Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M A S M 1 D Whilst some arc ilrivcn lo iciiii ilii al movements, having lost their |)iil.iru(. in the melee of con- flicting views and attitudes, the majority are liold ing on with more than lieroism to the assets of ili past, hut this niajoriiy are welhiii;h exliaiisied. hi (he etoiiomy of hfe we need a jiroper lial ance hetwcen tliosc who, beyond the tlanger of ' blind enthusiasm, offer I ' niinsrI of rli her expcr- ii ' nte, and (hose who are lo eni;ai;c unta|ipeil Strength in the execution of their plans. Unless tiiose who advise and those vvho perform, those whose main bent is toward the future .md those whose main wisdom derives from ilie past, can agree on a platform of cooperation, establish a proper balance, and tolerate each others disabili- ties, the cause of the community cannot prosper. Yet, whereas the old arc growing feeble, the voice of youth has been absent except in college rah-rahs and in a now waning neo-heathen deifi- cation of sport. The profoundcst characteristic of the American Jewish college youth is not wick- edness as some would have it, nor heroism as oth- ers opine, but their ignorance of Jewish values and their complete misunderstanding of the Jewish point of view. As a result vve see a new assimil.i- tion. sired h) ' ignorance and indifference which result in the christianization of vital ideas. What is Our Task? What is our problem? The non-Jewishncss of our youth. What is the solution of the Jewish problem? Judaism, the rise of the Jew to the heights of his religion. Not Anti-semitism in any fotm is our danger, nor is the attitude of the Gentile of basic significance in the Jewish prob- lem. The very first chapter in the Bible which speaks of the Jewish people recites also Pharaohs anti-Jewish legislation. Our haters have accom- panied us on our historic march, as the hyena walks around the camp. We should have been accustomed, after 2000 years of suffering, to Anti- semitism as the Jewish aspea, as the efTect on lewry in particular, of a general anti-alienism. Hitherto, by dint of his idealism, his courage anil his pritlc, the Jew has always been able to conc|ucr the forces of prejudice and wickedness. The only danger comes from within, from (he in- . Inference of our youth. There were few periods III the history of our pe-ople more critical than the present. Three-fourths of Israel are being persecuted, denied the right to life and liberty. In countries again in which the Gentile world has become more humanized, we are afflicted by the scourge of a JcwLsh generation unaccustomed to freetloin, unappreciative of its ideal obligations; our youth is gamboling away, utterly unaware of its importance in the scheme of Jewish life. We cannot continue to hold our banner aloft unless we regain our youth. When, in the first liecade of the lyth century, the German nation found itself at the lowest ebb of its national his- tory, it was the German youth re-inspired by its study of its national literature that lived for its national glory, steeled the national will for sur- vival and brought about the Renaissance of Ger- many. When India groaned under the oppressive measures of Lord Kurzon, it was the Indian youth inflamed by the sight of national misery that aban- doned individual pleasure for the common cause, and achieved the miraculous change in the affairs of their people. In the American scene, we need our youth more than ever. American Israel has expanded and must now assume a wider and higher role. American Israel by now has outgrown its earlier function of sending gifts to Europe and receiving inspiration from the Old World. Today ours is the greater task of becoming a source of Je •ish spirit, a reservoir of Jewish learning and Jewish living, that might send forth its life-giving in- fluences to our people all over the globe. For this greater work emergent from its spiritual crisis, with our leaders borne down by the magnitude and coinplexity of local, national and international probleiTis, it is essential that the American Jewish youth become aware of its potentialities and train itself for worthy participation in Jewish work. Tuemi-one

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MASMID Judaism and Jewish Youth By Rabbi Dr. Lr.o Jung The Jews are described in three terms: as Itiim they are in the words of our sages, different ; as Israelites - they are to fight for God; as feus professing monotheism ■ ' , they are to carry the message of Judaism into all climes and ages. Judaism is a revealed religion. It is based on the Torah: a direction to life. In the Torah we are given both the way and the goal. The way is the Jewish life with its ideas and ideals, its symbols and ceremonies; the goal — to set the world right through the Kingdom of heaven, — the humani- zation, through God-consciousness, of humanity. (a) We Jews are the historical minority. A minority comes into being whenever a few in a group become conscious of their being different from the rest and find this difference to be worth while. A minority remains alive only as long js a sense of this difference and of its worthwhile- ness prevails among them. Hence, to continue to live as Jews we must continue to be aware of, and to prize, our own values; that depends upon an atmosphere in which Jewish values are articu- lated, encouraged, developed. Hence, for our survival, we must maintain a strong Jewish en- vironment as a normal background of our life. To survive as Jews we need intelligence, courage, and perseverance. The Jewish environment, through institutions, ceremonies, customs, supplies the raw-material of Jewish personalities. The Jew who lives the Jewish life receives from early youth a thousand-and-one radiations of Jewish spirit which in their totality endow him with an intel- lectual and emotional appreciation of the Jewish revelation ; with a determination to carry on the work of Israel and to shoulder, as self-evident privilege, the burdens of Jewish life. (b) We struggle for God in our effort to sow the seeds of God-consciousness into the furrows of humanity. The Jewish life, propelled by God-con- sciousness, produces all Jewish work. The assets which result from a life in the Torah are to benefit through us the hearts and minds of mankind. Our contributions to the general good of man are the fruits of the tree of Jewish life. (c) But Judaism is a universal religion as well. Hence, we must remain in contact with the culture around us, with the supernational purpose of hu- manity. The ultimate purpose of Jewish history is the penetration of every living race with the ideals of ethical monotheism. To continue bringing a message to the world, the Jew must cultivate his own assets, his own spirit, so that he may receive dynamically and full-bloodedly the message from his past. From the colorless abode of ignorance and assimiliation we have no message for the world. The American Jewish youth avowing its interest in Judaism spells a hopeful indication of an awak- ening Jewish consciousness and is to be greeted in the twilight of the American Jewish scene as a sign of an approaching dawn. The Old and the Young The men and women whom we call the older generation have borne the brunt of pioneering experience: the plight of immigrants, the dis- advantages derived from the necessity of rapid readjustment. They are bearing the additional burden of the war and the thousand evil spirits it has let loose. They are bewildered in a world which is continually and basically changing. .nnx lajjo Nim nns ins o ' ? 2 D iyn f-a i Twenty

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MASMID The New Americanism Nor must our local obligations be forgotten. In the new connotation of American patriotism, the historical assets of the Jew, cultivated witli freshness of method and integrated with intel- ligence and esthetic meticulousness, are to play a significant part. There are two kinds of Amer- icanism — one is dying out except for Hickville and Hickvillites — the other is emerging triumphantly. The older Americanism in vogue until a few years ago would advise the immigrant to shed his racial, religious, or cultural characteristics as so many handicaps in the way of successful life in the new country. It advised the Jew to throw overboard, somewhere between Danzig and New York, his inheritance, the sum total of ideas and ideals which, as the heirloom of his people, he has car- ried with him on his march through the ages. As a substitute for all this, he was to embrace fer- vently, unquestioningly and undiluted that mystic essence — Americanism. Transition came, and it brought about a new appreciation of the American past as a sum of values, and of the American future as a synthesis of many cultures. The new Americanism would say to the immigrant: This country needs your own contribution. Let the Jew bring his Judaism, tiie German his thoroughness, the Frenchman his sense of style, the Englishman his sense of fair- ness. Let each immigrant offer up on the altar of the new country the cultural asset of his own group. The new Americanism asks the Jew for the sake of America to emphasize his Jewish char- acteristics, to introduce the Jewish note into the symphony of American culture, to intensify and expand his Jewish activities so as to enrich tlie culture of the United States. The broadening of our youth ' s vision, the preservation of its in- tellectual honesty and moral strcnetii, is a sine qua non in this labor. Become a Man! On two critical occasions in the history of our people the dying leader bade his successor above everything to be strong and become a man ; for what determines individual destiny is not learn- ing alone, or sentiment alone, but fundamentally strength of character. The history of the Jewish race is a process of illumination. People without self-restraint, slaves governed by their appetites, cowards and weaklings, must fall by the wayside. They who survive and who take up the struggle of Israel, have survived because of their moral im- pregnability. The American Jewish youth, to rise to the height of its argument, must be willing not so much to reduce the margin, as to raise the level, of its pleasures, to cultivate higher emotion rather than hanker after primitive instincts, to train itself in the service whic ' h demands the individual ' s ethical self-realization as the minimum contribu- tion to national and universal welfare. a o, Tweitt) -two