Rabbinical Assembly of America Challenges Usefulness of Jewish Centers

The Jewish Center, “which did yeoman service decades ago in helping to Americanize and integrate Jewish immigrants, has outlived its usefulness as it stands and must either change its approach or give way to the synagogue.”

This is the claim made by the Rabbinical Assembly of America, central body of Conservative rabbis, in its organ, “Conservative Judaism.” The claim was developed from the results of a symposium on the relationships between the synagogue and the center in the current issue of the quarterly periodical, published today.

The Assembly argued that “as a ‘Jewish’ but non-religious institution, the Center tends to ‘ghettoize’ Jewish children and adults for non-Jewish activities.”

Dr. Max Arzt, vice-chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, argued that it was “high time” that the Jewish Center “became a religious institution in fact, even as it appears to be in name.” He proposed that to accomplish “this transformation,” Jewish Centers should employ staffs which are “religiously committed” and which “can expose those who frequent the Center to religious interest rather than to religious indifference.”

Rabbi Mordecai S. Halpern of Oak Park, Mich., cited the decision of the Jewish Community Center of Detroit to open all its facilities on the Jewish Sabbath and asserted that “there is immediate need for a new look at priorities in the Jewish community–in organization, leadership, programing and obviously in Federation allotments.”

Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Oakland, California, demanded that the synagogue “challenge the position of economic priority which the Center holds today upon Federation allocations for local needs.”

Other participants included Rabbi Bernard Ducoff, executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Education of San Francisco, Rabbi David W. Silverman of Riverdale, N. Y., and Dr. Jacob Neusner, assistant professor of Hebrew studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Carl Urboni, director of the 92nd Street YMHA in New York City, offered a critical self-analysis of the Jewish content in programing at the 92nd Street Y, one of the largest Jewish Centers in the United States. He pointed out that if the adolescent observes that the Center is primarily devoted to the pursuit of fun and socials, and that it is not so much concerned with the spirit, the intellect and the history of the Jews, it will have an effect on his personality development, but a negative one. It will merely reinforce the judgment of the majority culture that “Jewish values are best avoided,” he asserted.