“Although we need 1,000 new Jewish teachers every year, we are only completing the training of 100 each year,” Dr. Samuel M. Blumenfield, director of the Department of Education and Culture of the Jewish Agency-American Section, said. He spoke at the closing session of the 20th anniversary meeting of the Hebrew Teachers and Principals of America. He called the shortage of trained Hebrew teachers “one of the most crucial problems affecting the future of American Jewry.”
Urging greater financial support of Jewish education, Dr. Blumenfield said: “While there is a growing acceptance of the spirit of Judaism in this country there hasn’t been an accompanying greater commitment to Judaism through study and knowledge. There is a danger that we will have a Jewry and a judaism that is so mediecre and meaningless that it will not command the interest and loyalty of the rising generation.”
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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.