A meeting of the executive committee of the World Jewish Congress, which will open in Jerusalem next Jan. 7, will devote one full day of discussion to Jewish youth problems, Dr. Joachim Prinz, chairman of the WJC governing council, disclosed at a press luncheon here. Special emphasis on Jewish youth will mark the entire meeting, he added.
Asserting that “we, the present generation of Jewish leadership, are practically fit for the old age home,” Dr. Prinz said that though many of the Jewish youth in America were radical and in a revolutionary mood, not all were members of the New Left. This Jewish youth, he said, is seeking some new missions in Jewishness and is not looking for a Jewishness which is narrowed down to the Jewish dietary laws. They want something of the Prophets who also brought social messages to the people, he said.
Dr. Prinz warned that the danger to Jewish survival in America was from “acculturation”–learning to live the culture of America without any Jewish commitment. Discussing anti-Semitism in the United States, he said that anti-Jewish feelings were not widespread among American blacks, citing findings that 91 percent were opposed to any discrimination of any kind and 65 percent would vote for a Jewish president. Dr. Prinz is in Israel to take part in an American Jewish Congress-sponsored American-Israel dialogue opening in Haifa next week.
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