The Denver Jewish news., 1923-07-12
. An Understanding Of JetUish
Life III America
BY CYRUS ADLER

and Hebrew, or whether it should be
Yiddish exclusively.
We lack text books in all directions,
and yet the publishers and the societies
that are engaged in issuing text books
are each one doing it independently Of
the other. Has not the time arrived for
an intelligent Inventory of our educa-
tional assets and liabilities on nation
wide scale?
Some statistician recently informed
us that there were about $4,000 Jew
ish young men and young women who
were attending the universities and col
leges in the United states. The num-
her Is probably higher at the present
time. Other things being equal, these
1900 young men and women will In
their day and generation. or ought In
their day and generation, become lead
ers in their various communities. A
very large proportion of them are re-
moved from the influence Of their
homes and the synagogs and schools in
which they were brought up and many
of them go to colleges and universities
without Jewish community and with
out any Jewish influences.
One would imagine that such mat
ter would long ago have challenged
the attention of the various agencies
which are interested in the Jewish edu-
cation of the promising youth. As a
matter of fact, it has challenged their
attention and several organizations
have been created. for the purpose of
dealing with 1t, and other organizations
representing the various aspects Of jew
ish life in America have likewise un-
dertaken to deal with it, or have said
that they wished to deal with 1t. AS
far as have been able to observe,
their efforts have never been c0-Ordinat-
ed in any way and they have fallen so
far short Of the mark that do not
believe TINT they reach even thirty per-
cent. of the Jewish student body In
our universities. We have had very
fine reports, but they have always had
to do with n small percentage.
Recently, i heard the statement made
that given the choice of training five
hundred Jewish young men well or five
thousand not SO well-extensive and in
tenslve, words which I do not like very
much, were the words used-that 1t was
preferable to train the five hundred
and leave the five thousand go, on
| the theory that Israel would always be
saved by n remnant.
think that this is dreadful state
OF mind and only points the way to a
notion that has cropped up in some
Of our synagogs even that If we, the
small number of saints can save our
own souls, we are willing that the
large remainder shall go to perdition.
Surely this is n mistaken attitude.
would that all the Lords people were
prophets" was the aspiration Of Moses,
and pcrfer his authority to that Of
the most modern pcdagogues, even If
he has several degrees behind his name.
could go on and recite to you at
length the shortcomings and made
uuuCy VI OuL ~ StGiH DuA
can at least bring you ray Of hope
in the announcement that during the
past few weeks II number of leaders in
educational work in different parts Of
the country and of different schools Of
thought sat together amicably for n
whole day in room and considered the
establishment of national council of
Jewish education which would make
propaganda for extension of education
al facilities so as to reach larger
number, to stimulate existing national
institutions, to conduct researches and
surveys. to aid in the raising of the
standard of teachers and pupils, and
to eliminate duplication of effort. l
am sure you will agree with me that SO
far as this has gone along, at least,
it is most desirable understanding,
and that it would be well if an effective
instrument for carrying out this under
standing could be created.
ITO Be COntinued.)