Dr. Oscar Janowsky, the Jewish historian, said here today that in the American “open and mobile society,” the identity of the Jews as “a cultural sub-group can be maintained only if it adds a dimension to life, if it contributes to self-realization, if it sharpens the awareness of purpose.”
Dr. Janowsky, professor of history at the City College of the City University of New York, addressed 1,500 leaders of Hadassah as one of the five winners of the third annual Myrtle Wreaths Awards. He underscored the need to devote primary attention to Jewish education and culture in the United States. He said that without purpose or meaning “a minority loses its best elements and fades rapidly.”
Dr. Janowsky was given the award “in recognition of his outstanding and significant contributions toward educating generations of American youth to greater understanding of Jewish roots and history.” The other winners of the Hadassah award were: Ambassador James M. Nabrit Jr., deputy U. S. representative on the United Nations Security Council; Dr. Mary L. Bunting, president of Radcliffe College and former member of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission; Mrs. Esther Peterson, Assistant Secretary of Labor and special assistant to the President on Consumer Affairs; and Ed Sullivan, television personality and newspaper columnist.
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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.