Zalman Shazar, chairman of the Jewish Agency executive in Jerusalem, warned American Jews Sunday that they are faced with another “half of a lost generation” because more than 50 percent of its youth lacks a knowledge of Judaism, particularly Hebrew literature, both ancient and modern.
The Israeli leader, who is president of the World Hebrew Union, while paying tribute to American Jewry for the growth and expansion of Jewish schools and what he termed its great multifarious activities in the spiritual, cultural and social fields in the past decade, said: “One cannot help noting that while large numbers have been drawn into the Jewish educational system, a larger part remain outside the Jewish schools.
“If the conscientious part of American Jewry,” he continued, “has endeavored to make up for a lost generation in the past by loyalty to Jewish values and traditions, the pain must be all the deeper that notwithstanding such endeavors we observe with nonchalance that in our days another half of a generation is being lost to Judaism through ignorance of Hebrew culture and Jewish values.”
Mr. Shazar spoke before 800 Jewish communal and Zionist leaders assembled at the annual dinner of the Histadruth Ivrith of America, Hebrew Language and Culture Association, at the Hotel Commodore, here. Abraham A. Redelheim, president of the Zionist Organization of America, presided. Dedicated to the Herzl Centennial Year, marking the 100th birthday of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism, the dinner was also in the form of a tribute to Mr. Shazar on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
Mrs. Rose L. Halprin, acting chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, pointed to an “increasing acceptance of Hebrew as an integral part of Jewish identification in our time.” At the same time, she said: “While we are deeply gratified by the growing number of adult students in Hebrew courses throughout the country, we must remember that in the interest of Jewish survival in the diaspora–survival not in the physical but in the spiritual sense in which alone survival is meaningful–the ultimate test of our efforts lies in our ability to attract our young people to the study of Hebrew.”
Mrs. Hal prin voiced the view that “our youth must come to feel that the study of Hebrew is not just a matter of afternoon or Confirmation classes but the key to a whole world stretching back through the ages and across the seas to Israel. With the growing emphasis on the study of foreign languages in our schools and universities. I feel that every Jewish parent should consider it his duty to have his child acquire Hebrew as a natural second language.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
