participants range across the spectrum of Jewish religious and political affiliations from Orthodox to Radical-Zionist. The largest foreign delegations are from Israel (18), England (14), Holland (13) and Germany (12). The Jewish community of Yugoslavia is represented by five students. The Federation of Jewish Agencies in the Philadelphia area, which contributed the $7,000 necessary for use of the camp, has extended its official welcome to the students. Other sponsors of the conference are: the North American Jewish Students’ Network, WUJS’s North American affiliate; the Philadelphia Union of Jewish Students, a member of Network: and the Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture, which made a $6,000 grant to cover staff salaries, printing costs and other non-camp-related expenses.