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Friday, February 24, 1967
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
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OFF THE RECORD .... by Nathan Ziprin
A Scholar and His Views
lure. These, however, have to be are engaged Jffc continual quest
explained and interpreted in such to discover ji* what the Jew-
a way that the young American iah tradition hi to offer to guide
can relate them to the challeng- the young perpi in the perplex
ing world in which he lives. We ities of our tii
Dr. Louis Finkelstein of the
Jewish Theological Seminary is
an impeccable scholar and one of
the most perceptive observers of
the American Jewish scene. When
1 approached him some months
ago with a view to securing his
outlook on a limited number of
questions I submitted to him, he
was generous enough to go be
yond my stated purpose, and
what evolved was a radiant
analysis of the American Jewish
community in its striving for
identity and position in a chang
ing civilization.
Some years ago, at the height
of the Jewish trend toward syn
agogue affiliation, there was
great optimism for burgeoning of
Jewish religious life in America.
As the affilation curve began
dropping, it was the turn of the
pessimists to speak up and theirs
was a dirge, a picture of decay.
Since Dr. Finkelstein is a pro
foundly religious man, my first
effort naturally was to probe his
views on the religious outlook in
the American Jewish community.
“It is obvious,” he replied, “that
there is a real Jewish religious
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revival occuring in the United
States. It is taking a different
form than any of us had anti
cipated forty or fifty years ago.
But, because we are not prophets
and because we overlooked the
fact that Judaism is an ancient
tradition and has shown great
vigor in different ways, none of
us anticipated this revival in its
present form. The return to re
ligion is taking primarily the
form of an increased moral and
social sensitivity. We do not iden
tify this as a return to Judaism
and some of the young people
themselves fail to identify their
behavior with a return to Ju
daism. That is simply a difficulty
arising out of our lack of com
munication.”
Pointing to the rapid rise of
Jewish Day Schools and to the
fact that Jewish young people are
learning more about Judaism
than they ever did before, Dr.
Finkelstein observed that “the
fact that we do not have enough
rabbis and teachers to go around
is not a reflection of failure” but
merely evidence of greater de
mand.
One of the most painful prob
lems in Jewish America today is
undoubtedly the question of in
termarriage, since it affects most
the young people who are of the
very core of future Jewish life
in America. Here too Dr. Finkel
stein displayed much hopefulness
and a high degree of objectivity.
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He admitted the seriousness of
the situation but placed it in
wider perspective, saying: “There
are more Jews in America today
than there have ever been be
fore in history. Therefore there
are more Jews being married and,
because of the fact that there are
more Jews being married, there
is also a larger number of mar
riages out of the faith. ^However,
the prevalent view that the rate
of intermarriage with gentiles
has increased needs re-exaihina-
tion. Many of those who are
marrying out of the faith simply
know nothing of the faith. They
belong to the lost generation.
There are not adequate statistics
on the subject. But my own ob
servation of almost fifty years in
the rabbinate suggests to me that
there is a great deepening of
devotion to Judaism and if there
is an increase in the absolute and
relative number of marriages out
of the faith, it is occurring on the
fringes of Jewish life, and does
not reflect the depth of devo
tion at the center.”
In reply to a query whether the
American rabbinate has been
properly trained to meet the
challenge of the American com
munity, Dr. Finkelstein said he
could make a judgment only on
the basis of the rabbis he knows
—the graduates of the Seminary
and the members of the Rabbin
ical Assembly. On the basis, he
added, his answer was “definitely
yes.” At the same time he ob
served that “the challenges of the
American community can be ans
wered only by a rabbi who has
a rich background in traditional
learning and also a firm hold on
general education” and that “this
is precisely what the Seminary
insists on giving to its graduates.”
He was of the conviction, he said,
that the mejvj^ho leave the Sem
inary were prepared to cope with
some of the difficult questions
the young people are asking.
Pressing further on the need
for preparing a rabbinate com
petent to meet the new needs of
the age, I asked Dr. Finkelstein
what measures were being taken
to train Seminary students for the
new and different challenges the
rabbinate is bound to encounter
in the next decade or two. His
reply was that “present appear
ances indicate that changes in
the world are proceeding at an
accelerating pace. Therefore the
difficulties confronting all peo
ple in trying to understand the
nature of life, their commitments
and their responsibilities, are
likely to increase. Thus, the
challenges to the rabbi are likely
to be greater in the future than
they are today. We at the Sem
inary understand this very well,
and we are working on several
programs which are intended to
deal with this situation. There is
nothing we can offer our young
people as Jews except the vast
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are reflected in our great litera-
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