National Conference on Jewish Education Called by Zionist Organization

The official call to a national conference on Jewish education, sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America, was issued yesterday by Louis Lipsky.

The conference will take place in New York on Sunday, May 16. The call, which is addressed “To the Jewry of America,” reads:

“The Zionist Organization of America, which regards the preservation of Jewish cultural values among our people in this country as a moral and historic duty, in conjunction with a Provisional Committee formed for the purpose of establishing a national organization for the promotion of Jewish education, is issuing this call for a National Conference which will take place in the City of New York, Sunday, May 16, 1926, beginning 10 A. M.

“For many years the subject of Jewish education has been a matter of deep concern to all Jews to whom the Jewish cultural heritage is precious. In the years of self-adaptation which the Jewry of America has had to undergo, in the struggle for physical and moral adjustment to a new environment, it was inevitable that the energies devoted to Jewish education and the conservation of Jewish cultural values should be sporadic, inadequate and uncoordinated. Owing to fragmentation and diffusion of effort there could not come into being a harmonized and efficient educational system.

“The time for the integration of Jewish educational activities has arrived. American Jewry has found itself. It has won a distinguished and acknowledged place of usefulness in American economic and cultural life. In addition, the course of Jewish life the world over, involving great efforts for relief and for Palestine, has woven more strongly the threads which unite American Jewry with the whole Jewish people. The part which history has imposed upon the Jews of America in the work of re-establishing the National Jewish Home in Palestine, a part which they are carrying out generously and with a realization of its historic importance, has inevitably lead to a spiritual and cultural inventory, disclosing, in spite of the fine work which is undoubtedly being accomplished in many communities, glaring gaps and insufficiencies in the work of preserving the Jewish heritage and transmitting it to the coming generation.

“Jewish education in the United States in all its forms–as manifested in the school, the home, the press, the library, etc.–must receive a dynamic impulse and be dominated with the ideal of conserving through its processes the authentic Jewish personality. The Zionish Organization of America regards the initiation of this work as its natural duty. The actual conduct of the work will be entrusted to a distinct body which this Conference will call into being and which will mobilize the necessary forces for a large-scale constructive service. We are mindful of the existence of Jewish educational agencies in various parts of the country, many of them doing excellent work in their respective spheres. With these, the national organization to be created will seek to cooperate in every possible manner.

“In the field of Jewish education various tendencies arising from religious viewpoints and practices, find expression. We have neither the desire nor the intention to interfere in the slightest degree with these tendencies. The intention, on the contrary, is to create a framework of constructive cooperation, within which various views and tendencies may have free play. There are definite cultural elements in which all groups concerned with the preservation of the integrity of Jewish life, are interested. It will be the function of the proposed organization to strengthen these cultural elements, and, without, of course, attempting to finance or conduct local schools and institutions, to render assistance in the field of educational organization and technique.

“The proposed organization will aim to be of service to Jewish educational activities that minister to the child, the youth and the adult. It will regard its basic purposes to be the following:

“First: To foster a wider and more intensive cultivation and study of basic Jewish cultural values, including the Hebrew language and literature, the vital qualities of Jewish tradition, and the modern renaissance in Palestine.

“Second: To cooperate with existing Jewish educational institutions and organizations to the end that there be brought about a coordination of Jewish educational effort which will result in greater efficiency, prevent overlapping, and provide the stimulus which arises out of common counsel and action; as well as to stimulate the creation of new Jewish educational institutions.

“Third: To arouse the conscience of American Jewry to effective interest in Jewish education in all its phases.

“We regard the task to which we are now summoning the Jewry of America to be imbued with an importance not exceeded by any other. It entails the dignity and wholesomeness of Jewish life, and its capacity for greater service both to this country and to the historic destiny of the Jewish people.”

Manny Strauss gave a luncheon on Monday in honor of the Soccer players of the Hakoah Sport Club of Vienna. Mr. Strauss, who is heading the committee which will send several thousand orphans of the city to the opening game at the Polo Grounds on Sunday, will himself send 1,000 orphans to the game. Others who will entertain orphans of the city are Magistrate Louis Brodsky, Martin McCue, Clerk of the Surrogates Court; Ella P. Sullivan, of the Women’s Civies Club; Mrs. Richard Gottheil; Congressman Emanuel Celler; Victor Ridder and Adolph Lewisohn.

Among others present at the luncheon were Health Commissioner Louis Harris; President of the Board of Aldermen, Joseph V. McKee, who made a speech of welcome and commended the efforts of the Hakoah; Nathan Straus, Sr., and the Austrian, Polish and Czecho-Slovakia consuls, respectively, George Schmidt, Dr. Sylvester Gruszka, and Dr. Jaroslav Novak.