Declaring that “the hundreds of Jewish women in our larger cities, whose chief concern is the kitchen, bridge table or dinner party” represent a serious problem in American Jewish life, Rabbi Mitchell Salem Fisher, of New York, in an address here, urged a re-awakening of Jewish consciousness on the part of feminine members of the race.
Rabbi Fisher addressed the convention dinner of the New Jersey State Conference of the National Council of Jewish Women, now in session here. He declared that the big problem now facing Jewry “is not that of the young intellectual, or skeptics or anti-Semites, but rather the sleepers in Israel—those women in our cities who are intellectually and emotionally too lazy to think about Jewish life.”
He asserted that only when terrible catastrophes occur do these women awaken to Jewish life or “only when the husband has been denied admission to a golf club or the son discriminated against at college.” Praising the Council of Jewish Women as an agency which seeks to interest womanhood in Jewish affairs, he urged the diners “to take the Shofar of Jewish faith and awaken the sleeping woman; tell her the things that are worthwhile and guide her with clear reason and triumphant faith.”
The convention decided to assist Jewish residents in rural sections of the state, through social service work and religious education. An exhibit of work done for foreign born is being held in connection with the convention.
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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.
