Jewish Teenagers Critical of Apathy to Religion Shown by Parents

Jewish teenagers in Buffalo were critical of the “apathy” shown by their parents toward the Jewish religion at a youth conference conducted here by the Jewish Center. More than 150 Jewish teenagers, representing 20 temple, B’nai B’rith Youth, and fraternity and sorority groups from the Buffalo community participated in the conference.

Reacting negatively to the role played by their parents in their religious lives, the teenagers expressed the feeling that their generation is “confused and apathetic toward Judaism because the parents are confused and apathetic toward their religion.” The participants charged that the Jewish adults “have made going to the temple a social event, rather than a religious experience.”

A group of 17 participants in a symposium on Jewish education agreed that their Jewish education “did not do any harm, but did not accomplish what we would have liked.” Most of the participants said they have a “feeling” of Judaism, but no understanding of Judaism. They declared that what they had learned of Judaism in Hebrew school could have been taught them in a secular course.

The majority of the participants in the conference claimed that being Jewish in a Christian society “is very difficult.” The consensus was that the meaning of the Sabbath and its identification with a Jewish way of life “was being boiled away in our melting pot society.” Justice William B. Lawless, who addressed a luncheon session of the conference, advised the teenagers to learn about Judaism from the successes and errors of the preceding Jewish generations.