Revaluation of the function that youth is to perform in society in general, and Judaism in particular, is an essential part of present-day Jewish life, Rabbi Samuel Blumenfield, director of Jewish youth activity in Chicago and honorary president of Avukah, declared today in an address at the national convention of Young Judea.
“We made a fetich of youth in the past,” Rabbi Blumenfeld declared. “Recent events in European countries have shown youth to be ruthless, to be of such a gruesome and ugly disposition, that it has been a disillusionment. We might as well understand that youth, even as a child, needs guidance and direction; and if the Zionists wish to preserve their youth they can no longer depend on nebular, spontaneous youth movements to do their task for them. It will be their task to guide and direct future generations.”
The slogan of YoYung Judeans, Rabbi Blumenfeld said, should be: “Build the Jewish Community.”
David Levine, New York, president, outlined plans for increasing the membership of Young Judea to 100,000. There are now 30,000 names on the roster, he said, scattered among hundreds of cities in forty states. The plan provides for taking in the youth departments of synagogues and temples all over the country.
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.
