Evening star., 1923-10-04
NEEDFOR HEBREW
CENTER EXPLAINED
Jewish Leader Explains Value
of Meeting Place for
! Young People.

Declaring many young: Jews In
America know they are Jews only
because constant social discrimina-
tions make them conscious of their
racial origin" Irving Lehman. lead
ing New York jurist and president OF
the Jewish, Welfare Board, points to
the community center as leap for
ward In the solution Of Jewish social
problems. .
In a message to Washington Jews
made public today Justice Lehman
expresses keen interest in the $780,
600 campaign for the establishment OF
a Jewish community center In the
nations Capital.
what should be a source of pride
has become to many Jews only a
source Of humiliation" Justice Leh-
man says. "It is important" he con-
tinues. that we should do all that
we properly can to end social dis
ordinations and especially to study
these causes Of prejudice and, so far
as we find these causes lie in our own
weaknesses, personal characteristics
that are undesirable or unpleasant,
to remove the causes.
Should Feel Pride.
But it is more than important-it
is absolutely imperative-that every
citizen of this country shall stand
erect in the pride of his citizenship
and his manhood, feeling no sense of
inferiority that does not spring from
his own moral failure.
The young Jew may seek the COM
social centers partly at least because
he is not always welcome elsewhere but
through that companionshp in those
centers we can make him a Jew affirm
atively-a Jew because he knows and
values the heritage of his race, it's his
tory of faithfulness to the Jewish ideals,
justice. mercy and holiness; a Jew who
IS proud and happy to be Jew so long
as by his own practice of these ideals
he shows himself worthy of being Jew.
Source of Moral influence.
"The young Jew may refuse to come
to the synagogue on high holy days.
Then it becomes the duty of the COM
,nunity to bring spiritual influences into
their lives at some other time and place.
They seek the opportunities for pleasure
and social intercourse, as all young
people do.
'They will 1nd them on the street
corner. in tire billiard parlor. in the
dance hall: but it is our duty to give
them these opportunities in more whole
some surroundings
II agree fully with those who depre-
the Jews as much as they deprecate
prejudice in the part of the non-Jew
Which compels such segregation. Jewish
centers are not intended to create a Jew
fsh social life separate and apart from the
social life of the community as whole
but they do rest upon the recognition
that Jews. like non-Jews. have social
needs and desires. and that some of
these needs and desires can be funy met
only by the Jews themselves
I'm far the .JewS
can best meet these needs and desires,
and by meeting them strengthen both
the capacity and the desire of Jews
TO serve the community as a whole.
1t becomes broadly American
Each of these ceEters has its in
dividual problems which must be
solved. but in all OF them the aim
must be to make the building true
instrument for the social develop
Inent of its members, making them
eager to perform their duties as cit
lzens, because they must there learn
that a good Jew is perforce a good
citixen.
Meeting Place for Youth.
Here the boys and girls should
nave the opportunity for wholesome
social intercourse, for physical de-
velopment, for debate and for in
struction, and here the older men
ana women should come for debate
and discussion, to give and receive the
stimulus that comes from association
with others who are drawn together
by the recognition of common ideals
and common desire for service
The synagogue is still dear to
most OF US; but we must realize that
the young men OF today will come to
the synagogue only after they have
been shown that the synagogue can
teach lesson as valuable in the
present as In the past. We shall not
lose the young Jew to Judaism if
we. can show him that Judaism has
a living spirit.
we can best serve America by
translating the Jewish spirit that
was strong in the ghetto to this land
OF freedom, making it a. force in the
lives of the young Jews here to ami
mate their. daily actions and render
them worthy of their Jewish past and
their American privileges.
IF we succeed, we shall make the
Jews OF the future proud and happy
that they are Jews, with the power
and the impetus for good that ia
implied In that name, and we shall
make the non-Jews recognize that
that name Is a badge of honor and
not of shame.
"rf we fail it will be because we
ourselves have not lived up to our
opportunities, for we can succeed If
we will work together for this