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Religious Pluralism
Among American Jewry
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AUGUSTA, GEORGIA
by DR MAX ARTZ
Numerous attempts have been
made to equate American Jews
with secular minority groups com
prising the American people. Some
say that we are members of an
ethnic minority. Others assert that
we constitute a nationality - one
of the many nationalities reflect
ing the rich diversity of American
civilization. Others, seeking closer
integration into the American
scene, espouse and expound the
theory of cultural pluralism with
dogmatic certainly. This theory,
which sounds most plausible, avows
that American culture consists of
a colorful array of distinctive and
distinct minority cultures. Hence,
according to this theory, the Ameri
can spirit welcomes the persistence
of each minority group as a distinc
tive and permanent unit of the Am
erican peaple. Jews, say the advoc-
of cultural pluralism, can best serve
and enrich American democracy
by perpetuating their own com-
mual life through institutions for
cultural, social and philanthropic
endeavor.
All these definitions are offered
in disregard of the stubborn real
ities of the American scene. They
appear to be convincing only to
those who confuse the American
way of life with the political pat
tern that characterized some East
European lands in pre-war times.
In those lands, when governments
feigned to acknowledge democratic
principle's, there was reason to as
sert that the Jews consituted a
cultural ethnic minority. Cultural
and political pluralism was the
pattern which was supposed to en
able the Poles and the Ukrainians,
the Serbs and the Croatians. the
Czechs and the Solvaks, the Rou
manians and the Hungarians, to
live together in harmony. In such
a social and political milieu, the
Jews could most cogently claim
that they were another viable eth
nic minority with a distinct lang
uage and culture of their own.
They even had their minority
rights written into the treaties of
Koumania, Poland and other East
European countries. But these
rights were never recognized and
their violation never protested by
others than the Jews themselves.
The sad fact remains that no for
mula of group identity, be it one
of religion or of secular minority
status, would satisfy those who
were bent on fulfilling the cent
uries old threat "Come let us cut
them off from being a people, that
the name of Israel be no more
remembered.” (Ps. 83:5). This
tragic fact is the most powerful
reason why the Jewish displaced
persons can have human rights
restored only in a restored Eretz
Israel.
It is true that the American peo
ple is not consciously averse to the
idea of cultrual pluralism. The the-
odory has been invoked with great
eloquence, to win respect and re
cognition for immigrant groups, it
is this seeming hospitality to cult
ural disversity which has made the
cultural pluralism" theory a re
fuge for all who were in search of
a simple sociological formula for
Jewish identity in America. It is
the theory of cultural pluralism
which underlies the philosophy of
almost all local and national organ
izations and institutions in America
which claim that they promote
Jewish survival.
But upon closer examination, the
theory of cultural pluralism and
its related theories the Jews of
America are an ethnic minority
01 a national minority, prove to be
broken reeds. They are in direct
conflict with the evolving concep
tion of American civilization and
are entirely undependable for
permanent Jewish survival. All
ethnic and cultural minority groups
in America succumb to the inevit
able process of assimilation and
absorption. In less than three
generations, descendents of foreign
language groups become entirely
oblivious of their cultural and nat
ional antecedents and merge com
pletely Into the American people
and the American scene. With the
gradual erasing of even sectional
distinctions and characteristics,
America is fact becoming a mono-
cultural people. There is no reason
to believe that the Jr vs could, as
a secular cultural group, survive
on the American scene for any
length of time unless we depended
on the virulence of anti-Semitism
to guarantee the prolongation of
an agonizing existence. Surely this
is not an attractive basis for a
permanent plan of Jewish com
munity life and endeavor.
Fortunately American civiliz
ation is not monolithic. The Ameri
can Bill of Rights provides us with
a formula for the permanent per
sistence of the Jews as a reconiz-
able and respected segment of the
American people. It guarantees and
protects the personal and collec
tive convictions of the many relig
ious groups that constitute the
American nation. American civiliz
ation may not be conducive to
Oinrm
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