Conservative Educator Blames Home, Parent for the ‘generation Gap’

Dr. Morton Siegel, director of the education commission of the United Synagogue of America, said it is the failure of the home and the parent that is responsible for “today’s generation gap.” Speaking at the annual convention of the National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, Dr. Siegel said that “many Jewish parents do not apply a consistent pattern of a Jewishness in their lives and thus do not project an emulative example.” Children want to imitate their parents, he said, and when parents do not project an affirmative and consistent pattern, “especially on the level of the ethical and the moral,” the child “will seek to dissociate himself from the parent’s image, and in over-compensation for such dissociation, wed himself to the most extreme types of rebellion.”

Federation president Herman C. Rothberg reported that over 90 percent of the 375 member clubs are working with Jewish youth and participating in the sponsorship of a variety of youth programs. He said. “Nothing is more essential to the preservation of a healthy American Judaism than the maintenance of interest in Judaism and Jewish affairs among our youth. This our organization does through the Atid, the college group of the United Synagogue, with which our Federation is affiliated, and a leadership training fellowship for teen-agers. However, the finest expression of our interest in youth must come at the level of the individual men’s clubs, and the originality and sincerity of what each club does in its own synagogues and communities to work with youth in the furtherance of their idealistic concepts. This provides us with our greatest opportunity to prevent an erosion of Judaism among our youth.”