Rabbi Warns Against’soul Erosion’

Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, the Chief Rabbi of Britain, declared today that just as plants must be guarded against soil erosion, the Jewish people must be safeguarded against “soul erosion” to prevent it from losing thousands of its members.

Speaking to some 600 persons at the 39th Maccabean Award Dinner of the Jewish National Fund, Jakobovits said, “soul erosion is today a greater threat to Jewish survival than soil erosion because we are today suffering hundreds of thousands of casualties as Jews who no longer identify as such unless we can regenerate them by calling them to strike roots in the soul of our heritage.”.

Jakobovits said there is probably greater loss of Jewish identification in the West than East Europe because there ” everyone knows he is Jewish.” He said the problem can be solved through a massive education program and said he saw welcome signs in “the spectacular advances in the Jewish day schools and institutes of higher Jewish learning now gracing the Jewish landscape in all parts of the world.”

He noted that nearly 25 percent of Jewish children attend Jewish schools. “It is through this spiritual afforestation that the erosion of Jewish life will eventually be stopped and after that it will be generated, ” he said. The British Chief Rabbi also warned that Jews are in physical danger in Israel, the Soviet Union, South Africa and South America.

The dinner honored Morris Awerbuch, a communal and religious leader, with a forest to be planted by the JNF in Safed. Also participating were Rabbi William Berkowitz, the JNF’s president, and Dr. Samuel I. Cohen, JNF executive vice-president, who made a special presentation to Jesse Eisen who is retiring after many years as chairman of the JNF’s religious department.