The director of the largest Jewish youth movement today warned against teen-age programs that “dilute Jewish content with cosmic issues.”
Dr. Max F. Baer, national director of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, said that Jewish youth movements can “justify the expenditure of community funds only on the basis of a primacy of concern for the perpetuation of the Jewish heritage.”
“When teen-agers segregate into Jewish organizations, they do so for the opportunity of learning what they cannot acquire elsewhere,” Dr. Baer told the annual meeting of B’nai B’rith’s youth commission.
The real test of character building programs for Jewish youth, he added, “is not the number of resolutions passed or the number of petitions signed against injustices by other persons, other groups, other nations. The acid test lies in the extent to which the teen-ager applies Jewish ethics and altruism in his everyday relationships”
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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.
