Two leading authorities on cults and movements on college campuses have called on American Jewish communities to establish retreat centers or hostels for American Jewish college-age youth. Rabbi Arthur Green, assistant professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, and Rabbi A. James Rudin, assistant director of the interreligious affairs department of the American Jewish Committee, issued their call at a special Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) meeting here this week at Temple Rodef Shalom. Reform rabbis from throughout the nation attended the two-day gathering which dealt with “The World of Our Children.”
According to Rabbi Stanley Davids of Springfield, Mass., chairman of the CCAR youth committee, the conference had been called to increase communication between rabbis and students to view Jewish life from the world of students.
Green called upon the American Jewish community to establish retreat centers staffed by a small, ongoing communal group which would provide an address in the Jewish community “where young people in search of a serious religious path might turn.” Existing institutions do not meet the needs of young Jews, said Green who is a co-founder of the Havurat Shalom of Boston and one of the major innovative workers with Jewish students.
Rudin said that along with assimilation and intermarriage, the emergence of new cults, especially the Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christians, Rev. Moon’s Unification Church, and the Hare Krishna, “pose a growing threat to Jewish continuity and survival in America.” To meet the special needs of young Jews between the ages of 15 and 25, a greater emphasis must be placed on spiritual values, prayer and a sense of warmth and belonging that is often lacking in today’s organized Jewish community,” he said.
Rudin recommended that large Jewish communities establish Jewish hostels for young Jews, located in central cities and afford a total Jewish environment: sleeping accommodations, food, classes, counseling, prayer services, entertainment and education. He said that the Jewish community has the financial and professional resources to set up the youth hostels.
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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.
