Jewish Responsibilities in U.S. Outlined at Social Workers Convention

The problems and responsibilities facing the American Jewish community in a United States which is undergoing social changes were analyzed here today at the formal opening of the 64th annual meeting of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service by Philip Bernstein, executive director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. More than 350 speakers, experts in every phase of Jewish communal life in this country are scheduled to address the 2,000 Jewish social workers assembled here for the five-day parley.

Pointing out that in a changing America which is now in a changing world, the 5,000,000 American Jews have become the largest community in the world and are “for the first time overwhelmingly native born and overwhelmingly urban,” Mr. Bernstein analyzed the Jewish needs in this country and abroad. He specifically cited Israel where, he said, “we are involved in an unfinished miracle”; Western Europe where Jewish communities have been rebuilt from their ashes; France now flooded with refugees from its former possessions; other countries where the Jews face enormous difficulties.

Discussing Israel’s economic problems, Mr. Bernstein said that “philanthropic free dollars become even more pivotal” as it struggles with its greatly increased immigration, its international trade deficit of $400,000,000, the end of German reparations in two years. He urged swift action because “human problems don’t wait.”

Stressing that “it is impossible to give strength from weakness,” Mr. Bernstein told the assembled Jewish social workers that a great educational, cultural, intellectual, moral and ethical effort must be made to build the forces and services which strengthen Judaism, “to give new forms and expressions to fit the needs of a native-born American Jewish generation in an American environment.”

Therefore, he called for community, regional and national planning action to deal with the problem of improving the quality of Jewish education to reduce the number of drop-outs after Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation, to help solve the intellectual questions of college youth, and to make it more attractive as a profession for qualified teachers and administrators.

As a group among other groups making up a pluralistic America, Mr. Bernstein said that Jews are true to their country when they are true to themselves, adding that American and Jewish life are both enriched when we strengthen Judaism and “remove the pathologies from our midst.” As other priorities for action, he discussed mental health, problems of the aging and the chronically ill, human rights and the shortage of qualified social work personnel.

Stating that “we have the greatest opportunities in a quarter of a century for a massive attack on mass problems,” Mr. Bernstein urged upon his colleagues a problem-centered program of social action involving cooperation among all types of Jewish agencies and with public welfare agencies. “The task of the Jewish social work is to give living expression to Tzedakah and to build a creative, ethical community which will be an inspiration to Jews everywhere and to mankind everywhere,” he stated.

PRESIDENT OF CONFERENCE REVIEWS DEVELOPMENTS IN JEWISH LIFE

Donald B. Hurwitz, of Philadelphia, president of the Conference, opened the session by posing a series of questions for professionals in many fields of communal service, reflecting developments in Jewish life in this country and abroad, and on the national and world scenes. He also stressed the questions arising in connection with extension of public support into wider areas of health and welfare service. “The current controversy on medical care for the aged is symptomatic of more issues that are bound to arise in this field,” he said.

In the field of fund-raising, Mr. Hurwitz noted, there are major issues in both the Jewish and general communities regarding the relationship between central community agencies and non-federated campaigns. “These controversies affect the level and quality of service, the scope and direction of community planning, and the stability of the whole structure of the American Jewish community,” he declared.

Immigration of Jews to Israel, the United States, and other lands of freedom continues to pose problems, he went on. “People are still running from Algiers, Cuba, and other places,” he said. “Our help is desperately needed in the face of intensified needs for many other purposes. Can we find the ingenuity to keep going on all fronts?”

In the field of human rights, the struggle over integration, and the effort to “spread more widely an understanding of the real meaning of the American constitution” is a matter or concern not only to Jews but to all people, Mr. Hurwitz declared. Finally, he noted, there is a “renewed and deepened interest in the rich continuity of Jewish life” manifested in movements for more intensive Jewish education and the fostering of Jewish cultural programs.

In a historic review of the development of Jewish communal service in America, Harold Silver, executive director of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Detroit, declared that American Jews today are a great deal more secure about their position as Jews in American life than were previous generations.

“Increasingly from now on the Jewishness of our communal services will be identified by the simple fact that they are performed for Jews by the will and direction of organized Jewish groups.” Mr. Silver said. “The very existence of our agencies will make them an instrument of group survival and the means of expression of our religious and cultural traditions and aspirations. The ethos of America recognizes the right of minority groups to an untrammeled development of their cultural values, and American public opinion and legislation will continue to encourage the development of voluntary social services. What we do and how well we do it is entirely in our own hands.”

Professor Arnold Gurin, of Michigan State University, received the annual award for the best paper delivered at last year’s conference. Honorable mentions were given to Professor Morris, of Brandeis University, and Miss Doris Siegel, director of social service of The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City. The presentations were made by Martin M. Cohn, executive director of the Jewish Welfare Fund of Cincinnati.