The Arizona post., 1960-12-09
Cont. from page II

What is more, they rarely identified
themselves with the events or with their
consequences. Everything about them -
their environment, comparative prosperi'
ty, security, culture and outlook - trans
form the lesson of Nazi slaughter into
something unreal, even theatrical. So, too,
i'm respect of the State of Israel. A boy
to whom America means home and Sc
curity cannot be expected to share the
pain, agony and expectation which pre-
ceded the creation of the Jewish State
especially II years after the event. To him,
Israel is a fact, solid and permanent. That
there exists somewhere in the Middle East
a small state called Israel is something
which is taken entirely for granted.
In which way, then is the Jewishness
of the American Jewish student eX-
pressed? 1 found a number of answers:
First, few deem it necessary to deny
their Jewish origins. They see no reason
for shame; and, in fact, more than one
student told me that nowadays it is in
vogue to be a Jew in America. Conse-
quently the young American Jew = and
many of them look anything but Jewish
does not camouflage his heritage, even
though he lives on a Gentle campus.
When asked however, what does his Jew
ishness mean to him personally as Jew,
he will find it difficult to give coherent
answer.
He knows two thingS-that he is born
of Jewish parents and is thus himself
Jew; and that Judaism is faith. Like
his Christian counterpart, the young Am
erican Jew is not religious in the obli-
gatory sense of the word. But neither is
he an atheist (Atheism, l found is no
longer fashionable in America, possibly
because it SmackS of CommuniSm.) Most
of his religious life is limited to ceremon-
ial occasions college prayer service, and
the like. On university campuses with
thousands of Jewish students, it was a
rare thing to find more than 20 worship
ers at Hillel synagogue Sabbath service
To speak of Jewish content in the daily
life of the student Cor in his weekend life)
is absurd There is nothing to differenti
ate it from the behavior of his Christian
colleagues There are. of course, Jewish
lIdIGIIllIleS dIlU SOIOIIIlcS VI lS dppdl CllIly
difficult to be accepted in a Gentle one),
yet there is nothing specifically Jewish
about them not even meZuZa on the
door. A Jewish book, picture or symbol
make no appearance, not to speak of kosh-
er food in the dining hall. In fact all
that exists to identify the place as Jewish
are the students names on the dormtory
doors-Epstein, Cohen, RabinoWitz.
Could the Jewish homeland help in
counteracting this apathy, or rather ig-
norance of things Jewish? l feel, tragi-
cally, that it cannot. The common ap-
proach 1 found to Israel was as "objec-
tive" as to any other country. They feel
no sense of spiritual Identification, they
are ignorant of its language, and are not
conversant with its culture. Some young
students, highly intelligent fellows, asked
me exactly where Israel is situated. The
reader will therefore not be surprised to
find that a Los Angeles boy said to me:
"Why should 1 feel something special
about Israel? Do you know how far Is
rael is from Los Angeles? What goes
on in Japan interests me much more"
When it comes to the outside world, all
Americans, to greater or lesser degree,