Intermountain Jewish news., 1926-04-22
II Not NOw-When?
Concerning Jewish Education in
America)
BY CHAIN NACHMAN BIALIK

had IN the course OF my solouin witt
the Jews Of America has been tn,
opportunity to witness an effective
revival Of interest in Jewish culture
and the inauguration Of a large scale
movement for the promotion of jew
ish education.
American Jewry is beginning to
find itself. American Jewry is be.
ginning to realize that 1t cannot live
by bread alone and while it is true
that "if there is no bread there is no
Torah' it is even more true that II
there is no Torah there is no life.
The essence Of people is the cul-
ture that expresses its spirit. The
culture of n people is the mirror in
which its soul is reflected. 1t is the
record of its inncrmost strivings to-
wards self-realization. A people is
great and rich only through the
wealth of its culture. A great Amer
lean writer declared that Jewish
creative artists and thinkers will only
be brilliant imitators of Western cul-
ture until they awaken to the realiza
ton that the source of their great.
ness lies within them and in the
treasures of their Jewish heritage.
Once they ignore this personality
moulding heritage they cease being
interesting because they cease being
authentic. .a
Ralph Waldo Emerson. the great
est American philosopher, recognized
that what makes people worth
while is its distinctive individuality
He compares humanity to mighty
symphonic orchestra the choirs oil
which, different and unique from one
another, blend to create the divinest
harmonies. Can American Jewry af-
ford to cast off its cultural heritage :?
am told that other American think
ers, Prof. John Dewey among them,
in interpreting American democracy,
advocate the continued cultural crea-
tiveness, along its own lines, of each
national group in America.
American Jewry just receives its
spiritual sustenance from the com.
mon Jewish source. Needless to
point out that American Jewry will
realize itself in richer and more
varied life, if its eyes are turned
steadfastly towards Palestine. What
Palestine is ready to give the Jews
of America here now become ripe to
, take.
There can be only one Balfour
Declaration to kindle the imagination
of the Jewish people, but recognizing
the necessity of Jewish National
Home in Palestine does not yet mean
possessing the will to build it. A
plant must have the proper soil in
order to grow. The only soil in which
the will to build Palestine can take
root is deep-seated Jewish culture.
1t will then be an unconscious, in
evitable perception rising from the
deepest well of the human mind and
soul.
The tragic rift between Jewish
children and parents in America is,
no doubt, directly traceable to the
different cultural worlds in which
they live. A child accepts the stand
ards of the majority. He is intoleraut
and contemptuous of minorities. He
| despises what he doesn't know and
doesn't understand. The solution for
| the rift is the cultural rapprochemeut
of the two generations. Let the child
drink at the fountain from which his
father has been nourished aid the
rift will be healed. A community of
four million Jews, living in peace and
prosperity, ought to be able to solve
this problem. One would have ia
despair of the jewish future, were
one to believe that such community
would be content to live on in state
of cultural backwardness and were
willing to see its cultural heritage be-
come dissipated and lost, 1t must be-
come clear that no jew, however
deeply he may have drunk at tho
wells of other cultures, can be con-
sidercd educated and cultured unless
he has first drunk at his own.
see Jewish life in this country
growing and branching out, becom-
ing a multiform complex and yc.
preserving an inherent unity. Such
life must have leadership. 1t must
have fountain of guidance and in
spiration What sort of leaders will
America develop? This, it seems tc
me, is the first essential of every
leader: that he must be aware Of his
peoples line of march. He must know
its history, he must understand the
motives that have been the main
springs of its deeds. A Jew who Is
not versed in all of these things can
0 i - Ia.,,#