“The big news in Jewish life today is that the Jewish people is entering a major new era with unprecedented opportunities and challenges,” according to Dr. Irving Greenberg, director of the National Jewish Resource Center in New York City, in a speech prepared for delivery at the opening plenary session of the 1980 biennial conference of the National Jewish Welfare Board here Thursday.
Greenberg, a member of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and its former director, declared that the new age in Jewish life “is shaped by the impact of the Holocaust and the rebirth of Israel. It is marked by the challenge of sovereignty and the exercise of power on the one hand an open, more secular society on the other.”
Greenberg noted that “Nothing less than a renewal of the Covenant and Jewish religious and self-understanding is underway. New institutions and leadership are emerging. The new era is at once more open for Jewish assimilation but also more open to Jewish values, experiences and message.
“In the course of this, old divisions in the Jewish community are weakening,” he said. “There is a race between the forces of building up and the forces of disintegration. There is a polarization growing in the community. More are leaving and those choosing to stay are increasing their commitments,” Greenberg said.
He observed that “the Sunday schools are declining while day schools are increasing. Both intermarriage and conversions to judaism are up.” Greenberg compared the new age to both the Biblical period that confronted the challenge of nation-building and the establishment of the Jewish religion and Covenant and the rabbinic period whose main challenge was maintaining dignity and coherence in exile. He said this new age is as important as the other two ages.
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.
