Western Jewry Moves to Coordinate Social. Service and Cultural Work

(News Letter from San Francisco)

A great western movement, aimed at solidifying and coordinating all activity in Jewish social service and welfare work in all of the states of the western slope of the United States. . . .

That is the program, vast in its purpose and conception, that looms today as the outstanding Jewish work initiated in the first months of 1928 and intended to be one of the foremost matters to occupy the attention of western Jewish leaders this year.

The movement will be crystalized at the first Pacific Coast Jewish Social Service Convention ever held-a gathering that has been called for next May in Yosemite Valley.

In attendance here will be the leaders in Jewish thought and activity in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Arizona. They will assemble prepared to follow a carefully defined program that calls for concentrating their strength and resources in a gigantic coast-wide work for intensifying Jewish social service and other lines of welfare work.

The meeting promises to take its place as one of the most important ever held in the West and from it vast benefit to the Jewish people of western America is expected to follow.

OUTSTANDING PIECE OF WORK FOR 1928

While this is the outstanding piece of work mapped out for Western Jewry in 1928, there are many other important matters in the hands of San Francisco and bay territory Jewry that promise to make this year one of the busiest and most fruitful in the history of the Jewish communities of California.

Well in the fore among these matters is the movement in San Francisco, rapidly gaining strength and support, for the establishment of a Jewish Community Center. Such an institution, as is now being planned by local leaders, would bring together under one roof Jewish men, women and children of the various elements of the Jewish community for their own educational, recreational, religious and cultural advancement.

Big strides in the development of Jewish religious education also are under way. There also are activities in contemplation for further education of the youth for Jewish leadership, so that, all in all, the year holds bright and busy prospects, though it has barely gotten under way.

The work of preparing for the coming Pacific Coast Jewish Social Service Convention is well along under the leadership of a committee of prominent Jewish men and women of the coast.

Mrs. M. C. Sloss of San Francisco, one of the outstanding western figures in Jewish affairs, is general chairman of the arrangements organization. Closely associated with her are Miss May B. Goldsmith, executive secretary of the Hebrew Benevolent Societary of Seattle, Wash.; Dr. Samuel C. Kohs, social service director of the Eureka Benevolent Society of San Francisco; I. Irving Lipsitch, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Welfare Organizations of Los Angeles; Harry J. Sapper, executive secretary of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Oakland, Cal., and Mrs. Isaac Swett of Portland, Ore.

Among the three foremost matters already scheduled to occupy the attention of the convention are:

1. Organization and functions of federations of Jewish charities.

2. Formation and progress of Jewish National Welfare Fund campaigns.

3. Extension of the work of the Jewish Committees for Personal Service in State Institutions.

In addition, there will be a number of other matters discussed, all of them relating closely to Jewish philanthropic, social service, welfare and educational work among Jewish people on the Pacific Coast.

Discussed, as they will be by Jewish leaders from Pacific Coast states, these fields of activity are destined to be broadened and the work embraced is certain to be intensified as a result of beneficial exchange of thought and ideas.

TO COORDINATE ALL EFFORTS ON COAST

Besides, the leaders assembled for this important work will formulate plans for coordinating and solidifying their endeavors in future so that the entire Pacific Coast, from a Jewish standpoint, will work together as a unit in promoting welfare activities.

The movement for the creation of an adequate and properly equipped Jewish community center in San Francisco is gaining headway rapidly, sponsored as it is by the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association.

The need for such an institution for years has been recognized as one of the greatest in this city. A group of prominent Jewish men and women of this community has been wrestling with the problem for several years.

Some time ago, when a survey of the local Jewish community, its activities and needs, was made by Philip L. Seaman and the late Prof. Julius Drachsler, one of the outstanding matters stressed in their comprehensive report was the need of a center.

Then did the community get to work more intensively on the problem and substantial progress has been made in the intervening years.

Not only has the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association, by its sponsorship of the survey of this need, kept itself well in the foreground of Jewish activities, but it has extended its already crowded program into new fields for the betterment of larger numbers of young men and women.

TO MEET NEEDS OF YOUTH

To meet the needs of young people unable through various obligations to gather at the “Y” building located in a residential district, the association has secured “downtown headquarters” in a studio building in the heart of the San Francisco business district. Here have been concentrated educational and cultural activities, courses of study and the like, all of them with an appeal to intellectual advancement. These have proved exceedingly popular.

There have been courses in social and sex hygiene, the drama, public speaking and kindred subjects–subjects that would attract the interest of the Jewish community as a whole.

Particularly have new fields been invaded in the study of sex and social hygiene. There have been separate courses given for boys and for girls, for mothers and for fathers. The purpose has been to stimulate healthy and helpful discussion of these subjects in the home for the mutual benefit of all members of the family.

The Community Players, a group of “Y” young people, have made noteworthy strides in the study and presentation of the drama.

No review of the progress of local Jewish activities could be complete without mention of the significant and valuable work rendered by the Board of Jewish Ministers of Northern California, of which Rabbi Jacob Nieto of Temple Sherith Israel is chairman.

This group, embracing all of the Reform and Conservative rabbis of the northern end of the state, functions harmoniously in handling many of the vital Jewish religious, educational and cultural problems confronting their respective communities.

The committee some time ago placed itself firmly on record as against the film drama “The King of Kings,” and recently reiterated its position against that moving picture.

Much attention is being given, too, by this group to the development of Jewish education in the territory for which it functions, and rapid strides are being made.

In fact, every group interested in the subject of religious education, not only of the youth but of their elders as well, is intensifying its work and greater strides are being made in the local Jewish community along this line of endeavor than ever before.

More than ever before has come the realization that the future of Judaism rests in the youth, and the program is being laid to inculcate in the Jewish boy and girl such an understanding and interest in the faith of the fathers that today’s youth will be ready to assume the obligations and responsibilities of Jewish leadership tomorrow.

One very interesting local innovation in the development of Jewish educational work is that of Congregation Emanu-El. The spiritual leader of that group. Dr. Louis I. Newman, has organized a Sunday school class for parents, meeting at the same hours and in the same places as the classes for children. Thus is established a close and sympathetic tie between parent and child in the matter of Jewish education and from the interest that is being manifested by parents the plan seems to have met with instant approval.

TWO BIG FINANCIAL DRIVES

Much attention has been given in the early months of this year to preparations for the two big financial drives of 1928-the San Francisco Community Chest campaign and the National Jewish Welfare Fund drive, the former in March and the latter this fall, probably in September.

In the Community Chest drive, Jewish men and women are to take a part in the foreranks of the workers and all of the local Jewish charities will benefit, the Federation of Jewish Charities being one of the principal constituent agencies of the chest.

Mrs. M. C. Sloss, Supervisor Jesse C. Colman, Dr. Samuel C. Kohs and a host of others prominent in local Jewish affairs are actively at work among the leaders in the chest campaign.

The Jewish National Welfare Fund drive promises to be more intensive this year than ever before. San Francisco, having taken the lead among Jewish communities of the West, in grouping together all of its solicitations for national Jewish welfare and charitable organizations, is now justly proud of her prestige in this direction and eager to maintain its leadership.

No review of local Jewish affairs and forecast of 1928 activities would be complete without mention of the Jewish Committee for Personal Service in State Institutions which is ready to broaden the scope of an already useful and valuable work in ministering to Jewish men and women in the various public institutions of California.