Thousands of American Jews Said to Be Returning to Tradition

“Thousands of American Jews, groping for identity, are quietly shifting gears away from spiritual assimilation and are returning to Jewish tradition,” Rabbi Shaul Shenker, director of the Jewish Education Program of Agudath Israel, told the 3000 delegates at the Agudath Israel of America’s 53rd national convention.

“While the problems of assimilation and intermarriage have by no means diminished, we are now witness to a new trend in the opposite direction,” Rabbi Shenker said. “Thousands of American Jews are now sending their children to day schools, which in 30 years have grown from only seven schools outside the New York area to a total of 422 throughout the land, and thousands more are adopting kashrut.”

In light of these developments, Rabbi Shenker said, Agudath Israel’s Jewish education program has intensified its efforts to enroll more Jewish children in day schools. The expanded program includes release hour programs servicing Jewish public school children, scholarship grants to summer camps and yeshivas, educational publications, and a buddy system teaming up Orthodox Youth activists with children of meager Jewish background to explore their common Jewish heritage.

KEY LESSON OF HOLOCAUST

At another session of the convention this weekend, Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, dean of the Ner Israel Rabbinical College of Baltimore, and Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, dean of the Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch of New York, took issue with an interpretation of the Holocaust common among secular historians that the Holocaust is one among countless other national tragedies. The two deans said that the Holocaust should be remembered as a uniquely Jewish tragedy, highlighted by “spiritual heroism” which should serve as an “inspiration for future generations to preserve their Jewish heritage.”