Student leaders from 70 American and Canadian Universities were told here that there was “no question mark hovering over the future of American Jewry.” Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, national director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundations, declared at the concluding session of the National Hillel Summer Institute at Camp High Point, near here, that there would be no mass emigration of American Jews.
“Some of our youth will respond to the challenge of Israel by helping to build it, in the best tradition of Judaism and of Americanism,” Rabbi Lelyveld said. “But all except those few must dedicate themselves to building a vital and creative Jewish life in America.” He expressed confidence that the 123 students at the Institute would take an active part in that task when they return to their college communities.
Mr. Avraham Harman, Counselor of the Israel Embassy, told the group that Jews have ceased to be a European people and that there are only two major concentrations of world Jewry today–in Israel and in America. Israel, he asserted, is in the process of becoming a great religious center for world Jewry.
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