The National Council of Jewish Women opened its 28th biennial convention here yesterday with an analysis of the disaffection of American youth and an assessment of Negro anti-Semitism. Mrs. Leonard H. Weiner, president of the 100,000-member organization, said in her keynote address that young people were dismayed by the gap between the image of America they grew up with and the realities they saw.
“Many of our young people have grown up living the ‘good life’ portrayed in ads and on television screens,” she said, “and as they have reached maturity and grasped the nature of the world as it is for the great majority of its inhabitants, they have been overwhelmed by dismay and disillusionment.” Mrs. Weiner said that looking to their elders “they have seen avoidance or response so measured that it could be interpreted as indifference.”
Mrs. Weiner urged the Jewish community not to hold the entire Negro people responsible for the anti-Semitic manifestations of small groups of extremists. “We cannot expect black America to be free of anti-Semitism or any other human weakness,” she said. She added, however, that it was the responsibility of black leaders to condemn irresponsible and anti-social behavior. The same position was taken by Judge Otto Kerner, chairman of the National Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission), who was on hand to receive the John F. Kennedy Award for his contributions while serving on the commission.
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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.
