“As humanity is one, so is Jerusalem. It must never again be divided.” That assertion was made by Rep. James C. Wright Jr. (D. Tex.), the House Majority leader, in an address to the 79th anniversary dinner of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOCJ) here Sunday night. Wright, recipient of the organization’s Humanitarian Award, referred to his visit to Israel shortly before the 1967 Six-Day War and to the 10th anniversary of Jerusalem’s re-unification now being celebrated in Israel.
“Ten years ago, Jerusalem lay in a rubble of ruin,” he said. “Even as prayers went up from the Western Wall, the city’s desolation lay all about. Thirty-four of Old Jerusalem’s 35 synagogues had been destroyed. Where students once had studied justice, there spread the cruel reminders of man’s inhumanity to man. Today, ten years later, the rebuilding goes on,” the Texas Democrat said. “The light which illumines mankind has been rekindled, and with it a solemn pledge. As humanity is one, so Jerusalem is one. It must never again be divided.”
The UOJC anniversary dinner was dedicated to its National Youth Appeal to support the work of its youth movement, the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. In his address on the occasion, Harold M. Jacobs, president of the UOJC, warned of the “silent spiritual Holocaust of mass assimilation and intermarriage that is overtaking the American Jewish community.”
LOSING OUT TO MISSIONARIES
He told the gathering of more than 1000 rabbinic and lay leaders that. “Every day we are losing the souls of our boys and girls to missionaries, intermarriage and total and permanent assimilation by the thousands and the Jewish community has stood by, silent. This is a silent holocaust of our own making . . . .”
He added: “We have no future unless we care for our youth. If we do not act immediately to intensify our programs of Jewish education and identity we will have to write off hundreds of thousands of Jewish youth in public schools and on college campuses as a total loss. But it is not too late, for we are also witnessing a generation in search of its Jewish roots. Our challenge, the greatest in our history, is to reach out to this searching generation with a compelling message of Torah and Jewish heritage.”
The UOJC presented its Distinguished Service Award to Phillip Stollman, of Detroit. The National Rabbinic Leadership Award was presented to Rabbi Ralph Pelcovitz of Far Rockaway, N.Y. The UOJC also honored its treasurer, George B. Falk, a New York industrialist and philanthropist.
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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.
