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Leather Goods Make Cherished Gifts That Last
Come by or eall “Miss Duitall” - JA. 4 -7329
108 Forsyth Street
Atlanta 3, Georgia
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365 Third Street
MEYER IL MORRIS
HARRY WOLFE
Macon, Georgia
JOE SCHWARTZ
create our spiritual resources,
where they are lacking, and we
shall emphasize the positive fac
tors.
All that adds up, in my thinking,
to the likelihood that we shall be
consciously and significantly Jew
ish. The tide of assimilation is
turned. The desire to run away
is no longer omni-present.
Number 2: American Jewry re
presents an opportunity that was
never before given to Jews in his
tory. We are a large Jewish com
munity, economically well-to-do,
geographically divided between one
single solitary concentration around
New York City and the rest of the
vast continent and, most important
of all, the recipient of unequalled
privileges of freedom. That is the
challenge of the future, and also
the opportunity. The impulse to
escape is not the same as it was
in any other previous emancipated
country. American Jews take free
dom for granted. They need to give
no pledge to the future by mortgag
ing their souls, as was often the
feeling of earlier emancipated Jew
ry. “It comes naturally” for us to
feel at home in this large geo
graphic expanse, and hence we can
seek for Jewish ways of expression
without feeling uncomfortable in
the presence of other unlike
Americans.
Number 3: America as a whole
is gaining a feeling for its conser
vative background. In the years
ahead of us there will be a greater
return to fundamental American
values. There will be less running
away, less aping of the older civil
izations in Europe, less apologetics
about being a new country. That
will have its effect on the Jewish
scene as well. Jews will also seek
out tradition, and be eager to re
vive it, anxious to preserve it.
To me this suggests that tra
ditional values and ideologies in
Judaism will have strength and
firmness in the year 2000. The forms
of Jewish life have persevered
through the centuries. They must,
therefore, by any ordinary logic,
contain certain important survival
values. They will, I am convinced,
help Jews survive in the year 2000,
and be as rich in color and mean
ingfulness as they ever were in
history.
The tendency to strengthen Jew
ish tradition, rather than avoid it,
will be emphasized by the grow
ing interest of ncn-Jewish Ameri
cans in their own religious tra
dition. There are evidences that a
“religious revival” is t. k : ng place
in Christianity in America. The
significance of th ; s development for
Judaism is that it will make us all
more seriously attentive to the
claims of our own way of life. T e
challenge of a more vital Christian
life, more important church influ
ence, greater insistence upon r -
ligious values, will make Jews more
sensitive to the call of the Torah
and tradition. We shall be force:!
into that position, if we do not
seek it voluntarily. We shall have
to make a stand, and we are most
likely to choose a stronger Jewish
expression, because the alternative
will seem to be something akin
to conversion to Christianity.
On our own grounds we are in
vulnerable. As “good Jews” we
have our place in America, and our
position in the Christian’s scheme
of things. If we are lax, indifferent
and unconcerned about Judaism,
we shall find ourselves growing
more uncomfortable in the develop
ing religious tide of American
life.
Number 4: There may well be
an amalgamation of the non-tra-
ditional forms of Judaism in
America. There are people who
seem to predict this as an eventual
“American Judaism.” That I do
not concur in. The traditionally-
minded Jews, to whom Torah is a
fixed way of life, will hold fast
to their point of view. They are
likely to grow in numbers, as our
Jewish education facilities enlarge,
and as the ability of American Jews
to meet the challenge of American
civilization within the framework
of full Jewish living becomes more
actual.
Those who are minded to turn
away from traditional forms, in
all the many shadings of divaga
tion from orthodoxy and tradition,
may find themselves coalescing in
to one amorphous group. That
might well develop into a two
fold kind of Judaism. One strong
ly traditional, with its roots his
torically in the past and identi-
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Restaurants
TO SERVE YOU
7th Avenue N.
DALE’S CELLAR RESTAURANT
IN MONTGOMERY
On the roof — Walter Bragg Smith Apartments
South Court and Clayton Streets
DALE’S PENTHOUSE RESTAURANT
IN HOMEWOOD HIDEAWAY
IN HUNTSVILLE DALE’S
T N ATLANTA 355 Peachtree St., N. E.
DALE’S CELLAR RESTAURANT
and DALE’S COFFEE HOUSE
The Southern Israelite
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