Jewish Welfare Board Convention is Told Jews Seeking ‘authentic Jewishness’

Jewish institutions were urged today to respond to the groupings by Jews in the modern, secular world for an authentic Jewishness that will enrich their lives and enhance their contributions to society as a whole. This theme was sounded by theologians and a sociologist speaking at the 1968 biennial convention of the National Jewish Welfare Board here.

Menahem S. Shapiro, a sociologist, told the convention that “the period when Jews perceived the distinctiveness of Jewish character as different from – or an impediment to – their ‘Americanness’ is drawing to a rapid close. They are now able to accept being Jewish as integral to being American. What they are groping for is an authentic way to be Jewish in this time and place,” To meet this search, he said, “Jewish institutions should be Jewish in character and should offer aid and intensity to the experience of being a Jew. Jews are no longer content only with the symbols of Jewishness and Judaism.”

Rabbi Eugene B. Borowitz, professor of Jewish religious thought at the New York school of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, said “there is a consuming desire in the Jewish community to be modern, which has produced a generation that has demonstrated brilliantly how Jews can fully participate in contemporary culture.” But “that total immersion in the modern way of life now begins to mean a surrender of many of the most treasured values of Judaism. Critical choices of either-or must now succeed the old way of both/and,” Rabbi Borowitz said. He warned of the “birth of a new paganism” unless “the current rampant secularity is substantially diverted. Rabbi Borowitz defended those who would proclaim “the fundamental importance of the ethical” and who “distrust all structures, philosophical or social. “That is why they rush to protest when institutions which should be concerned with persons, such as governments or the university, seem to deprive some persons of their rights…Even when their themes seem foolish and their forms childish, religious men should recognize them as near-brothers.”

Rabbi Max Vorspan, Provost of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles told the delegates that “Jewish learning is not a luxury, but the ultimate necessity for the future of Jewish life and Jewish communal institutions.” “Being a Jewish leader at home requires knowledge and commitment,” Rabbi Vorspan said. “A person can pass in the general Jewish community without either knowledge or commitment, but at home the deficiency is decisive. Only a person who truly knows and cares about Judaism and Jewish life can influence his children to follow his direction,” the rabbi said.