Permissiveness in Modern Child Rearing Criticized by Jewish Leader

A national Jewish religious lay leader asserted last night that participation of teen-agers in vandalizing houses of worship was a problem of juvenile delinquency which stemmed in substantial measure from abdication by parents of their responsibilities in child-rearing. Moses I. Feuerstein, national president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, made the charge in an address to the annual national dinner of the UOJCA, the 62-year-old body of orthodox synagogues of the United States and Canada.

Asserting that the concept of “permissiveness” had been carried much too far in modern child-rearing, the Jewish religious lay leader cited the Fifth Commandment as insisting “upon the kind of respect for the parent by children which leaves full control with the parent” of child behavior.

In contrast, he said, the practice today “is for parents to be afraid of what might happen to the child if … Will the child become frustrated, warped, unhappy? In the ensuing confusion, a gradual abdication of responsibility from the parent to the child has taken place in our society. Alone the child must now find the law from his associates because he is no longer looking to his parents for authority and discipline.

“Many authorities on child care have succeeded in brow-beating the American parent into growing submission to youthful demands for freedom and expression. The solution lies not in parental fear of the child but in faith that harmony in the family and in the community will result if we observe the Fifth Commandment and see to it that it is observed in child-rearing,” the UOJCA president stressed.