Jewish Identity in U.S. Evaluated at American Jewish Committee Parley

The situation of the Jews and Jewish identity in the United States was evaluated here today by Dr. John Slawson, executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, in a report presented to the 57th annual meeting of the organization which opened here tonight at New York Hilton Hotel. Based on extensive studies conducted by the American Jewish Committee, Dr. Slawson arrived at these major conclusions:

1. The will to survive as Jews is the strongest expression of Jewish identity. The vast majority of Jews seek survival as a group.

2. American Jews have the greatest opportunity in their history to develop in the United States their identity within “a framework of Jewish self-regard, ” while at the same time fully participating in all facets of American life.

3. American Jewish leaders throughout the country believe that “defense against assimilation” is more urgent today than even “defense against discrimination, “Dr. Slawson defined the process of “assimilation” as “trying to forget that one is a Jew.”

4. There is an increased receptivity in this country to “ethnic and religious diversity.” Therefore, “the achievement of identity as Jews, while at the same time participating fully in all facets of life in America, is now a realistic expectation.”

Dr. Slawson, who has long been concerned with the problem of Jewish identity in this country and the relationship of Jews to Judaism in America, stressed “the rapid improvement within the general climate with respect to the development of Jewish security and dignity in the United States. ” He pointed out that anti-Semitism is rapidly and widely being recognized as a “crippling social disorder. ” At the same time, he stressed that the American society is becoming increasingly pluralistic, and that the idea “of a monolithic America” has lost “its mythic potency with the election of a Catholic President.”

DR. SLAWSON REPORTS RESULTS OF STUDIES IN VARIOUS COMMUNITIES

Dr. Slawson cited Committee studies of Jewish attitudes in a number of communities throughout the country to underscore the Jewish will to survive as Jews. In one medium sized Atlantic seaboard community, the Committee found that 93 per cent of Jewish parents interviewed and 95 per cent of their adolescent children want Jews to remain a distinct group.

In its studies of “Riverton, ” the fictional name of the Atlantic seaboard community, the American Jewish Committee found 82 per cent of the parents and 88 per cent of the adolescents said they would choose to be reborn as Jews. In addition, over two-thirds of the parents and nearly three-quarters of the youngsters expressed positive feelings about Jewishness, Dr. Slawson reported. “Riverton” Jews are mostly second generation of East European heritage, with occupations in the professions and trades in the middle income grouping; Dr. Slawson said they do not view Judaism as a burden.

The Committee has also been studying Jewish attitudes in “LaKeville, ” the fictional name of a mid-western suburban community, which is made up largely of a third generation group of German-Jewish background, with occupations in the professions and business, and in the upper middle range of income. Dr. Slawson said that “these people share with ‘Riverton’s Jews the will to survive as Jews.”

The Committee opened its five-day meeting with more than 1,100 leaders from communities around the country attending a series of sessions on human relations problems and challenges here and abroad. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Francis Cardinal Spellman will be among the principal speakers at the meeting tomorrow. Secretary Rusk will receive the Committee’s American Liberties Medallion “for exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty. ” Newton N. Minow, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, serves as chairman of the Annual Meeting.