Newspaper Page Text
Friday, July 5, 1968
Pa— TjpfH THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
BETWEEN YOU AND ME by BORIS SMOLAR
Sad Picture of U.S. Jewish Education and U.S. Youth
Copyright 1968, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.
JEWISH EDUCATION
The Jewish school system throughout the
country has closed for the summer with a
loss of more than 45,000 pupils as compared
with previous years. Only two years ago, the
total number of children enrolled in the
schools was estimated at 600,000. This school
year the estimated enrollment was less than
555,000.
The loss is especially grave considering
that the 600,000 level had been maintained
for about 10 years. It represents a seven per
cent reduction in the number of children
who have attended Jewish schools of all types
—Sunday schools, afternoon schools and all
day schools—in 455 communities; this, at a
time when the need for intensified Jewish
education has been stressed in all Jewish
communities.
There are about 1,300,000 Jewish children
in the country in the 3-17 year-age group.
This means that about 800,000 of them have
never crossed the threshold of a Jewish
school In the 8-12 age group, more than a
third have never been to a Jewish school and
do not know the Jewish alphabet.
The picture is especially gloomy in cities
with large Jewish populations. The larger the
Jewish community, the smaller the percent
age of children attending Jewish schools. The
picture is not rosy in the small communities
either. The 13 largest Jewish communities in
the country—each with a Jewish population
of 50,000 or more—have on their records 70
percent of the total pupils enrolled in the
Jewish schools. The other 30 percent are
scattered in schools located in about 440
smaller communities.
But more than 42 percent of the total at
tend Sunday schools only—the percentage is
much higher outside of Metropolitan New
York. There you have a picture of how mea
ger Jewish education is in this country today.
The fact that 43 percent of the pupils in all
schools are girls also throws an interesting
light on the present state of Jewish educa
tion.
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
The American Association for Jewish Ed-
cation, which disclosed the decline in the
number of children in Jewish schools attri
butes it to the decline in the Jewish birth
rate during the last few years. But it does
not mention the fact that there are many
young Jewish parents who never attended a
Jewish school as children. It can be assumed
that these parents—themselves strangers to
Jewish education—have no interest in pro
viding such education for their children.
This opens an entirely new problem—the
growing need for adult Jewish education.
The time has come for the Jewish commun
ities to think very seriously about Jewish ed
ucation for parents no less than for chil
dren.
Whatever the reason is for the present
drop in the enrollment in the Jewish schools,
the concern of Jewish community leaders has
been aroused by this development. The ques
tion is posed: who is guilty? Is the school sys
tem to be blamed? Are the parents to be
blamed? Are the organized communities to
be blamed for talking a lot about Jewish
education but not doing enough? Does the
reason lie in the general climate of life in
this country?
Jewish education in America is estimated
to be a $100,000,000 a year business. No less
than that sum was spent this year to provide
Jewish education for the 555,000 enrolled
children. There are at least 17,000 teachers
employed — many of them on a part-time
basis—in Jewish schools. There are Jewish
school buildings, Jewish education commit
tees, Jewish textbooks. It is true that only
4,000 of the teachers are licensed to teach in
Jewish schools. But it is also true that up to
now the American Jewish school system
needed 500 or more new teachers each year.
It had to depend on teachers from Israel. If
the Israelis were not available, some Hebrew
schools would shut down.
The Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Funds has some time ago established
a Committee on Planning for Jewish Educa
tion. The CJFWF emphasized that the
strengthening of Jewish education in qual
ity and effectiveness is of the utmost impor
tance to the future of the Jewish commun
ities in America. The Council’s committee has
been in operation for about two years under
the chairmanship of Mandell L. Berman,
noted Jewish community leader in Detroit.
It is developing guidelines for communities
and much hope is placed on its activities. The
major interest of this committee is in the re
cruitment, training and utilization of teachers
and in the organization and financing of high
school and college education.
MAJOR PROBLEM
The drop in the number of pupils in the
Jewish elementary schools necessitates the
expansion of the work of the CJFWF body.
Instead of limiting its activities to what it
considers two of the most urgent needs—re
cruitment of teachers and post-elementary
education—it will have to think as well of
how to check the decline in elementary edu
cation.
The CJFWF Committee has been discuss
ing what the priorities should be for Federa
tion action in Jewish education and how
communal funds can be used most effectively.
While there are many unmet needs and a
variety of requirements for strengthening
Jewish education, it is obvious that primary
attention must be focused on the dwindling
number of children in the Jewish elementary
schools and how to prevent a further decline.
Without elementary education there can be
no post-elementary education.
The Council of Jewish Federation and
Welfare Funds is concerned with short range
and long range goals and programs for Jew
ish education. There are complex and many-
faceted problems. And their solutions too will
be many-faceted. The problem that com
mands immediate attention is how to
strengthen the Jewish elementary school sys
tem which is beginning to show signs of
weakening. The decline in the number of
Jewish pupils is an alarm signal. Inasmuch as
Jewish education is one of the pillars on
which the future of American Jewry stands,
this signal cannot be ignored.
WASHINGTON LETTER
Cohen Takes Office as Secretary of HEW
oath as Secretary of Health, Ed
ucation and Welfare at a White
House ceremony last week. He
was sworn in to his new Cabinet
post by Vice President Hubert H.
Humphrey in the East Room.
President Johnson, members of
the Cabinet, a number of Con
gressmen, Mr. Cohen’s family
and many friends witnessed the
event.
During remarks prior to the
oath-taking, President Johnson
called Mr. Cohen a “builder,
architect and repairman of every
When Aleph Katz retired some
two weeks ago as editor of the
Yiddish division of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, I recalled a
speech he made at a public re
ception about two years ago on
the occasion of the appearance of
his “Quite A Wedding,” a book
of poetry that was received with
wide acclaim in Yiddish literary
circles.
The day was a cold one. Snow
had been falling the entire day,
and by evening the streets were
covered with sleet that made
walking an exercise in futility. I
had been laid up that day, as I
have been too often in recent
years, and I called Aleph to tell
him I feared I would not be able
to come He said he was sorry,
but as he made his last moment
plea his voice on the other end
of the telephone seemed to
important piece of social legisla
tion for 35 years.”
The President observed: “In
any discussion of our social his
tory, two landmark laws deserve
special mention—Social Security
and Medical Care. Each was pass
ed after long and searching de
bate in Congress. Each looked at
one time or another like it was
a lost cause. Each is a monu
ment to the compassion and en
lightenment of the American na
tion and each bears the indelible
mark of one man—Wilbur Co
hen.”
have a mysterious ring about it.
1 was to find out what he
meant when he addressed the
gathering after an array of Yid
dish literary figures spoke of his
art. Aleph spoke as a poet should,
or is it like a poet should, reveal
ing the literary influences in his
poetic life, which goes back close
to a half a century. To my sur
prise he listed me among the
major influences in his poetic
emergence. Needless to say, I was
pleased.
Now it is my turn to acknow
ledge Aleph’s influence on me,
not as a poet, for I have long
abandoned toying with that art,
but as a writer of prose for the
most prosaic of media. I learned
much from Aleph, who was my
teacher, mentor and critic. In my
early journalistic days he would
spend hours with me passing on
Mr. Johnson {jointed out that
because of Wilbur Cohen’s long
hours, his patience, his under
standing and his devotion to his
country that more than 19 mil
lion Americans are today getting
the benefits of Medicare.
“Today, the reformers would
do well,” said Mr. Johnson, “if
they would take Wilbur Cohen’s
life and study it. In a time when
we are hearing so much about
power—black power, white pow
er, green power and student
power, perhaps someone should
do an analysis of another kind
of power—‘Wilbur Power.’ You
might define it as ‘Wilbur Power’
with something added. It is the
Dream
his knowledge to me. That I am
grateful for that bounty, I need
not now repeat. I only wish I
could be as meticulous as he has
been about his journalistic ded
ication.
And now another word.
Some years ago, writing about
one of his books of poetry, 1 said
something like this:
We were three in nineteen
nineteen.
One succumbed to the turmoil
and passed on to the green pas
tures from which there is no re
turn.
The third one, Aleph, had a
dream.
To which I would now add:
Aleph a half century later still
has a dream. And for that I envy
him.
power of optimism over pessi
mism; the power of involvement
over indifference; the power of
reason over rhetoric; the power
of the patient, persistent re
former over the noisy zealot. I
have found that it is power that
gets the job done.”
The President noted that it took
20 years to achieve Medicare, and
stressed that Cohen’s determina
tion and skill “in the agonizing
art of turning dreams into law
worked that miracle when lesser
men could only stamp their feet
in frustration.”
Cohen, who will be 55 next
week, is a native of Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. A man of many facets
and a ‘workhorse,’ he is ener
getic, indefatigable and dedicated.
He has served Presidents John
son, Kennedy, Truman and Roos
evelt, and always worked on pro
grams that help people.
Author Theodore H. White once
wrote: “After all his years in the
Capital, Cohen has lost none of
his humanitarian glow — “as
though,” an acquaintance once
said, “he feels every person in
the country who is home sick is
his personal responsibility.”
In his 30 years of Government
service (he oame here during the
New Deal), Cohen has a record
of many long and arduous fights
in behalf of health and welfare
measures. He was one of the
few who helped in creating the
Social Security system and was
also the ahief architect of Med
icare.
After he was sworn in, the new
Cabinet member—who replaced
John Gardner—told the assembled
guests that he does not believe
that the campaign for social jus
tice is completed—“for the task
of true social justice must ever
be Incomplete and just beyond
our grasp.”
Cohen—who is considered to
be a social welfare expert —
added that he is confident that
the U. S. will eradicate ignor
ance and disease and eliminate
squalor, poverty and discrimina
tion as well as make this nation
the “most beautiful and majestic
democracy within the competence
of man.”
He pledged that, during his
tenure, he will work for better
education for the youth, for bet
ter health for the aged, and for
a sound, progressive system for
social security in an expanding
economy for all of our people.
Present at the swearing-in cer
emony were Cohen’s wife, Eloise,
and their three sons, Bruce,
Stuart and Christopher, who have
worked in Kibbutzim in Israel;
his 82-year-old father, Aaron,
and his brother, Darwin, both otf
Milwaukee. (Cohen’s mother,
Bessie, nee Rubenstein, died in
1941.) Others included Mrs. Shel
don Cohen; Manuel F. Cohen,
chairman, Securities & Exchange
Commission; Max Kampolman
and Rabbi and Mrs. Stanley Ra-
binowitz of Adas Israel Congre
gation.
Commenting upon the new
Cabinet member during the re
ception, Mrs. Raibinowitz said:
“Wilbur Cohen’s oci^ftribution to
the welfare of the citizens of our
country represehts the highest as
pirations of the Jewish ethical
and prophetic way of life.”
Asked for his reaction at his
‘Big Moment,’ the new chief of
HEW replied: “I am filled with
both joy and humility. I feel that
once-in-a-lifetime sensation.” He
also told this correspondent that
he has already begun to consider
a number of proposals in all fields
of health, education and wel
fare.
By TRUDE B. FELDMAN
ISRAELITE White House Correspondent
Wilbur Joseph Cohen took his
OFF THE RECORD
by Nathan Ziprin
He Still Has A